To fuel its growth, this large global payments processor for financial institutions used a merger and acquisition strategy. This approach allowed them to extend the value they provided to their clients but created significant challenges for their legacy IT infrastructure. Their back end systems became increasingly fragmented as multiple platforms and systems were integrated to support each of their major products. Multiple user interfaces and the complexities associated with a variety of business processes and standards introduced a lack of uniformity and consistency for their customers.
Case Study
How API-Based Approach Helps Large Global
Processor Accommodate Growth
Mergers and Acquisition Strategy Creates Issues for Legacy IT
Dynamic Growth in Digital Marketplace Drives New Strategic Direction
This leading organization wanted to define an API-based strategy that would allow them to build a more dynamic and flexible environment. Several steps would be required to develop this strategy including defining the product development methodology, architecting the product lifecycle, selecting the right platform and implementing best of breed technologies. In addition, it would be necessary to ensure that the organization’s people, processes and controls were ready to support this new approach. Lastly, the silo-based architecture and legacy systems driving the back end processing for the firm would need to be configured to support the API strategy and the platform that would be selected to implement that strategy.
Comprehensive Blueprint Requires Partner with Horizontal Knowledge of Payments
The need to define, develop and implement the changes required to position this global processing firm for continuing growth could not be allowed to interrupt daily operations. Projects in flight and teams supporting the ongoing demands of the firm would need to continue to focus on the more immediate needs of the business. Essential to achieving it overall plan would be the selection of a consulting partner whose experience provided a broad view of the best practices used to modernize and transform IT environments.
RS Software engaged at early phases to help the firm work out their strategy and approach. This process involved the following steps:
- Creation and adoption of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the program.
- Definition of the platform architecture for API products that would govern product portfolio, lifecycle, discovery, standards, and ongoing evolution of each of these.
- Description of the infrastructure capabilities required to support the API product lifecycle management, discovery, and operational parameters and ongoing evolution of each of these.
- Identification of the necessary components required for creating a superior developer experience and user friendly portal and sandbox approach.
- Documentation of the existing services of the firm and steps required to deploy these services within the API management platform of choice.
- Creation of an operating model to implement, execute and govern the API-based strategy through stakeholder identification, business flows and process mapping.
Knowledge-Based Outsourcing Delivers Competitive Advantage
RS Software used its expertise in enterprise architecture and experience with digital transformation to provide this blue-chip payments provider with a strategy that provided the path to competitive leverage in the marketplace. With more than two decades of leadership in payments, we were able to obtain early buy-in from the executives of the organization and work successfully with a crossfunctional steering committee. Within four months, we produced a roadmap defining the required changes and demonstrated its value with a proof of concept for the developer experience and platform. The value of RS Software’s unique depth in payments was used to provide input and guidance in the selection of the API management platform that would be key to supporting the transformation of the client’s IT landscape.
