Erika Rohrer

About Erika Rohrer

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What Is The Difference Between an API and Integration?

Integration and APIs: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Integration has been a fundamental concept in computing since the early days of software development. Web-based APIs, distinct from the concept of API technology (including remote procedure calls and libraries), have been around since the early 2000s. However, they have only recently become a key technology, gaining indispensability in the last five to 10 years.

Why Legacy Integration Tools Fall Short

Most organisations recognise the need for further integration in the modern business IT landscape. With the proliferation of on-site databases, SaaS applications, smartphone apps, and more, the challenge is to effectively utilise all these components simultaneously. As best-of-breed tech stacks become the standard and the number of apps used by employees increases, the demand for convergence intensifies.

In the past, connecting two machines or software pieces involved manually coding a point-to-point link. While effective in the early days of computing, this approach becomes impractical when dealing with the thousands of devices and applications prevalent in today’s businesses. Enterprise service buses (ESB) and middleware emerged as preferred integration solutions, acting as common communication hubs. However, their limitations, including scope and compatibility outside the corporate firewall, can hinder their effectiveness.

API Integration in Action

APIs are designed with cloud computing in mind, excelling in linking both cloud and on-premise applications. This versatility makes them well-suited for the hybrid IT configurations common in today’s companies.

“We live in an API economy, a set of business models and channels based on secure access of functionality and exchange of data,” notes Gartner analyst Christy Pettey. APIs facilitate integration across various platforms, connecting people, places, systems, data, and algorithms to create new user experiences and business models.

Consider Uber as a real-world example. The app relies heavily on APIs for features like maps-based tracking and mobile payments. Hundreds of thousands of drivers, passengers, and Uber developers can use the app simultaneously, thanks to well-coordinated APIs.

In corporate marketing departments, APIs enable efficient integration of various tools like CRM frameworks, email marketing tools, analytics solutions, and social media outreach tools. This integration through APIs allows the marketing team to build a cohesive stack, enhancing efficiency and profitability.

Meeting the Challenges of Tomorrow: Mobile Communication and IoT

The challenges in the IT world continue to evolve, with enhanced mobile communication and the Internet of Things (IoT) playing significant roles. APIs, with their cloud-centric and multi-user capabilities, are ideally suited to meet current and future integration requirements. Approximately 80 percent of workers use their own mobile devices for work, and a similar percentage has been equipped by their employer with laptops or computers.

Furthermore, the number of objects linked to the web is expected to rise by over 30 percent, reaching 8 billion by the end of the year. APIs prove crucial in addressing these evolving integration needs.

Integration and APIs: Today’s “IT Couple”

APIs are indispensable in addressing the diverse integration needs of modern enterprises. An integration framework that also manages APIs helps businesses leverage technology investments on both sides of the firewall, whether on-premise, SaaS, or in the cloud.

Enterprises can seamlessly link valuable data without the need to replace legacy systems. An API integration framework is versatile and scalable, making it adaptable to an all-cloud architecture if necessary.

As Gartner emphasises in “How Pervasive Integration Enables Your API Initiatives (and Vice Versa),” “APIs and integration technology are intimately correlated. API initiatives require integration technologies, and API-enabling technologies are essential components in any strategic integration infrastructure.”

Start Using API and Integration solutions for Your Organisation

As organisations modernise and start leveraging APIs to enhance their connectivity to systems, services, and data streams, ensuring that the right technology and frameworks align with your long and short-term goals can be a challenging process. This, coupled with a lack of expertise in system integration and APIs, often leads to a rapid path towards failure.

Prolifics is a trusted integration and API consultancy with over 30 years of experience in this space, serving as a long-term partner to the world’s largest organisations. We can assist your team in achieving your integration goals, opening new revenue streams, and implementing new technology.

We partner with industry leaders such as IBM, MuleSoft, Microsoft Azure, Red Hat, and many more to embed their technology with our own accelerators and processes, producing bespoke solutions that align with your needs and price point. Visit our integration and API page to explore how we can support you in your transformation and modernisation goals.

Stack of new tires at a warehouse.created with the help of artificial intelligence.

IT Observability: From the Pit Lane to the Podium

Have you ever likened your business’s IT team to a finely tuned race car? We have, but I’m guessing overall, the answer is a resounding ‘no,’ so bear with me. Your IT infrastructure and team are akin to that of a high-octane, sophisticatedly engineered machine—ideally, a McLaren, as I’m indeed a papaya fan.

But why a motor racing team, you may ask? Because it’s actually strikingly similar. You have a team of Race Engineers, akin to your Site Reliability Engineers (SRE), ensuring everything runs smoothly. You have a pit stop crew, comparable to an Agile Development team for making fast changes. A Race Principal can be likened to a CTO or Head of IT, who keeps the operation on track, and finally, the race car—on this occasion, not driven by the likes of Prost, Senna, or Hamilton; instead, it’s piloted by your business applications, with everyone on the team working collaboratively on it.

Like all motorsport teams, the goal is to take first place. From a business point of view, this is replaced by goals and targets of customer satisfaction, profitability, and ROI. So, why have I spent the introduction to this article drawing comparisons? Because it comes to the crux of the issue, which is—if your business application isn’t performing, you will fall behind the pack and won’t secure a coveted podium place.

This begs the question: How do we fix underperforming apps if we don’t know they’re underperforming? The answer is: Monitoring… or it was, but there’s something far more modern and powerful—Observability.

