How to Choose the Right Operating Model for your Integration Platform for Digital Logistics … containing a template and instructions for an origami fortune teller.

There’s an origami game popular in playgrounds around the world where children place an intricately folded, four-pyramid paper construction over their fingers, and move the flaps in such a way to tell their classmates‘ fortunes. In Germany, this game is known as heaven or hell.

Logistics specialists trying to use their integration platforms to drive digital transformation often feel they’re playing an extended game of heaven and hell.

The prospects are heavenly. Internal and external systems, fully connected and simple to use. Digital transformation could be approached on a project or a needs basis.

However, the reality tends to be less heavenly. High customer and departmental expectations combine with budget, time and personnel constraints to ignite a potentially hellish situation, compounded with new technical challenges and ever more stringent compliance and security requirements.

Some digital logistics principles from an integration and operational perspective

We’re going to play a little game. It’s not available as an app. It’s a classic, origami playground game. We’re putting our futures in our own hands and playing heaven and hell.¹

How do you view your integration platform, and what options do you have?

Business Integration: What is earning you money, and what is just a money pit?

Whether something is heavenly or hellish often depends on who you ask. However, below are the responses we hear most often from CIOs and others responsible for systems integration in their organizations.

Common issues considered annoying money pits include:

1. Hardware management

• assuring premises are adequately secured
• keeping up with system, messaging and networking technologies
• ensuring enough redundancy to minimize downtime
• preparing contingency plans and data centres for a worst case scenario
• having people on call 24/7

2. System administration

• keeping machines up and running
• restarting crashed machines
• installing software, patches and updates
• monitoring core systems
• assuring cyber security
• designing and practising a disaster recovery strategy
• adhering to data protection regulations
• complying with various, changing regulations

Welcome to hell!

When considering which aspects save or earn them money , logistics specialists tend to name the following:

3. Integration competence

• trading partner management
• change management
• mapping development
• incident resolution

Welcome to heaven!

The following will look at how you can

• outsource hardware management and software administration, while
• keeping – and extending – your integration capabilities
• at a lower cost and workload than before

To this end, we will be looking closer at

• cloud models and hybrid integration platforms (HIP),
• approaches for transitioning to the cloud
• cloud trends for integration platforms in the logistics sector

At the end, there will be a template and instructions for your boss or children to play heaven or hell. A promise is a promise!

Cloud models and hybrid integration platforms (HIP)

What would happen if you were to outsource hardware management and system administration? This would mean that key issues such as

• infrastructure
• operating systems
• databases
• communication
• release management
• monitoring and incident detection

would be covered by a cloud service partner 24/7. Why not compare how many red lines have turned blue in the middle column of the chart below to see how heavenly your life could become?

All that remains is to find the optimum cloud model for your integration needs. See the additional blue lines on the upper right hand side of the above chart  for a glimpse of heaven.

Whether you choose an iPaaS, fully managed services, or a hybrid constellation is not a technical decision. It’s a business decision, driven by your departments’ needs.

If you choose to run your integration software as an iPaaS, you are still fully responsible for managing business-critical business and partner processes in-house. However, this is now on an integration platform which is being maintained and made available to you by a cloud partner. Around the clock.

If you opt for integration software as fully managed services, you are outsourcing everything to a service partner. All you need to do is say which partners need integrating into which process, and what messaging standards they support. Your cloud partner will do the rest.

If you go for a hybrid model, you outsource everything related to a specific area (such as customs clearance or invoice management), essentially booking a fully-managed service,  while still keeping your other business processes in house (or, in the case of an iPaas, partially in house).

Transitioning to the cloud – hand in hand with the right partner.

However you decide, there are just five steps on the stairway to integration heaven.

Below is our tried and tested procedure for transitioning customers’ integration needs to the cloud.

1. Current position and transfer plan

• ascertain partner messaging relationships on the on-premises
• collate business processes and client-specific requirements
• plan migration and estimating project scope

2. Standardization and harmonization

• define master data sets and naming conventions
• remove old and duplicate data
• allocate tasks for migration

3. Data consolidation and transfer

• transfer harmonized master data and business processes
• migrate connections
• using specially-developed SEEBURGER tools

4. Testing and documentation

• conduct unit and end-to-end tests
• run a user acceptance training, with appropriate training
• document interfaces and processes (incl. structure and content)

5. Go-live support and hypercare

• run parallel instances of on-premises and cloud during an interim phase
• draw on standby consulting support
• begin regular operation of your new cloud-based system

Trend towards cloud for integration platforms used in logistics

It may be helpful in your decision making to know what our logistics customers have chosen to run their integration platforms. We have been noticing some clear trends in the various size categories.

The larger logistics companies tend to still be running their own data centres. We say ‘still’  because they are becoming increasingly interested in the services offered by the hyperscalers, such as Amazon Web Service (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The motivation is to save on infrastructure costs and to free up time for their IT staff to do other things.  As a rule, these logistics companies are active in several markets. They offer both holistic, multimodal, door-to-door logistic solutions beyond national borders, as well as customer-specific value-added services.   Their daily work varies greatly. It is contract-based, sales and service driven, individual yet in huge volumes. This means that they have strong demands on their integration platform, with ambitious reaction times. Therefore, these companies tend to use either an on-premises or increasingly an iPaaS solution for their integration needs.

The medium-sized companies are still tending to run their own hardware, key software and integration platform. However, it’s here we’re noticing the strongest move towards a cloud first approach, driven by staffing, cost and security concerns. These companies are also active in several markets, or have highly specialised niche logistic solutions. Fully managed services are not always so appropriate here, as to be successful in the market, you need to find and fill a niche, and implement fast. Instead, we’re noticing a clear shift from on-premises solutions to an iPaaS.

The smaller logistics companies tend to be established transport and service providers for a large customer, with a relationship spanning years, or even decades. As a contractor, they follow and respond to the digitalization journey of their large customers, with a small integration platform which they run in-house. However, the digital requirements in this sector are growing and becoming more specialised. Volume is, however, much smaller than for the medium and larger logistics companies. We are therefore noticing a growing trend in this segment to outsourcing previously on-premises integration by replacing this with fully-managed services.

Folding and game instructions for heaven or hell

After these mental exertions, let us end as we began … with a game.

Print out figure one in this article, and fold according to the steps in the image below.

Congratulations! Now you have your very own heaven or hell game for choosing how to operate your integration platform for digital logistics.

This is a two-player game.

Place the origami construction on the thumbs and pointer fingers of both hands, so you are using two hands to operate it. Ask the other player to say a number. Use your fingers to snap open the origami construction along the x-axis and the y-axis by turn, until you have counted down the number. Then, ask the player to choose one of the numbers he can see on the inside of the origami game.

Lift the numbered flap and read the revealed phrase. This is the other player‘s fate.

If you have any questions or comments on this article,  or are interested in working with an integration partner, we’d love to hear from you.