Business Situation
This nonprofit water utility supplies 112 billion liters of purified drinking water to 1.7 million customers annually. For years, the company used Microsoft BizTalk and Windows Communication Foundation to provide enterprise integration throughout its application landscape. This service allowed internal business divisions, external vendors and customers to exchange data in order to run crucial front- and back-end processes. But as the company began to provide more innovative customer services, these systems could not keep up.
It chose to move to the cloud to gain greater speed, scalability, availability, security and flexibility. And the company selected Accenture and Avanade – a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft – to help it accelerate this journey.
Solution
The company quickly determined that Microsoft Azure Integration Services (AIS) could provide the enterprise integration landscape it needed to connect various applications and services while also reducing its operational costs. We then built the solution, equipping the company with a toolbox of components for integrating both on-premises and cloud-based applications, data and processes across the enterprise. Notable features include:
- API management for publication and consumption
- Logic Apps for orchestration and transformation
- Service Bus for reliable messaging and Event Grid for real-time notifications
- Storage for large file support and Azure functions for custom development
Results
By rebuilding its integration landscape with AIS, the company increased platform stability, scalability, reliability and performance. Results include:
- Reduced downtime, assuring customers have continuous access to digital services
- Lower operational costs by 65%
- Quicker, more standardized and stable workflow processes
European water utility lowers operational costs by 65% with a move to the cloud
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