What is Observability?

Observability marks the next stage in the evolution of application performance monitoring (APM). While APM provides insights into your applications’ activities, observability goes beyond by not only showing you what’s happening in and around the application but also the environment, highlighting key causes for concern and insight for prompt decision-making. Through AI-driven context, information from applications and the environment is gathered and organised, allowing you to understand the data effectively. Application monitoring is automated, so that you can take intelligent action, optimise application performance and accelerate application development and integration.

This modern approach to applications is reminiscent of the modernisation in motorsports, where incredibly sophisticated sensors are implemented across the entire car to monitor and track performance, the status of components and even tire temperature, so the team can adjust and make changes rapidly; in turn providing an unmatched level of granularity into their race car and its performance.

Benefits of Observability over APM:

The big difference between APM and observability is lowering the Time to Resolution (TTR) by being able to view the entire IT architecture holistically. Observability doesn’t just track your application’s performance; it evaluates it and provides real-time information of your environment, so your team can adapt and change when necessary. Think of it as narrowing the scope of where the ‘needle’ is lost in the haystack.

This holistic view is vital in motorsports as the performance of the vehicle is paramount – for example if your driver is losing time on a lap and falling behind competitors, this indicates an issue somewhere. The car’s sensors provide a real-time insight and relay this data back to the ‘pit wall’ to give the team the intel required to remediate and fix the problem during a pit stop.

Why Observability is Essential to Modern IT?

Enterprise IT is forever evolving with new architecture, deployment methods and technologies emerging at a rapid pace, driving innovation and reshaping the digital landscape. With this evolution comes more data and more points of failure where observability can intelligently adapt and scale as a vital tool for IT teams across departments. Here’s how observability is helping:

Providing Real-Time Problem Identification:

Downtime can be more costly than ever, whether you’re on track or in a business environment. To exacerbate downtime, tracking the issue takes a significant portion of time, which time-poor IT teams often do not have. Worse so, with a small team you may not have the bandwidth to run troubleshooting and diagnostics while managing day to day activities. Observability software like IBM Instana revolutionises this process by providing an instant insight into your system’s performance, with an astonishing 3-second detection of anomalies or failure, anywhere in the system. So, instead of manually looking for issues under the bonnet and spending time testing each system, the problem is flagged instantly- giving engineers crucial time to make repairs.

Operational Efficiency with Observability:

Traditional monitoring provides only a sliver of your application environment, this obfuscates issues that reside or relate to your application. With smaller IT teams that concentrate solely on bringing value to the business via new innovation, operational efficiencies must be maintained. Observability, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive view of your entire application environment, allowing for a deeper understanding of its performance and potential issues. By providing this holistic perspective, observability facilitates operational efficiency by rapidly identifying, diagnosing, and resolving issues before they escalate. This proactive approach streamlines the overall performance of the IT infrastructure, ensuring that even nuanced problems are surfaced and addressed promptly. The broader visibility offered by observability enhances the proactive management of the application environment, optimising the IT team’s utilisation and efficiency. Simply put, if your car isn’t performing – the team can find the right slot in the race to pit, change tires and put you back into the race.

Data-Driven Decision Making:

Data is the steering wheel that navigates organisations toward success. By analysing logs, metrics, and traces, observability helps IT teams gain a comprehensive understanding of their system’s performance. This wealth of information empowers them to make informed decisions, ensuring that every move aligns strategically with overarching business goals. Just as a race car relies on precise steering for optimal performance, businesses equipped with observability data steer confidently through the complex landscape of IT, accelerating toward their objectives and to the podium.

Adaptability to Complex Environments:

Just as a racing team needs to adapt to changing weather conditions or unexpected track challenges, IT systems must navigate complex environments. Traditional monitoring tools may struggle with these complexities. However, observability, excels in adapting to intricate environments such as cloud-native deployments, microservices, and hybrid architectures. Its comprehensive view enables IT teams to swiftly adjust and optimise for peak performance, ensuring they have the correct setup that manoeuvres through any complexity with ease.

Competitive Advantage:

In the race for supremacy in today’s business landscape, observability emerges as the secret weapon that not only empowers the IT team but also propels the entire organisation to pole position. Much like a championship-winning car engineered to the highest specifications, organisations leveraging observability showcase their commitment to excellence, instilling confidence in both their audience and competitors. By swiftly resolving issues, optimising system performance, and prioritising user satisfaction, these brands craft a positive and compelling brand image that resonates with customers. This strategic focus on delivering the best possible experience signals a customer-centric approach, providing a distinct competitive advantage in the market.

IBM Instana – Not all observability tools are made equal

Leading the race for observability is IBM’s Instana. Offering powerful tooling, contextual information to understand all inter-dependencies, automated discovery and configuration to enable 1 second granularity metrics; Instana offers a highly sophisticated platform which is easy to use and quickly implemented to:

  • Reduce Risk – with quicker resolution of Incidents – Mean time to Detect (MTTD) can be reduced by 69% and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) reduced by 52%.
  • Increase Operational Efficiency – Time and effort can be reduced by 86%, leaving 20% more time for development. In addition, the all-in-one approach to gathering data and insights enables DevOps, Security, and IT Ops teams to work more effectively together.
  • Make Cost Improvements – Reduce cloud spend – make improvements to cloud efficiency by 75% and reduce cloud spend by 50%.
  • Increase Deployment Frequency – increase deployment of applications threefold, get the latest updates out to your business quicker.

