Case Study Highlights
- Company: Western Power Sports
- Industry: Wholesaler and distributor of power sports parts and accessories
- Business Challenge: Needed an e-commerce platform that could scale with rapid growth, stay tightly integrated with IBM i, and support high-volume digital ordering without increasing headcount
- Solution: Profound AppDev’s innovative web application development toolkit enabled WPS to futurize and scale e-commerce on IBM i. Powering a self-service ordering experience where 99.9% of sales are processed online and supporting ~$3M/day in e-commerce revenue
Western Power Sports proves IBM i is not a limitation, it’s a competitive advantage when paired with the right futurization partner. With 99.9% of sales processed online and ~$3M/day in revenue running through a lean IBM i-backed operation, WPS continues scaling digital commerce with speed, stability, and confidence.
Challenge
Western Power Sports outgrew its existing e-commerce approach and needed a platform that could keep up with a rapidly expanding digital business, without sacrificing the reliability and performance they depended on from IBM i.
As online demand increased, WPS required a solution that could:
- Handle high-volume, self-service online ordering at scale
- Maintain fast, direct access to IBM i data (without slow integration layers)
- Support frequent updates and new functionality without long development cycles
- Reduce operational strain by avoiding the need to add order-entry staff or a large IT team
Then came a new variable: private equity acquisition. Like many IBM i organizations, WPS faced renewed scrutiny around “legacy” perceptions and pressure to evaluate replacement platforms.
The challenge expanded from “scale e-commerce” to proving something bigger: How do you futurize fast, stay stable, and defend your platform decision, even through ownership change?
The Solution
Western Power Sports chose Profound AppDev, focusing on its web application development tool. Harnessing these tools, they futurized and scaled their e-commerce environment while keeping IBM i at the core of the business.
With Profound AppDev’s web application development tool, WPS was able to build a fast, reliable online ordering experience tightly connected to their IBM i applications and data, without introducing fragile complexity or a costly rip-and-replace project.
As the platform matured, WPS expanded beyond traditional web pages into a modern hybrid architecture:
- Web applications built with Profound AppDev’s tool powers much of the e-commerce platform, enabling rapid delivery and stable performance on IBM i
- Select workloads extend into AWS / Laravel, supporting flexibility and futurization where it makes sense
- WPS leverages modern front-end technologies like Vue.js, embedded directly into Profound AppDev, proving they can futurize UX without abandoning IBM i
Just as importantly, the solution supports a lean operating model. Even as online sales became the dominant channel, WPS maintained efficiency, supporting their IBM i and e-commerce environment with a small team while continuing to scale.
The Results
Western Power Sports has scaled e-commerce into the primary engine of the business, processing nearly all sales online while keeping the IBM i operation lean. Online ordering is now fully self-service: customer support remains available, but orders no longer require manual entry.
KPI Highlights
- 99.9% of sales processed online
- ~$3,000,000/day in e-commerce revenue
- ~$300 average order value (≈ 10,000 orders/day, estimated)
- ~3.5 people supporting
“We don’t have anybody that actually takes orders now. We do about $3,000,000 a day on the website.”
Stronger After Acquisition: Why WPS Stayed on IBM i
After being acquired by a private equity firm, WPS initially faced the common assumption that IBM i would be replaced with a standardized portfolio platform. But once leadership evaluated the operational reality, team size, performance, stability, and cost-to-operate, the decision changed.
Instead of replacing IBM i, WPS chose to keep it as the foundation and focus futurization efforts where they delivered the most value: the customer-facing experience and evolving web architecture.
“They wanted to replace it because they thought the 400 [IBM i] was old-fashioned. Then they started looking at it… and they forgot about replacing it.” — Rody Cummings, Analyst, Western Power Sports
The web application development tool within Profound AppDev removed the need for a full platform replacement by enabling WPS to futurize the web experience, deliver high-speed APIs, and scale digital commerce directly on IBM i, supported by a lean team.
WPS has reinforced this decision with continued investment in IBM i, including a new IBM Power system planned for production soon, signaling long-term confidence in the platform. That decision didn’t slow futurization – it clarified it: keep IBM i as the system of record and extend modern capabilities where they add the most value.
Modern Architecture: Hybrid Where It Makes Sense
WPS continues to futurize its e-commerce experience without disrupting the IBM i foundation that runs the business. Instead of taking an all-or-nothing approach, WPS uses a hybrid model that keeps core order processing and IBM i data access close to the source, while extending into cloud services where it provides the most value.
This architecture minimizes data exposure by eliminating unnecessary data transfers across networks, reducing attack surfaces and maintaining enterprise-grade IBM i security controls where sensitive customer and transaction data lives.
Today, WPS operates a blended architecture built for both performance and flexibility:
- ~80% of the e-commerce platform runs through the web applications built using Profound AppDev on IBM i, supporting high-speed transactions, reliable order execution, and tight integration with back-end business logic.
- ~20% runs through AWS / Laravel, connected to tools like Algolia, enabling WPS to scale select experiences and workloads as needed.
- WPS also uses modern front-end technology like Vue.js embedded directly into the Profound AppDev web applicaitons, with assets deployed through IBM i / IFS, allowing the team to futurize and refine the user experience without separating the application from the system of record.
This hybrid approach helps WPS keep what works, speed, stability, and IBM i performance, while still evolving the customer experience and adding modern capabilities on their terms.
Why Profound Logic
Western Power Sports chose Profound Logic because they needed a futurization path that delivered real-world speed and stability, without the disruption of replacing IBM i or introducing a complex stack that would require more headcount to maintain.
With Profound AppDev’s tools, WPS gained a development environment that is quick to implement, easy to adopt, and built to work naturally with IBM i. In fact, WPS was able to get up and running rapidly accelerating their ability to deliver improvements without waiting through long onboarding cycles.
WPS also valued the flexibility of Profound AppDev as the platform matured. Over time, the solution supported more than a basic website, it became a foundation for ongoing enhancements, modern UI updates, and high-performance APIs that enable fast access to IBM i data at scale.
Performance played a major role as well. WPS evaluated other approaches and found that the web applications development tools within Profound AppDev delivered significantly stronger results for their environment, helping them maintain responsiveness while supporting high-volume activity.
Just as importantly, WPS credits Profound Logic with a customer-first support mindset. Even with minimal ongoing support needs, WPS shared that when issues did arise, Profound Logic responded quickly and took action, reinforcing the confidence needed to keep moving forward.
Together, that combination, speed to deliver, IBM i-native performance, flexibility to futurize, and responsive support, helped WPS scale e-commerce into the primary engine of the business, backed by a lean team and a foundation built for long-term stability.
“You guys care about support and working with the customer.” — Rody Cummings, Analyst, Western Power Sports
Ready to futurize and scale on IBM i, without rewriting your business? Contact our team at Futurization@ProfoundLogic.com to learn more!