APIfication of the Core and Digitalization of the Enterprise for a Global Leader in Energy Solutions

Client

The client is a global leader in advanced energy storage solutions, powering one in three vehicles worldwide. They develop, manufacture, and distribute a portfolio of the most advanced and evolving battery technologies for different types of vehicles.

Challenges

With a vision of becoming the market leader, the client wanted to use “separation from parent unit” as an opportunity to transform its digital core by adopting API-led, service-based architecture.

The challenges were -

• Inability to consolidate or reuse existing services
• More than 10 ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning) with local installations in various regions of the world  
• More than 300 interfaces for 45 common business functions, primarily point-to-point in nature
• Adding new integration or changing existing application was a very time-consuming and expensive process

The customer was looking for a solution that could help in service consolidation, increase service reusability, and be flexible to support legacy applications until they are phased out.

LTM Solution

With the help of LTM’s assets and tools (SIA platform), our team prepared a strategic migration plan with defined and measurable milestones. We did an extensive product and solution comparison and recommended an appropriate solution.

The transformation was carried out in multiple phases:-

• Rationalization: Analysis of all services and integration points by domain SMEs
• Consolidation: Defining Common Business Object (CBO) and creation of canonical model
• APIfication: Development of services as APIs
• Adoption: Integration/Subscription model for API consumers

An evolutionary hybrid approach for digital transformation was implemented to support integration with legacy and API-compliant applications.

Key achievements

• Hybrid mode that is purely based on API-led architecture yet supports integration with legacy applications
• Created rich and intellectual assets of APIs & RAML documentation that can be reused
• Simple and quick integration with legacy and modern applications
• Automated CI/CD to fast-track time-to-market – agile and quick in adopting changes
• Making the system more responsive by transforming existing batch-based integrations into real-time API-led services
• Significant cost reduction by service-based architecture, designed to be reused across different integration needs
• More choices to switch to more efficient, cloud-based, and affordable solutions for various business functions

Business Benefits

• 50% Faster development with a flexible development strategy
• 40% Improved time-to-market with CI/CD implementation
• 30% Reduction in technical debt and maintenance cost
• Digital transformation of the core leading to agility and faster time-to-market
• Digital transformation of the core by consolidating over 300 interfaces into more than 50 APIs, leading to agility and faster time-to-market
• Reduction in cost overhead by tool consolidation – Replaced more than 6 tools with one single tool/solution
• Accelerated self-service, migrations, and decentralization for faster decision-making and quick turnaround
• The implementation won the prestigious 2022 Manufacturing Leadership Awards under the Enterprise Integration & Technology + Digital Transformation category