Take Your Place on the Grid – Every Second Counts! 

Overall, businesses looking to compete in a technology-led world need to be cognizant of customer experience; your application is a representation of your organisation and the less operational it is, the further your brand will fall behind the pack. Like a race-winning team, you need a strong strategy, a competent pit-crew, actionable data to make decisions and a performant car to propel you forward and get you your place on the podium; using observability gives you these tools to overtake the competition and provide a worthy app that satisfies clients, partners, and business-users alike.

Download our new whitepaper, Every Second Counts for a dive into the world of observability including how Instana is overtaking traditional monitoring, real-life examples and results of observability in action and actionable steps on how IT teams can start leveraging Instana.

To explore how observability can work for you, including how much business value you could recognise, use our calculator or visit our Instana page here to learn more.

By Vikesh Kaushal
UK Marketing Leader, Prolifics

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Automation Drives More Testing Value for Financial Firm

Our Client

This large, UK financial services group (FSG), with more than 25 million customers and 65,000 employees, focuses on retail and commercial banking and financial services.

Challenge

FSG employs Workday HCM as their employee relationship and management system. Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, used by more than 10,000 organizations around the world.

Workday will generally issue two major updates a year, but also send weekly releases with smaller changes, fixes and security patches. Testing to ensure that Workday is working properly is critical, especially for an organisation like FSG, where scalability, security, and role-based authentication are important day-to-day functions. Testing has to show that not only are the semi-annual updates and weekly releases working properly for their specific issues, but also that nothing else in the system is adversely affected.

At issue for FSG was that much of the testing work was manually driven. FSG was concerned about efficiency gains, the timeliness of test completion, and their return on investment. Prolifics was invited to present how they would drive test automation strategically within the organisation.

Action

FSG engaged us based on our successful presentation. We created and delivered automated test packs as part of the project. Once we finished the project, we left them with the ability to execute and use these packs independently – i.e., we left our IP with FSG. We held a series of facilitated workshops and training days in which our automation engineers trained all of their business stakeholders.

Our partnership approach impressed FSG. Our work expanded to include Workday integrations to the SAP payroll system and also their ServiceNow system (an enterprise service desk application).

Result

Every Sunday, for example, there were releases with new changes or patches to the system. So, every Monday morning, there was the potential that an update had broken something further down in the system. With our implemented automation, the tests run and by Monday morning anything broken will be identified and ready to be fixed. This, as well as supporting the major upgrades, provided the value that FSG was looking for.

About Prolifics

Prolifics is a global digital engineering and consulting firm helping clients navigate and accelerate their digital transformation journeys. We deliver relevant outcomes using our systematic approach to rapid, enterprise-grade continuous innovation. We treat our digital deliverables like a customized product – using agile practices to deliver immediate and ongoing increases in value.

We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas — Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity across multiple industries — at any point our clients need them. Visit prolifics.com or email solutions@prolifics.com to learn more.

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What are the different types of API?

What Are Different Types Of API?

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) come in various forms, tailored to the specific needs of services or applications. API architects have the flexibility to select from a range of protocols and standards when designing new integrations, depending on the nature and purpose of the API. In this blog, we will explore several essential API types and protocols.

Web APIs
Web APIs are accessible through the HTTP protocol, with the API specifying endpoints as well as valid request and response formats. Web APIs encompass a range of services, including online alerts and storage (refer to the list). These web APIs can differ in protection and privacy levels, with various types such as open, internal, and partner APIs. Additionally, it’s possible to combine multiple web APIs to create composite APIs, which consist of sets of data or service APIs.

What is a key benefit of a Web API?

Scalability – One of the most significant advantages of a web API is its ability to rapidly extend and build upon existing platforms. This enables the prompt development of applications. For instance, consider Uber, a prime example of a brand-new business established using Google Maps’ web API.

Open APIs

Open APIs, also known as external or public APIs, are accessible with limited restrictions for developers and other users. They may need an API key to be registered and used, or they can be free. Open APIs are intended for access to data or resources by external users (developers at other businesses, for example).

Check out the UK government’s API, for instance. It’s open to all developers without the need for registration, so app creators can easily incorporate government data on restaurant standards into their apps.

What is a key benefit of an Open API?
Versatility- Allowing developers to leverage existing services and data to create innovative applications. This versatility enables the rapid development of new functionalities and services, fostering a dynamic ecosystem of interconnected applications.

For example, the integration of weather data from a third-party open API can empower your travel app with real-time weather forecasts. Open APIs provide the building blocks for seamless connectivity and expansion across diverse domains.

Did you know: due to the PSD2 and Open Banking initiatives in Europe, banks are required to provide ‘open’ APIs for third-party payment providers? These APIs ensure that specific data is exposed in a highly secure manner, allowing trusted finance applications to ‘pull’ key customer information such as bank balance and payment history.  

Internal APIs

Internal APIs are designed to be shielded from external users, unlike open APIs. They are used for sharing resources within a company. They allow the instruments, data and programs of each other to be consumed by various teams or parts of an organisation. There are many benefits of using internal APIs over traditional integration methods, including security and access management, a device access audit trail, and a single interface for linking multiple services.

An example of an internal API in action is when a retailer’s ERP application, like SAP, requests real-time data from its stores, including stock levels, delivery status, and customer information. The API seamlessly facilitates this exchange, enabling the retailer to enhance operational efficiency, gain insights into customer behaviours, and improve forecasting.

