Clarity Before Change
A retail purchasing organisation manages a central product information platform that brings together product data, logistics information and product imagery from hundreds of suppliers and makes that information available to its member organisations.
Project Snapshot
- Industry
- Retail Purchasing Organisation
- Solution
- Central Product Information Platform
- Scale
- ~2,000 users · ~800 suppliers · ~300,000 active products · Business-critical platform
The situation
At the time our collaboration began, the platform supported approximately 500,000 products, around 800 manufacturers, nearly 2,000 users and handled thousands of API requests every day.
Before making any technology decisions, the organisation commissioned an independent assessment of the platform and the opportunities for its future evolution.
That assessment became the foundation of a long-term partnership.
The challenge
The platform had successfully supported the organisation for many years.
As the number of products, integrations, suppliers and downstream consumers continued to grow, some operational processes no longer scaled as efficiently as the organisation required.
Full product synchronisations could require one to three weeks, while regular synchronisations could still take days before updated product information became available.
The objective was to preserve the considerable business value already embedded in the platform while preparing it for the next stage of growth.
Engineering
Rather than replacing the platform, we redesigned it around the way the organisation actually used it.
Our work included:
- A modern cloud-native architecture on AWS.
- Independently scalable services and event-driven processing.
- A redesigned API platform with comprehensive documentation.
- A redesigned data architecture optimised for real-world access patterns.
- Improved product image handling and data consistency.
- Modern monitoring, operational maintenance and continuous platform updates.
Every engineering decision focused on preserving operational continuity while creating a platform capable of supporting future growth.
Outcome
The modernised platform was introduced without disrupting day-to-day operations.
The results included:
- Full product synchronisations reduced from one to three weeks to approximately four to five hours.
- Regular synchronisations reduced from days to near real-time.
- Faster availability of trusted product information.
- Improved operational efficiency for suppliers and member organisations.
- A more maintainable platform designed to support continued growth.
What we learned
Successful platforms evolve together with the organisations they support.
Thoughtful engineering begins with understanding the organisation, protecting the value already created and recommending the changes that will create the greatest long-term benefit.
That is how clarity becomes confidence.