Inside a cloud integration overhaul for a major private equity firm
When a massive investment firm in the U.S needed help to expedite transactional data and new integrations, its legacy system couldn't keep up. but GFT's Right Shore team knew just what to do. With a tight deadline and a perfectly-crafted team, GFT delivered a complete cloud migration to empower more efficient operations.
Objective
A large U.S. private equity firm needed a system with the ability to integrate sensitive transactional data within their existing applications. Previously, the firm linked disparate systems with point-to-point integrations during each upgrade and at times were building the same system several times over. For example, these limited systems would collect exchange rates so the firm could build parallel integrations for every internal system that needed the rates as an input. This process was not only time-consuming and resource-heavy, but it also created unnecessary network traffic.
Recognizing that this system wasn’t sustainable, the firm turned to GFT for digital innovation and industry-specific help. Software integration was crucial for the day-to-day operations of the firm and integral to its business success. With GFT’s recommendation, the client decided to build instead of buy—and chose cloud-based integration to accelerate its business agility. This decision not only allowed the firm to keep internal support, but also gave them full ownership of the business and user experience.
Stepping up to the challenge, GFT’s Right Shore team plotted a course to fit the client’s timeline, budget and expertise needs. While the firm’s first objective was to build the cloud integration platform (CIP), both GFT and the client knew they would work together on future projects as well. For this reason, it was of paramount importance to build a team of professionals with the appropriate levels of seniority and for each team member to want to be a valued contributor. To accomplish this GFT’s project manager conducted one-on-one interviews to ascertain the skill levels, interests and career motivations of each prospective individual. Adding this personal touch to team recruitment ensured that GFT could provide the best possible support.
Aligning with the firm’s time zone, GFT’s project manager chose a primarily Brazilian team with an additional expert based in Costa Rica. With this carefully crafted team and cultural synergy, GFT was confident in achieving the firm’s objectives.
Process
To provide a flexible, scalable solution for the firm, GFT’s Right Shore team opted to deliver a cloud-based integration platform (CIP), a solution that provided an established toolset and controls that automatically enabled new integrations. This allows the firm to retain several features from their original system. The CIP sped up development work, providing a software development kit for engineers, dashboards and alerts that are intuitive and consistent. In any given implementation, only the final pieces need to be built to accommodate a specific system.
Cloud integration projects like this one require several meetings to determine how the client interacts with the existing platform, specifically what they need the CIP to do and how they use the data. The Right Shore team’s fluency in English and time zone alignment ensured that these meetings were productive, real-time discussions as other team members completed back-end tasks.
To streamline delivery and ensure the client’s satisfaction, GFT’s Right Shore team divided the project into four phases:
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Analysis: During this first stage of the project, the team studied the firm’s existing systems and identified the most important elements. GFT assessed the firm’s objectives and potential to create the project plan.
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Improvement: Upgrading the system and building a new integration platform mostly required back-end developer work from GFT’s cloud architects. In this phase, GFT’s Right Shore team delivered the project, considering ease of use, energy consumption, data management and security as they did so.
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Control: GFT established that the firm was satisfied with the new CIP and that the system would work as it was designed. The control phase also included quality assurance tests and security checks—ensuring that the firm’s custom-built platform was exactly what was required to take its business to the next level.
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Support: With the platform completed and the firm’s daily operations running smoothly, the only project requirement moving forwards was to monitor its growth and use. GFT teams continue to care for the applications, performing maintenance tasks and providing user support.
Results
The CIP solution that GFT’s Right Shore team created is a critical foundation to the firm’s IT environment. Its scalability decreases time-to-market, supports growth strategies and empowers the firm to stay one step ahead of their competition. Many investment firms still use on-premises software systems, so the client’s cloud-based integration system gives them an advantage over organizations that use a less flexible and agile approach.
Now that GFT’s CIP solution is established, the firm can use it for more than a dozen direct and indirect integration tasks, such as data mapping and delivery, with the potential of expanding across the organization’s IT systems. This replaces and improves existing integrations—which will be crucial as the firm adds new software solutions and requires external links from partners. The Right Shore team’s meticulous work ensures that the firm will be ready to adapt to market shifts.
Future Implications
With this nimble foundational platform, the firm enjoys many advantages, both for current operations and future business objectives. Since it’s built from cloud, the system is naturally scalable and secure.
Developers can deploy servers wherever and whenever they are needed to integrate a specific application or system and with the help from GFT’s support team, the firm can quickly troubleshoot any user issue they encounter. This increased resiliency protects the firm’s data and reduces the complexity of integrations and updates.
The diversity of experience and skill on GFT’s Right Shore teams enabled brainstorming that looked at the bigger picture, delivering a strategy for the firm and its use of the platform. While it matches all the client’s requirements, it also empowers the adoption of new systems and processes, expanding the firm’s business prospects and capabilities. This outcome reaffirms the talent and skill of the Right Shore team and the tremendous possibilities that can take shape because of digital innovation.