What is a key benefit of an Internal API?

Efficiency –to help streamline communication between different software components and services within an organisation. This efficient interaction can significantly improve productivity and workflow.

Partner APIs

Technically, partner APIs are similar to open APIs, but feature limited access, mostly managed by a third-party API gateway. Usually, they are intended for a particular reason, such as offering access to a paid-for service. In an ‘as a service’ ecosystem, this is a very common trend.

An example of a partner API is for one of our clients within the UK government; they were looking to onboard new industry partners without manual intervention. A partner API provided access to their systems, allowing them to outsource more efficiently, saving taxpayer money.

What is a key benefit of an partner API?

Diversification- to enhance a business’ offerings by incorporating complementary services or features from trusted collaborators. This diversification can lead to a more comprehensive and attractive value proposition for customers, opening up new revenue streams and growth opportunities.

Composite APIs

In one call, composite APIs allow developers to reach multiple endpoints. These could be various endpoints of a single API, or they could be multiple sources of services or data. In microservice architectures, composite APIs are particularly helpful, where a user needs information from multiple services to perform a single task. Using composite APIs can decrease server load and increase application performance, as all the data a user requires can be returned by one call.

An example of a composite API is a global e-commerce application like Amazon, which must display product listings, prices, and shipping options. To obtain this information, it needs data from multiple sources, each with its own API. Instead of making separate requests to these APIs, a composite API allows the application to make a single request, streamlining the process. This approach enhances efficiency and provides a smoother shopping experience for users.

What is a key benefit of composite APIs?

Simplification – of the integration process by allowing developers to access data and functionalities from multiple sources through a single, consolidated request. This streamlining of interactions reduces complexity and enhances the efficiency of building applications and services that rely on data from various endpoints, making development more straightforward and user-friendly.

API Architectures and Protocols

The rules for API calls are specified by the API protocol: it defines approved types and commands of data. Various API architectures define various limitations of the protocol.

REST

REST (Representational State Transfer) is a widely adopted web API architecture. To qualify as a REST API, it must adhere to specific architectural constraints or principles, including:

  • Client-server architecture: This architecture separates the backend and data storage from the GUI (Graphical User Interface). It promotes versatility, allowing different components to evolve independently.
  • Statelessness: REST APIs do not store any client context on the server between requests.
  • Cache-ability: Responses can be cached by clients. A REST API response must explicitly state whether or not it can be cached.
  • Layered system: REST APIs can interact directly with a server or through intermediaries like load balancers.

JSON-RPC and XML-RPC

JSON-RPC and XML-RPC are remote procedural call protocols. XML-RPC uses XML for encoding its calls, while JSON-RPC uses JSON. These protocols are straightforward, where a call can contain multiple parameters, and only one result is expected. They differ from REST in several ways:

  • Intended for calling processes: RPC protocols like JSON-RPC and XML-RPC are designed for invoking processes, while REST deals with resource representations.
  • URI usage: In REST, the URI contains information such as query parameters, but in RPC, the URI primarily identifies the server without including parameter details.

SOAP

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is another established web API protocol. It is designed to be extensible, protocol-neutral (capable of functioning over various communication protocols, including HTTP, SMTP, TCP, and more), and agnostic (allowing any programming type). SOAP encompasses key components like:

  • Processing model: Describes how to process a SOAP message.
  • Extensibility model: Defines SOAP features and modules.
  • Protocol binding rules: Explain how to use SOAP with underlying protocols like HTTP.
  • Message construct: Details how to structure a SOAP message.

Prolifics integrates your applications quickly with APIs that provide secure, real-time business information to your employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.

Are you struggling to connect applications such as Salesforce and SAP to your legacy systems? Perhaps you’re looking to onboard new clients or create an Open API for data exposure? Our experts can assist with secure APIs, including product selection and architecture.

Prolifics’ assets, accelerators, and industry patterns shorten your time to value with common components and schemas proven across multiple engagements. Unlock the value of your data, develop your own API ecosystem, and participate in the API economy.

Learn about our integration services, or reach out to our integration and API practice here.

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UK Defence Industry Overhauls Integration for Improved Collaboration

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Expert integration consultancy was required by our client. Through API integration, this critical transformation of communication and supply chain management became a reality for a UK government organisation.

This case study showcases the collaborative efforts of Prolifics and their esteemed IBM Maximo business partner in digitally transforming a vital sector of the military through security-cleared consulting.

Client Overview 

Our client works closely with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to support the military’s capability in planning, building and maintaining infrastructure. 

Challenge

A phased digital transformation encompassed six distinct projects, spanning from lifecycle asset management to space optimisation.

Prolifics’ expertise was specifically sought to ensure the success of the ‘end-to-end supply chain integration’ project. This initiative facilitates seamless, secure communication between the client’s internal systems and third parties without manual intervention.

Solution 1- Decentralised, real-time integration platform: Prolifics created a highly secure, scalable integration platform to onboard new industry partners. Using IBM’s App Connect Enterprise (ACE) and Message Queue (MQ), we ensured robustness with fail-safes, retries, and audit trails. Data duplication across the organisation and its partners guarantees continued work even during connectivity loss.

