Modernising Lion’s integration for improved agility to manage skyrocketing demand and improve partner delight
About the client
With a portfolio of several iconic brands including Heineken, Furphy, James Squire, and Kosciuszko, Lion is a global beverages company operating predominantly in Australia and New Zealand. It produces, markets, sells, and distributes alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and operates microbreweries worldwide. Lion’s purpose is to provide beverages to be enjoyed responsibly, and to bring people together. This is coupled with a commitment to function with integrity and build a transparent and ethical supply chain. With more than 400 customers and partners, including some of the largest supermarkets and venues across the world, Lion recognised the need to modernise its technology environment to become an agile and hybrid organisation ready to deliver to ever-increasing demand for its products.
Business Opportunity
Lion leverages Software AG’s webMethods technology platform for enterprise application integration and business-to-business data exchange. webMethods connects Lion’s supply chain applications and external applications (used by its business customers like pubs and retail outlets) that exchange data with Lion’s systems. These interfaces support Order Management and other business critical systems and functions.
After its on-premise webMethods solution (version 9.5) reached end of life, Lion teamed with Atturra to upgrade to a contemporary version, webMethods 10.5. This would ensure continuity of business-critical integrations, establish an integrated framework to underpin its transition to the cloud, and provide continued capability as Lion further digitalises its operations and adds new partners and services.
The modernisation would also help Lion alleviate challenges and cost overruns of new projects on the former on-premises platform. By moving to the cloud, Lion would no longer be at risk of extended operational shut-down on the back of unexpected physical or digital disasters, such as fire and flood disruptions at its sites or cyber threats. With its IT environment connected and cleaned up, Lion would also be equipped to proceed to seamlessly complete the divestiture of its Dairy and Drinks business, which it sold to Bega Cheese for A$528Mn to focus on its Adult Beverages business.
Atturra webMethods Solution
Atturra led Lion’s modernisation from start to finish, including design and implementation of the webMethods 10.5 platform in Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres, separation of its Adult Beverage business from the now-sold Dairy and Drinks business, and the concurrent establishment of disaster recovery capabilities - at lower cost and milestone-based fixed price. Lion selected Atturra for its long-standing expertise and integration specialisation - it was regarded the safest pair of hands to manage the highly-complex requirements and goals Lion set out to achieve.
- As part of a completely remote project completed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Atturra conducted a discovery investigation to understand Lion’s major challenges, and develop infrastructure, software and migration strategies.
- Through a managed four-step testing and deployment process, Atturra’s technical architects upgraded Lion from webMethods 9.5 to 10.5.
- Also migrated the platform with all associated Oracle database from the ageing on-premises infrastructure systems to AWS, backed by new webMethods Dev, Test, QA and Production instances.
- This was followed by a redesign of AWS communications, firewall and load balancing infrastructure in collaboration with Lion’s infrastructure team, AWS and network providers.
- Atturra then built a framework of highly-repeatable and scalable APIs to integrate existing and future internal and third party applications, giving Lion the ability to easily expand technology environment with assurance that data is being shared securely and in near real time.
- Due to Atturra’s extensive change management experience, Lion was able to complete the modernisation while keeping its business partners fully informed and prepared to adapt to minimise business disruption.
Feedback from all stakeholders highlighted that the project ‘just happened’ without any pain points across the supply chain.
Ram K. Solution Delivery Manager at LionPartnering with Atturra not only made this business-critical transformation possible, but ensured the road to the cloud was hassle-free for Lion and all our partners. They’ve built a foundation on which we can easily expand as operational requirements change and demand continues to increase. This was a successful engagement.
Key Outcomes
Since the completion of the project in mid 2021, Lion has experienced significant benefits across the business, many of which extend to its business customers.
- Happier partners: Lion’s order processing capabilities are streamlined, ensuring it successfully delivers within the short order cycles expected by its customers - most of which don’t hold stock, and therefore expect to receive large volumes of new supply within a few days and on a recurring basis.
- Smooth onboarding: Signing up and onboard new customers is streamlined, a process down from weeks to hours, thanks to the truly hybrid API-driven architecture. With the rapid rise of smaller, agile beverage manufacturers – such as craft and micro brewers which are digitally-enabled – Lion can identify and partner new businesses much faster, so their unique stock is available to purchase sooner, and supporting its growth plans.
- Disaster-proof operations: With disaster recovery now in place, Lion has not only reduced risk, but has mechanisms in place to keep its operations running – with ability to restore ‘business as usual’ within an hour. In an industry where orders are made just-in-time, the ability to recover from a potential Tech or operations disaster is a huge advantage for Lion and builds further trust with commercial partners.
- Future-focussed: Lion’s IT team now has the tools to manage an increasingly sophisticated environment, especially as the company expands further, without the drain on productivity that previous on-premises systems caused due to their high maintenance requirements. New applications and services can be introduced much faster.
Feedback from all stakeholders highlighted that the project ‘just happened’ without any pain points across the supply chain.
