Backcountry Access, (acquired by K2 Sports in 2013) is North America’s leading manufacturer of snow safety equipment, including Tracker avalanche transceivers, Float avalanche airbags, BC Link radios, MtnPro protective gear, avalanche probes & shovels. Their mission is to save lives, not just sell products. They support avalanche education programs and forecast centers–and back up all their products with consumer education and knowledgeable customer service.
For years, Backcountry Access (BCA) has used a custom FileMaker solution as a CRM to assist with efficient operations. BCA had a custom eCommerce solution written in PHP that was used to run the backend of their eCommerce website via the FileMaker Custom Web Publishing XML gateway — including inventory, products, and orders. As the company and orders grew, it put a strain on their custom solution and FileMaker server. Unable able to handle the load spikes during busy traffic seasons and special events, FileMaker becoming unresponsive was becoming an issue that needed a solution. This was especially a concern around the critical black Friday sales period when the FileMaker server often crashed multiple times causing lost sales.