About our client

Another business that undertook a digital transformation is a leading automotive technology company with over 70 years of experience in the development and optimization of powertrain systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, construction, locomotive, aviation, marine, etc. The company has more than 45 engineering centers across the globe and employs over 10,000 people.

Undertaking a digital transformation

The company was looking for a software development partner to help them undertake another digital transformation phase as the company has a lot of manual processes, which called for automation.

The company has a complex organizational structure, which comprises multiple independent departments. Each of the departments creates a number of standalone solutions for internal use and customer projects. Some of these applications have quite similar features. However, there used to be no solution to reuse applications with similar functionality.

To scale its digital transformation, optimize operations, and reduce costs, The company needed to develop a SaaS platform that would help them standardize and streamline the development of digital products of different departments.  However, first, the company needed to validate the product idea, measure its ROI, and mitigate potential risks. Also, the company was looking for consulting and additional expertise in cloud software development.

To validate the product idea, our client has set on digitizing the preparation of vehicle benchmarking reports for customers as the manual process was inefficient and time-consuming.

Unveiling the business value

Sriven helped the company to understand under what circumstances the platform would be profitable for the company. To do it, we conducted two Discovery Phases – the main Discovery phase focused on the product and a Business Strategy Discovery focused on unveiling its business value.

In terms of the Business Strategy Discovery, Sriven’s experts prepared a comparative analysis of two scenarios: a case when a department develops a solution with the help of the SaaS platform and a case when it develops a solution on its own. The estimates show how much the company needs to initially invest in platform development and how much money a department can save if they decide to develop its solution on the platform vs developing a solution on its own.

Also, our specialists interviewed several client teams to better understand the client’s business needs and the functionality of each solution. We conducted a number of workshops to formulate the product vision and develop the value proposition canvas. Then, we determined what they have in common and came up with several key components.

In terms of the Product Discovery Phase, we prepared a detailed product requirements specification that describes the project, its goals, features, the optimum technology stack, and architecture as a result of the Discovery Phase, our experts provided a high-level project plan with clear functional requirements, building UX/UI prototypes of the cloud-based SaaS platform and a benchmarking app hosted on it, and estimated the time and money needed to turn the idea into an MVP or a full-fledged product.

Our client received all the necessary deliverables to kick off the implementation phase successfully, including templates to evaluate whether it is more profitable to develop a solution on its SaaS platform or invest in the development of a certain type of service.

Benefits

Evidence-based decision-making to avoid risks amid turbulent economic times

Based on the results of the Business Strategy Discovery, the client decided to build the SaaS platform.

The benchmarking solution hosted on a SaaS platform integrates all available vehicle benchmarks previously researched by the client and is projected to:

• Reduce man-hours by 1.5 times if the application is hosted on the platform rather than developed on its own, and, therefore, save operating costs in the long run.
• Replace the two-week manual process of preparing the benchmarking reports for customers and enable internal application users to publish new benchmark reports, update pricing, and manage a customer’s access based on subscriptions purchase.
• Provide flexibility for clients (OEMs) to select benchmarks and payment options in their subscription accounts.

Migration objective

The company struggled with the maintenance difficulties and lack of scalability of the bare metal infrastructure supporting their operations. Planning for and adding capacity took too much time and added costs. They also needed the ability to handle website traffic surges better.

Key Takeaways

• With planning, cloud migration can be a simple process. Smart Edge’s on-premise to cloud migration proved smooth and simple. Before actual migration, they created multiple clusters in GKE and performed several test migrations, identifying the right steps for a successful launch.
• Cloud streamlines load testing. Smart edge was able to quickly create a replica of its production services that it could use in load testing. Tests revealed poorly performing code paths that would only be revealed by heavy loads. They could fix the issues before Black Friday.
• Cloud scalability is key to customer satisfaction. As a fast-growing e-commerce business, SmartEdge realized it couldn’t afford the downtime or delays of bare metal. Their cloud infrastructure scales automatically, helping them avoid issues and keep customers happy. This factor alone underlines the strategic importance of cloud computing in business organizations like Smartedge.

