Order Management System transformation

The Challenge

As the backbone of their e-commerce and retail operations, the OMS required an upgrade to mitigate security risks, enhance supportability, and improve maintainability, all while preserving its critical "as is" functionality. Through a seamless modernization process, we delivered a solution that provided greater stability, visibility, and scalability, empowering the client to operate with enhanced efficiency and confidence.

The Solution

Create IT adopted a phased and meticulous approach to modernization. Starting with proof-of-concepts and small-scale validations, the team replaced legacy components with modern technologies and implemented robust logging and observability tools to improve troubleshooting and system monitoring.

Here’s an overview of what we did:

1. Technology upgrade: The system was migrated to .Net 8, Docker containers, RabbitMQ, and hosted on Linux servers. Legacy components like Workflow Foundation were replaced with a state machine-based architecture that improved readability, maintainability, and extensibility.
2. Proof of Concept (PoC): The team started with a PoC to replicate and validate the behavior of the legacy system. Each API and workflow were tested and adapted iteratively to ensure functional parity.
3. Innovative deployment strategy: A phased rollout was implemented, starting with smaller operations to minimize risk. Feature flags were used to enable rollbacks if necessary, and deployment pipelines were fully automated to ensure no downtime.
4. Enhanced observability: New monitoring tools like New Relic and improved logging mechanisms were introduced, allowing the team to trace the lifecycle of an order from end to end and quickly address any issues.

As Pedro Santiago explains, "We built an integration point between the new and legacy systems to test everything end-to-end without downtime. This gave us confidence to move forward while ensuring the client’s operations remained uninterrupted.” 

The Results

The project achieved its primary goal of replacing obsolete technologies and enhancing the maintainability and scalability of the retailer's OMS. Key outcomes included:

• Increased stability: Legacy dependencies were eliminated, and modern hosting solutions reduced the risk of system failures.
• Improved observability and troubleshooting: With enhanced logs and monitoring, the support team can now quickly pinpoint issues and resolve them efficiently.
• Seamless transition: The phased rollout strategy ensured no disruptions to store or e-commerce operations during the migration.
• Enhanced maintainability: The new state machine-based architecture simplified development, enabling quicker feature implementation and bug fixes.
• Reduced technical debt: The project addressed significant technical debt, simplifying future developments.

Through a combination of technical expertise, careful planning, and close collaboration, Create IT successfully modernized a mission-critical system for one of Portugal’s leading retailers. The project not only addressed immediate technical challenges but also laid the groundwork for a more sustainable and scalable future.