Case Study:
 BRP

Overview

BRP is a world leader in the design, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of motorized recreational vehicles and powersports engines.

Built on a 70-year tradition of excellence and headquartered in the Canadian town of Valcourt, Québec, BRP owns manufacturing facilities in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Finland, and Austria, and has a total workforce of more than 6,800 people.

BRP products are distributed in over 100 countries by more than 4,200 dealers and distributors. For more information, please visit www.brp.com.

Challenge

With hundreds of employees and thousands of dealers and distributors around the world, BRP relies heavily on Web Services as the key point of integration for a variety of applications with different platforms, languages and systems.

To develop and leverage these Web Services, the company chose to utilize REST (Representational State Transfer) vs. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), because of its ability to be executed on any client or server that has HTTP/HTTPS (eliminating the need for dedicated server and client programs) and its support of multiple data formats. However, they wanted to identify the best way to handle RESTful Web Services in the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format, as well as how to handle OAuth authentication while integrating with Saleforce.com and other web-based applications. Neither of these options was supported by BRP’s current version of SAP NetWeaver® Process Integration (SAP PI).

Solution

To address these challenges, BRP worked with CGI Group Inc., the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world, to find a solution. After researching and considering a number of options, they decided to purchase the Advantco REST Adapter for SAP NetWeaver®. Determining factors included positive user reviews on a number of developer forums as well as the Adapter’s SAP certification.

The Advantco REST Adapter for SAP NetWeaver® enables system integration between SAP and Non-SAP back-end systems with applications on smartphones and tablets or other web-based applications. It allows for fast and efficient data exchange with minimal network bandwidth. Combining the proven SAP NetWeaver® PI capabilities - such as message transformation, dynamic routing, and reliable messaging - with the Advantco REST Adapter for SAP NetWeaver® broadens the field of applications and devices that benefit from enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

The advantage to the Advantco REST Adapter for SAP NetWeaver® is that the Adapter is fully integrated with the Adapter Framework, which means the REST interfaces can be configured, managed, and monitored using standard SAP PI tools. With SAP PI scalability and stability, the Advantco REST Adapter for SAP NetWeaver® ensures the highest level of availability for any hosted REST services.

Results

While the SAP PI acted as an Information Bus to orchestrate RESTful Web Services, the Advantco REST Adapter successfully bridged the SAP PI's REST/JSON functionality gap BRP wanted to address. It also allowed them to incorporate the OAuth secure authentication protocol, for use with Salesforce.com and other web-based and mobile applications.

The BRP team was pleased with the ease of use and implementation and impressed that the Advantco REST Adapter for NetWeaver® delivered on its promised features, including REST JSON/XML conversion and OAuth authentication. Above all, they were pleasantly surprised by the willingness of the Advantco development team to enhance the Adapter to address some of BRP’s unique challenges. It is that customer-centric attribute that sets Advantco apart from other providers, earning the loyalty of developers worldwide.