Solution 2- Security Cleared Managed Services: Prolifics’ Security Cleared Managed Service team ensured reliable system performance during both regular and extended support hours, seamlessly supporting the IBM middleware suite of App Connect Enterprise (ACE) and Message Queue (MQ) used by the client and their industry partners. We also efficiently addressed inquiries from the client and their industry partners.

Action

Following an initial design workshop, Prolifics gained a comprehensive understanding of the project’s short and long-term objectives, enabling the development of a secure, stable, and scalable integration platform.

In response to the sensitive data involved, a fully Security Cleared (SC) team of developers, architects, project managers, and support engineers was assembled. In alignment with customer requirements, the integration platform was fortified with fail-safes, retry mechanisms, and an audit trail for robustness.

Data redundancy across the organisation and its partners was implemented to ensure continued operation even during connectivity loss. Prolifics’ SC Managed Service team maintained system performance during regular and extended support hours.

Results

The newly implemented integration platform enables the military client to outsource to industry partners more efficiently, enhancing competitiveness and potential cost savings for taxpayers.

  • Enhanced Efficiency: Real-time communication between core systems and third parties.
  • Reduced Errors: 24×7 support and technical consultancy.
  • Operational Cost Savings: Faster, less IT-intensive onboarding through a decentralised API platform.

Technology

IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) – Zero-code integration for business users.

IBM Message Queue (MQ) – Middleware supporting the exchange of secure enterprise data.

Smiling Medical Professional Using Digital Tablet in Modern Clinic Setting

Data Governance Drives Informed Choices at Top Health Insurer

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Our Client:

A prominent health insurance provider based in the US.

Challenge:

Our client, being a major health insurance provider, relies heavily on accurate and comprehensive data to effectively manage its operations. They needed a centralised repository for financial data sourced from operational Books of Record (BoR). Their BoR encompass a wide range of essential information, including policyholder details, claims processing, premium collections, and financial transactions.

The objective was to establish a robust data ecosystem capable of supporting critical functions unique to their industry. These functions included:

  • Accounting: Our client’s financial health depends on accurate accounting records derived from their operational Books of Record. Ensuring that revenue, expenses, and financial statements are precisely documented and reported is vital for fiscal stability and regulatory compliance.
  • Regulatory Reporting: The healthcare and insurance sectors are subject to stringent regulations and reporting requirements. Accurate and timely data from operational Books of Record is crucial to meet these regulatory obligations and demonstrate compliance.
  • Enterprise-Level Business Analysis: Our client relies on comprehensive data analysis to make informed decisions, optimise processes, and enhance customer experiences. The data derived from these Books of Record serves as the foundation for enterprise-level business analysis, guiding strategic initiatives and improvements.

This ambitious project presented multiple challenges in the realms of data governance, data quality, and metadata management.

Key Challenges:

  • Data Governance: Our client lacked a comprehensive data governance framework to define data ownership, stewardship, and accountability. This resulted in inconsistencies and inaccuracies within their financial data, potentially leading to compliance issues and erroneous reporting.
  • Data Quality: Data collected from operational sources often exhibited quality issues, such as duplication, inconsistency, and incompleteness. These issues required resolution to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the data used for accounting and reporting purposes.
  • Metadata Management: As our client’s data ecosystem expanded, managing metadata, including data lineage and glossaries, became increasingly complex. Without an organised metadata management process, it was challenging to trace data sources and maintain a clear understanding of data definitions and relationships.

Action:

To address these challenges, our client engaged the expertise of Prolifics, a leading provider of data management and analytics solutions. Prolifics implemented an end-to-end data governance solution, encompassing various facets of data governance, data quality, and metadata management. The project involved the following key actions:

  • Data Governance Charter and Vision Statement: Prolifics worked with our client to create clear objectives, principles, and goals for their data governance initiative.
  • Data Lifecycle Management: Prolifics helped establish rules for handling data from start to finish, ensuring it’s collected, stored, and used correctly according to regulations.
  • Data Governance Framework Adoption: Prolifics made sure everyone in the organisation understood and agreed to the data governance framework, aligning it with business goals.
  • Roles and Responsibilities: Prolifics set up clear roles for managing data at each stage of its life, making sure everyone knew what they were responsible for. This involved defining roles for data stewards responsible for ensuring data quality and accuracy.
  • Business Glossary & Stewardship: Prolifics created a shared glossary of terms and processes to standardise data language and understanding.
  • End-to-End Data Lineage: Prolifics mapped how data moves within the organization, making it clear where it comes from and where it goes.
  • Data Quality Checks: Prolifics introduced checks to ensure data quality and created workflows for fixing issues, making data more reliable.
  • Metadata Management: Prolifics established a system to organise and manage metadata effectively.

Results:

The successful collaboration in implementing this comprehensive data governance solution has positioned our client to effectively manage its financial data, ensure compliance with regulations, and make informed business decisions based on high-quality data.

The implementation of the comprehensive data governance solution yielded several positive outcomes for our client:

  • Enhanced Data Governance – Better Data Control: Clear rules were in place for taking care of their data, which clarified responsibilities and made data management more efficient.
  • Improved Data Quality – Cleaner Data: The implementation of data quality checks and workflows significantly reduced data quality issues, increasing the reliability of financial data.
  • Effective Metadata Management – Organized Data: Data was now properly organised and labelled, simplifying data discovery and comprehension for everyone.
  • Increased Efficiency: Standardised processes and roles streamlined data management, reducing the time and effort required for maintaining and reporting financial data.