Which Cloud Migration Strategy Is Right for You?

Cloud strategies are not one-size-fits-all. Choosing the right cloud migration strategy for your business depends on several factors, including your:

1. What business results do you want to achieve because of the migration? How does your business measure ROI? What problems are you trying to solve via your cloud migration strategy?
2. Business model. What is your current state? What are your core products/services and user needs, and how are they affected by how and where data is stored? What are your development and deployment needs, issues, and constraints? What are your organization’s cost drivers? How is your business affected by lack of stability or availability? Can you afford downtime?
3. Security needs. What are your requirements regarding data privacy, confidentiality, encryption, identity and access management, and regulatory compliance? Which cloud security challenges pose potential problems for your business?
4. Scaling needs. Do your needs and usage fluctuate? Do you expect to grow or shrink?
5. Disaster recovery and business continuity needs. What are your needs and capabilities in this area? How might your business be affected in the event of a major disaster — or even a minor service interruption?
6. Technical expertise. What expertise do you need to run and innovate your core business? What expertise do you have in-house? Are you allocating your in-house expertise to the right efforts?
7. Team focus and capacity. How much time and focus can your team dedicate to the cloud migration effort?
8. What business needs to constrain your timeline? What core business activities must remain uninterrupted? How much time can you allow for planning and testing your cloud migration strategy?

You can start with a plan, understanding the goals and desires of your business. Learn the right tools to lead you to cloud strategies and solutions that will work best for your business.

About Client:

The client’s core operating areas are across four business sectors – mobility solutions (hardware and software solutions), consumer goods, industrial technology, energy, and building technology – 10K assets.

Definition

• Strong ABAP skills and knowledge in RICEFW, with an object-oriented approach
• Interfaces – IDOCS/File/RFC
• Enhancements – User Exist/Customer, Exit/Enhancement Framework
• Forms – ADOBE/Smart Forms/Scripts
• File handling, LSMW, BDC, and migration concept
• Expertise in functional modules like SD, MM, PS, FI, PP

Solution

• Real-time tracking of milestone progress, objects, and tasks
• CSI to improve policies and processes through standardization and continuous improvement
• Optimum utilization of available resources and control attrition
• Skills provided for SAP with core ABAP, iDOCs, Adobe Frames, Odata, Webdynpro, and workflow

Business Impact

• Increased resource productivity
• Milestones and development targets achieved 99% for go-live
• CSAT improved to 97%

Our client is a multi-disciplinary, brokerage firm that offers best-in-class expertise or advisory in the areas of insurance, Group benefits consulting, and wealth advisory services. The group believes in building innovative products by identifying the trends in the market and meeting the requirements of your business. The services offered by the group are – insurance, group benefits, pensions, and risk management.

They consider Life Insurance as a powerful risk management tool that acts as a part of a financial plan or estate plan for their client’s business. They also offer comprehensive group benefits planning and consulting with effective benefits planning, with the identification of goals and objectives of the client organization. The group also offers retirement plans for employees/companies. They offer risk management services for the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks for your business and employees.

Problems & Challenges:

Problem

• Our client wanted integration of existing legacy systems with Salesforce CRM in such a way that they could update both systems simultaneously (Single entry).
• Our client wanted to send calculated and manipulated reports to their clients.
• Our client wanted to customize the Standard UIs in Salesforce CRM.

Challenges

• We faced some major challenges related to the requirements gathering.
• We faced timing issues because the client resides in a different time zone.
• We have faced concerns related to misunderstandings in communication.

Solution

We offered the following as part of Salesforce implementation services:

• Standard Functionality.
• Setup Layouts: To show the information for each entry.
• Fields: To store each entered data in the SF.
• Objects: To store the bulk data of the entries.
• Validation Rule: To prevent junk/garbage Data in Salesforce.