Preserve Cash with Multi-Year IT Cloud Re-Platforming & Integration
IT surveys indicate that roughly 80% of mid-market and enterprise companies plan to migrate IT systems to the cloud in the coming years. High inflation and economic uncertainty, however, have many companies scaling back their digital strategy to conserve cash.
But IT system re-platforming and business process automation to the cloud doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition. A company can re-platform, modernize, and integrate its e-commerce ERP and SaaS process efficiency solutions using microservices architecture and stacking company- and industry-specific digital solutions.
Design Your Tech Stack Using Composable Architecture
With a composable microservices architecture companies can:
- Use a modular multi-stage IT migration strategy.
- Spread development, testing, and implementation costs over several years.
- Avoid company-wide business disruption from large-scale deployments.
- Perform due diligence solution-by-solution.
- Select solutions that fit your company or industry.
- Use smaller development teams and staff resources to deploy and test those solutions.
- Integrate new solutions with legacy systems to eliminate data siloes and enhance collaboration.
From Monolithic to Microservice IT Architecture
The days of monolithic on-site ERP solutions are reaching an end. The one-size-fits-all closed architecture was often inflexible and difficult to customize. Some companies spent millions on third-party customizations to match company-centric business processes or provide end-to-end visibility to inform strategy.
“Most companies are looking for flexibility. Most are moving away from being locked into a single vendor’s suite of products” explains Eunice Munoz in Future Proofing Your eCommerce.
Microservices or composable architecture on the cloud is revolutionizing mid-market and enterprise software implementation. An integrated microservice architecture helps companies quickly build automated business processes that are flexible and scalable. Companies can choose best-in-breed digital solutions based on need or efficiency rather than be boxed-in by inflexible solutions.
For example:
Manufacturing companies with a few hundred SKUs may start with a front-end e-commerce ERP solution to grow revenue, create on-line presence, and then implement and integrate back-end microservices for process efficiencies.
A distribution or retail company with several thousand SKUs may choose a Product Information Management (PIM) solution first to consolidate, clean, and validate product data before feeding it to an e-commerce platform.
Companies with complex supply chains may automate those processes first and implement an e-commerce ERP last.
End-to-End Integration is Key
The key to a modular microservice strategy is end-to-end integration. There are cloud-based integration platforms, toolboxes, and data management solutions that can be used by developers to capture distributed information streams for consolidation and analysis. One or a combination of integration tools may be necessary depending on tech stack complexity.
Integration Platforms-as-a-Service (iPaaS)
iPaaS is a point-and-click platform that provides one-way syncs from disparate SaaS solutions to existing ERP software to create a single source of truth. It acts as a conduit between multiple data systems to consolidate and share actionable information.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
PaaS is a generic toolbox that developers use to build their own process automation applications. Cloud-based operating systems, analytics, storage, and data management solutions offer developers the ability to build company-specific data integrations.
Native Integrations
Native integrations are used when two-way syncs are required. Two-way integrations allow for data to be passed back and forth between systems. For example, an existing ERP feeds product inventory to an e-commerce solution. When a sale occurs, the e-commerce platform tells the ERP to reduce inventory quantities.
Integrated Conclusions
Open source platforms give us unlimited freedom to create a flexible, scalable, modular tech stack to fit your company without the upfront costs and disruption of large-scale deployments. The first step is to consolidate data from your existing planning software, spreadsheets, custom-built apps, and SaaS solutions to begin the migration to a cloud-based microservice architecture. Integration planning is critical during the software selection phase to ensure it’s a good fit and doable.
Author Bio
Russell Richer has 15 years experience as a B2B copywriter. A former 17-year corporate accountant, he specializes in software, SaaS, and services related to sustainable manufacturing, industrial contracting, supply chain, EHS, recruitment, and business process automation. Contact Russ @ richer-communications.com.
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