Technology:

The following technology stack was utilised to implement the data governance solution:

IBM Infosphere Stack: Prolifics harnessed the IBM Infosphere stack to deploy various components of the solution, encompassing data governance, data quality, and metadata management. The IBM InfoSphere stack (IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog) is a suite of software products and tools used for managing and governing data and encompasses a wide range of data-related functionalities and capabilities, including data integration, data quality, data governance, and metadata management.

About Prolifics’ Data Governance Solutions

Prolifics empowers your organisation with comprehensive Data Governance services, ensuring data quality, accessibility, and security. Our proven framework enhances decision-making, regulatory compliance, customer satisfaction, and risk management. With prebuilt, platform-agnostic processes, we optimise your existing investments while embracing new ones. Partner with Prolifics to unlock the full potential of your data and gain a competitive edge through our customer-focused approach to data governance.

Curious to see how data governance can benefit your organisation? Let’s chat! Click here to connect with our Data Governance experts and discover how we can help you drive better results with powerful data governance solutions.

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Elevating Mortgage Lending: A Testing Center of Excellence Transformation 

Client

A mortgage lender (ML) specialising in technology-driven and personalised solutions for homebuyers.

Background:

In the highly regulated mortgage sector, precision and compliance are paramount. Enter the Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) and Test Automation – critical strategies reshaping the industry. TCoE centralises testing, fostering collaboration and raising software quality. Meanwhile, Test Automation turbocharges processes, reducing errors and costs. It’s a game-changer that ensures adaptability in a dynamic market. This case study comes from Prolifics Test Automation Solutions and explores how TCoE and Test Automation are transforming mortgage lending.

Challenge

ML embarked on a strategic mission to elevate the quality of their software products, reduce costs, streamline operations, and enhance the efficiency of their IT and development functions. However, they faced several testing challenges:

  • Understaffed Testing Team: ML faced the challenge of having too few testing experts, prompting the need to optimise testing processes.
  • Developer Involvement in Testing: They aimed to reduce developer involvement in testing through more efficient testing methods.
  • Scalability Concerns: ML recognized the need for scalable solutions to support their growing team and complex projects in line with their operational streamlining objectives.

ML partnered with Prolifics to strategically enhance their capabilities and improve operational efficiency. This transformation centred around the creation of a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE), a cornerstone for increasing testing efficiency, standardising processes, and leveraging automation. The TCoE represents their commitment to streamlining testing efforts, ensuring robust and secure software releases with every step forward.

Approach

We will collaborate with ML to establish a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) – a centralised framework that focuses on optimizing and standardising software testing and quality assurance processes. The primary goal of this TCoE is to enhance the quality of ML’s software products while reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Key Components of the Prolifics Testing Center of Excellence Approach:

  • Standardised Processes: We establish best practices, methodologies, and standardized testing processes to ensure consistency across all ML projects and teams.
  • Resource Centralisation: We centralised testing resources, including skilled testers, tools, and infrastructure, allowing efficient resource sharing across various ML projects.
  • Test Automation: Our approach includes implementing and managing test automation strategies to enhance efficiency and reduce manual testing efforts.
  • Knowledge Sharing: We facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration among testers and teams to foster continuous learning and improvement.
  • Metrics and Reporting: Our approach involves developing metrics and reporting mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of testing efforts and provide valuable insights for decision-making.
  • Tool Selection and Management: We identify and manage testing tools and technologies that align with ML’s specific needs and goals.
  • Quality Assurance: Our approach ensures that testing aligns with quality assurance principles, encompassing risk assessment, defect tracking, and validation against ML’s business requirements.
  • Training and Skill Development: We provide training and skill development opportunities for testing professionals to keep them updated with industry trends and best practices.
  • Governance and Compliance: Our approach guarantees that testing processes adhere to industry standards, regulations, and compliance requirements, particularly crucial for highly regulated industries such as finance.

Results

By establishing a TCoE, ML will achieve greater testing efficiency, reduce manual tasks, enhance collaboration, and deliver higher quality experiences to their employees and customers. It also allows them to adapt more effectively to changing business needs and technological advancements. This shift promises to bring about the following key advantages:

Efficiency and Process Optimisation:
  • Improved Testing Efficiency: Streamlined processes, faster testing cycles, and reduced duplication of efforts and resources.
  • Alignment with Release Model: Alignment with ML’s unique weekly release model, eliminating the need for repetitive testing with each release.
  • Better Test Automation: Enhanced automation strategies for higher coverage, faster execution, and improved script maintenance.
  • Resource Optimisation: Efficient allocation of testing resources based on project priorities and requirements.
Quality Assurance:
  • Enhanced Test Quality: Standardised practices leading to higher-quality deliverables and fewer defects reaching production.
  • Increased Test Coverage: Comprehensive test coverage, focusing on critical business functionalities and customer use cases.
  • Reduced Escalations: With automated testing ensuring the stability of each release, the client expects a decrease in customer escalations related to software issues.
  • Improved Customer Experiences: The enhanced efficiency and reliability of automated testing are poised to lead to improved customer experiences, as software releases become more dependable.
Cost Reduction and Risk Management:
  • Cost Reduction: Optimised resource allocation, resulting in lower testing costs and economies of scale.
  • Risk Mitigation: Proactive identification and mitigation of testing-related risks, with improved project visibility.
Team Development and Stakeholder Confidence:
  • Skilled Testing Teams: Training and upskilling lead to a more proficient workforce and knowledge sharing.
  • Stakeholder Confidence: Clear communication and reporting on testing progress, results, and alignment with business goals.
  • Continuous Improvement: Establishment of a culture of continuous improvement, regularly adapting to evolving needs and trends.
Compliance and Standardisation:
  • Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring industry-specific compliance through standardised testing processes.

