SOA and Integration Consultancy for Energy and Utilities Leader

The Challenge 

The company’s sheer size meant numerous significantly deviating platforms in different countries. As a result, the biggest challenge they were facing was the number of varying scenarios for solving any data acquisition-related problem. The extreme complexity of the integration framework at hand for company-wide usage was another major issue our client needed help with. They needed to figure out how to utilize the framework to solve complex operational problems effectively. To address these issues, the client had purchased a license for a popular integration platform they hardly ever used as they did not know how. The company was obviously in dire need of professional consultancy services, but choosing a vendor could also be part of the problem.

Unfortunately, most training sessions are not structured with a challenge-response mechanism, and tutorials and training kits are often typically reasonably abstract. Even if consultants visit in person, they typically work with sample projects that have nothing to do with the specific industry, company, and case. This results in a massive gap between the available training practices and the practical solution to specific issues using a particular tool. As companies struggle to apply the knowledge they have gained to resolve their actual problems, they are left with the impression that the training methods or experts leave a lot to be desired. And even if the technology they have been trained to exploit is immaculate, not knowing how to leverage its features makes it utterly useless.

The Solution

The Problem-specific Customized Scalefocus Approach

Scalefocus held a comprehensive 3-day workshop focused on enterprise integration patterns, SOA, and the company’s existing toolset. It covered theoretical and technical foundations in training format and challenge-solution hands-on sessions in group formats. Unlike many other experts, Scalefocus’ consultants never focus too much on the tool’s functionalities and their isolated operation. Instead, we analyze the connection between technology and specific use cases and its impact in real-life scenarios. We provided an overall toolset for current and potentially upcoming problems and validated it based on real scenarios as provided by the client.

Stage 1 of this training included technology-agnostic EIPs (Enterprise Integration Patterns) that can be applied to solve typical issues that predictably occur on a regular or even daily basis on an enterprise level. Even if EIPs are abstract to a slight degree, getting to know a pattern is still a massive step in the right direction away from demoing a functionality or menu without relating it to an actual context. It is the powerful combination of EIPs, technology-specific knowledge, and practical workshops that explore how functionalities impact particular business issues that emerged as the most efficient form of training.

Teaching our clients how to apply the patterns’ abstract components to their particular use cases, the Scalefocus experts effectively challenge them to identify and group the most typical issues they encounter in their work. As a result, they could apply a structured solution to multiple instances of a given problem (e.g., in different locations where branches or subsidiaries across countries experience variations of the same issue) without too much hassle. The practical workshop makes the theoretical knowledge tangible and usable as we combine the partial solutions that emerge from the EIP with the capabilities of their toolset and iterations on different real-time scenarios. Such an approach has proven infinitely superior and stands apart from predefined training methods where training is unrelated to the domain challenges and subjective difficulties of professionals who utilize the tool. Our consultants provide solid theoretical grounds that do not concentrate on the toolset but on structural solutions and apply that tool to specific issues to get a working solution.

What Sets Scalefocus Apart as a 3rd Party Vendor

At Scalefocus, we have vast experience with consulting companies in different domains, which helps us adopt individual approaches to each one and quickly grasp the specifics of its unique problems. This is especially the case with Tier 1 domains, where we have extensive business expertise, and the most common issues are similar across the domain. It facilitates demonstrating the practical usage of such tools instead of general advice they are likely to receive from most vendors.

This particular training grew into a continuous, long-term, consultancy-based relationship. After successful training sessions and initial improvements, it is not unusual for companies to struggle and feel insecure about the extent to which they are coping with real-life issues. That is why it brings significant value to businesses when a partner can validate their decisions and consult them about emerging problems, potential errors, possible improvements, etc.

The Results 

The client quickly replaced the piecemeal approach of resolving issues with a multi-layered, component-based integration platform. Within two months of the training sessions, they fully finalized an overall concept for up-to-date, perpetually problematic use cases.

The client’s integration team outgrew its problem-solving role to become conceptual enterprise architecture decision-makers. Admittedly, it did take months to make this game-changing transition, but the technical teams eventually stopped handling specific tasks regarding individual systems without looking at the bigger picture. Instead, they gradually shifted towards operating on a global level and became confident enough to proactively propose solutions that would affect multiple systems simultaneously across the company subsidiaries. Gaining theoretical and practical knowledge turned them into genuine architects who could operate beyond individual interfaces and make global structural decisions.