Business-to-business eCommerce portals are a major sales channel for the electronic design automation (EDA) industry, representing more than 90% of all revenue in the case of one leading provider of software tools.
Here is how Mindtree helped a leader in the field of electronic design automation redesign its eCommerce portal and migrate to a new platform for greater performance, flexibility and speed.
The challenge
This customer's eCommerce platform is used by its enterprise customers to negotiate contracts, purchase products, download software and generate product licenses. The customer's existing platform was experiencing scalability and performance issues, with the server going down periodically. Specific issues included:
- Business and technical risk due to outdated technology for which the manufacturer was about to withdraw support
- Difficulty in making enhancements
- Lack of a reporting capability
- High cost of maintenance
- Lack of proper integration with external systems (such as CRM and eLicensing)
- Poor external customer satisfaction
The customer tasked Mindtree with identifying a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) product that offered the requisite functionality, modifying it as necessary and migrating the enterprise to the new system.
Proper data synchronization between the migrated system and the remaining legacy systems was a crucial part of the exercise, as was migrating more than 8 years of existing data.
Our solution
First, Mindtree studied the customer's current application which was made up of multiple modules including those used for contract management, catalog and product ordering, and license management.
We then identified IBM Webspear Commerce as the most suitable COTS product for the customer based on mapping of requirements to product features. Starting from this, we developed a next-generation architecture that was highly configurable, scalable and reliable. We also reused existing code where possible, and undertook accelerated COTS driven design and development including configuration and customization of modules.
Any customization or deviation from the product was identified before the design and a suitable solution approach was finalized. The team completely revamped the system, physical and application architecture with a focus on usability. We enhanced user experience through intuitive visual design, and strong user interfaces.
Following a successful migration, the new system was taken live and is now operational, supporting more than 90% of the customer's revenue.
Client benefits
- Delivered improved stability (99% system uptime with acceptable performance) including during quarter-end peak volumes
- Accelerated time to productivity
- Improved agility to implement new business models and process flows
- Improved business efficiency with enhanced contract life cycle management system, pricing engine and entitlement structure
- Delivered 40-45% savings in development and testing effort
- Ensured seamless integration with external systems
- Executed multiple major enhancements with minimum team size and turnaround time