About Prolifics Test Automation Solutions

At Prolifics, we empower you with Test Automation and TestOps services tailored to your needs – so you can stay ahead in the fast-paced software world. We offer end-to-end automation testing and seamlessly integrate TestOps into your development cycle. Accelerate your testing, enhance software quality, save costs, and accelerate your time-to-market. Connect with a Test Automation expert today!

Luxury cruise ship sailing to port on sunrise

A Major Cruise Line Finds Smooth Sailing Through Cloud Migration

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Client:

A renowned cruise line (CL) company that operates a fleet of luxury ships and provides exceptional travel experiences to passengers worldwide.

Challenge:

With a goal to enhance agility and competitiveness in the dynamic cruise industry, CL sought to migrate critical applications, including reservations and supply chain management, to AWS. The move aimed to enable efficient resource scaling during peak seasons, optimise costs amidst budget constraints, and enhance global data security and customer experiences. Nevertheless, managing overlapping functionalities and dependencies between applications and middleware components posed challenges, necessitating meticulous planning and execution for a successful migration.

CL sought the expertise of Prolifics to orchestrate a seamless migration of their applications and data assets to the AWS platform. This success story comes from our Platform Engineering and Cloud Optimisation Offering, which aims to establish a future-proof infrastructure for seamless application performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.

Action:

Prolifics conducted a thorough analysis of all applications requiring migration to AWS, documenting all components. This comprehensive process enabled us to assess the effort needed and create a well-defined roadmap aligned with CL’s timeline. Following a phased approach, we systematically focus on each application, ensuring a stable and reliable migration process that avoids disruptions to CL’s operations.

We began the migration process by successfully transitioning CL’s vital Seaware Reservation System (SRS), a specialized software solution tailored for the cruise industry to manage and streamline cruise booking processes and passenger management. This first step of the migration process was executed flawlessly, resulting in a smooth shift to the cloud. In parallel, we are actively involved in the migration of PeopleSoft, encompassing the Human Resources (HR) and Finance modules, with steady progress.

Upcoming plans involve migrating CL’s vital Customs & Border Protection (CBP) application (passenger processing, customs, and immigration compliance), and a suite of essential supply chain applications: Ariba (cost management), GTreasury (cash and risk management), and OnBase (content management). Each step underscores our strong partnership as we collaboratively modernise and optimize their digital infrastructure, delivering an unwavering commitment to an optimised cloud environment that supports CL’s continued success.

Benefits and Results:

This strategic transition positions CL as an agile and cost-efficient player in the cruise industry. By migrating to AWS Cloud, CL anticipates significant cost savings, heightened process efficiency, and improved collaboration across teams. The move will enable the cruise line company to scale resources as needed during peak seasons, benefit from a cost-efficient pay-as-you-go model and ensure seamless customer service and data protection with AWS’s global reach and robust security measures.

Additionally, leveraging AWS’s flexibility and innovative tools will facilitate quick feature development, fostering competitiveness, while disaster recovery options guarantee business continuity and improved performance enhances the overall customer experience.

The partnership between CL and Prolifics exemplifies the significance of expert guidance and tailored solutions for a seamless and successful cloud migration, ensuring the realisation of anticipated benefits. With this approach, we are confident in exceeding the client’s timeline and achieving a successful cloud migration, leading to an optimised and future-ready IT infrastructure for CL’s sustained growth and success.

More With This Client

Explore our earlier success story with this client, as they achieved remarkable cost savings and operational efficiency through the implementation of innovative integration solutions: Cruise Line Sails Ahead With Cost-Saving Integrations.

More About Prolifics Platform Engineering & Cloud Optimisation

Build a future-proof infrastructure to run applications seamlessly. Our services are designed to optimise cloud-based systems and applications, ensuring enhanced performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency. You can trust our systems and architecture to adapt to your company’s evolving needs without requiring significant upgrades, providing you with a competitive edge in the market.

Doctor showing tablet computer with results to patient in hospital exam room

Modernize Healthcare Data Management with FHIR

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The HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standard (or FHIR) is revolutionizing how healthcare information is managed, moved and exchanged.

The Internet has made managing data faster and easier than ever. Healthcare information, on the other hand, has lagged behind the trend because of its sensitivity and complexity. For example, some health data is still transmitted in physical format (chances are, you’ve used a fax machine lately). This limits providers’ ability to coordinate care, perform data analytics, and integrate IT environments in a cost-effective way.

FHIR establishes API standards that change the way electronic health records (EHR) move throughout healthcare environments. Existing systems can be adapted for easy integration. Developers can build plug-and-play applications that interlink data sources with systems.

FHIR is built using “resources”—compartmentalized units of information that can be combined to build functionality. By combining resources in the right way, organizations can answer virtually any business need in an integrated, data-friendly, and cost-conscious way.

Here are four reasons why FHIR is great for healthcare businesses.

#1: FHIR is Developer, Device, and REST-Friendly

FHIR is free to use and highly flexible, making it easy to adjust solutions as needs change. Openly available libraries and tools make development simple. It scales with healthcare organizations as their needs expand. Interfaces can be set up in as little as one day.

And it’s built on common web technologies, like HTTPS, XML, REST, OAuth, and JSON. This makes it easy to add and train developers without needing to filter for more niche technology skills.

Many of these web technologies are mobile-friendly, especially REST APIs. They set the stage for mobile applications that take advantage of health data. Round-the-clock health monitoring? Care on the go? The door is open to use mobile devices to promote better patient health.

#2: FHIR Has No Vendor Lock-In

Many of the leading EHR vendors are involved in the Argonaut Project, which focuses on developing interoperable standards across the healthcare market.

The result is vendor-neutral applications that can be leveraged in enterprises’ environments, bringing with them new features—no more proprietary systems and interfaces that limit what functionality health organizations can leverage.

#3: FHIR is Great for Care Quality and Costs

Providers can utilize all kinds of data, including information provided by Internet of Things devices like wearable fitness trackers, health equipment, cell phones, and more. All this information improves patient outcomes and helps quash the cost of providing care. It also makes maintaining IT environments simpler and cheaper, creating cost savings on the business side.

Patients gain the customer personalization that’s become so popular in industries like retail and banking. Even if they’re seeing multiple healthcare providers, patient data can be shared in a centralized record, tailoring care to the patient’s needs without drops in communication. Plus, reduced costs on the provider side help make care more affordable for patients.

#4: A Partner Who Knows How to Start a FHIR

Many organizations are finding it difficult to implement FHIR and take advantage of its benefits. The Prolifics Innovation Center has developed a FHIR solution called Prolifics Quick FHIR. It enables organizations to build out their own system and get connected quickly and easily.

Our solution is built on our own proprietary IP using IBM software. There’s no need for your IT personnel to acquire and integrate software, then implement FHIR. Our solution does the heavy lifting for you, saving your enterprise time and costs.

About the Prolifics Innovation Center

The Prolifics Innovation Center leverages our decades of experience to build next-generation solutions like Prolifics Quick FHIR.

We strive to provide the leadership and vision that keep organizations competitive. Our experts work closely with our customers to incorporate feedback and tailor our solutions to real-world business needs.

If you would like to learn more about our Prolifics Quick FHIR solution or become part of our Innovation Center, please email us at solutions@prolificsdev.wpengine.com.

About the Author

Matt Garst leads sales for Digital Automation and Cloud Solutions for Prolifics. Matt has over 20 years of experience in sales in the information technology industry. Most recently, he was responsible for the IBM software business within the US Army and Missile Defense Agency.

Prior to his role at IBM, Matt was the Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Enterprise Information Management, where he led a sales team focused on software and professional services. Matt began his career as a soldier in the U.S. Army where he served six years in the Infantry.

Hes very professional and great at what he does. Close-up of a confident male doctor standing with his arms crossed in the hospital.

Benefits of FHIR (Infographic)

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When Prolifics engineers first learned about HL7’s FHIR standards, in response to the Healthcare industry’s challenge with interoperability, ideas began pouring into our Innovation Center. The result: our Quick FHIR solution that goes beyond API integration with your existing systems to include a layer of security and AI and machine learning technology to help you better manage and analyze your data.

This infographic provides an at-a-glance description of the benefits of FHIR to your health organization. Be sure to click to see the large version.

Who benefits from FHIR?

Developers

FHIR builds on, co-exists with and leverages HL7’s earlier product lines (HL7 v2, HL7 v3, CDA) and uses common web standards (RESTful services, XML, JSON, HTTP, and OAuth), so developers wanting to try their hand at FHIR may find themselves in familiar territory. They will also find the following appealing about FHIR:

  • Open-source and free to use
  • Comes with out-of-the-box interoperability
  • Base resources can be used as-is or adapted as needed
  • Integrates with popular web service technologies

Patients

Making health data accessible to patients lets them take more control of their own healthcare decisions. From diet and exercise to treatment and medicine, more data about health factors means smarter consumers. Patients benefit because FHIR:

  • Allows new technologies to aggregate health data
    • Example: Apple’s Health app
  • Eliminates duplicate tests and services, reducing costs
  • Prevents errors due to missing or incomplete patient data
    • According to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins, 44 percent of medical error deaths are preventable

Researchers

FHIR has the potential to make healthcare data more available for clinical research, epidemiology, outcomes research and more. Accessible EHR and patient-originated data can mean:

  • Shorter, less expensive clinical trials
  • Improved interactions with clinicians and patients
  • Improved risk assessment of new medical products

Physicians

EHR integration lets physicians find health records and the data they contain more quickly. With AI/machine learning added to the mix, the potential benefits of FHIR become even more attractive:

  • Improved diagnoses and treatment plans
  • Faster patient visits
  • Flexibility to change vendors due to increased system compatibility

Payers

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is changing the ways health insurance carriers (such as UnitedHealth Group and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association) address interoperability and patient access to data.  Under the regulations, payers can leverage FHIR standards to better coordinate care in many ways, including:

  • Easily update providers about health plan protocols
  • Freer exchange of claims data and other patient health information via apps from third-party developers
  • Automated evaluation/approval process, reducing time spent answering phone calls from practice staff about coverage

We invite you to share this with your colleagues and check out our FHIR information hub. If you want to learn more about technology solutions that help you optimize the FHIR standard and be prepared for new CMS and ONC rules for managing your data, contact us at solutions@prolifics.com.

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