Integrated Waste Management and Data Systems Innovator: Transforming Data Management Through Comprehensive Restructuring and Modernization Initiatives

Integrated Waste Management and Data Systems Innovator:

Transforming Data Management Through Comprehensive Restructuring and Modernization Initiatives

Industry: HiTech

Delivery Center: Costa Rica

Industry Context

The waste management industry is experiencing a digital transformation driven by the need for more efficient operations and sustainable practices. Companies in this sector require integrated technology solutions to streamline their complex networks of customers, vendors, and service providers. As sustainability becomes a focus for businesses across all sectors, commercial waste management providers are under pressure to provide more transparent, efficient, and environmentally friendly solutions, making robust data management and streamlined operations crucial for success.

Client Challenge

The client provides end-to-end waste stream management solutions to commercial customers by leveraging their network of vendors across the USA. The client’s on-premises infrastructure caused multiple challenges resulting in high operational costs. Fragmented customer and vendor data scattered across various systems hindered comprehensive business insights and operational efficiency. Manual data management and reliance on tools like Excel led to time-consuming processes and errors. The on-premises infrastructure could not scale to accommodate peak loads, and without a non-production ecosystem to mirror its live deployment environment, issue resolution times and system enhancements were seriously impeded.

Approach

Considering the client's infrastructure and their familiarity with Azure PaaS offerings, Encora selected Azure as the right cloud platform for the client’s needs. Azure’s robust suite of services, scalability, and seamless integration capabilities would support the full rebuild of the client’s ecosystem, ensuring optimal performance and adaptability. The strategic services implemented by Encora were:

Product Management: Implemented Domain-Driven Design (DDD) which allowed for the identification of key domains: Vendor Management, Customer Management, and Service Request Management. Designed new architecture with adaptability in mind to meet the diverse requirements of different business units with seamless scalability to support future growth.

Cloud Migration: Prepared a detailed migration roadmap that included release planning, product backlog management, and UAT support; executed the end-to-end migration from the client’s on-premises facility to Azure.

Product Development: Prepared target cloud blueprint and identified components to re-engineer for cloud; developed the required PoC; re-engineered the code to utilize Azure PaaS offerings such as Azure Key Vault and Azure Service Bus.

Continuous Delivery: Built DevOps toolchain, scripted the infrastructure, and bridged the gap between non-prod and prod ecosystems, ensuring seamless delivery to all non-prod & prod servers.

Test Automation: Created the smoke, regression automation test suites, and integrated them with the DevOps pipeline.

UX Design: Re-engineered UI for enhanced end-user experience and productivity.

Azure Services

Azure Pipelines

Azure Traffic Manager

Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure Active Directory

Azure Service Bus

Azure Load Balancer

Azure WAF

Azure Front Door

Azure Key Vault

Azure Blob Storage

Azure Cosmos DB

Azure SQL

Azure Monitor

Azure Application Insights

Results

Leveraging Azure’s suite of services, Encora delivered transformative improvements to resolve the client’s operational challenges:

Enhanced data integration and operational efficiency: Unified customer and vendor data across systems, providing comprehensive business insights and streamlining processes. This was achieved using Azure DevOps pipeline, Infrastructure as Code, and Azure Service Bus, reducing manual effort and errors.

Accelerated growth and improved security: Simplified onboarding of new customers and vendors, enabling faster market expansion. Azure Active Directory and Key Vault enhanced overall security, facilitating two-factor authentication and secure management of application secrets and configurations.

Optimized scalability and cost management: Implemented dynamic scaling using Azure Kubernetes Services to handle fluctuating workloads, reducing infrastructure costs compared to the previous on-premises setup.

Reduced issue resolution times and improved service reliability: Established a non-production environment and implemented real-time monitoring through Azure Application Insights and Azure Monitor. This enhanced operational visibility, enabled proactive issue resolution, and achieved ultra-high availability.

Enhanced security and compliance: Implemented continuous security measures throughout the development lifecycle using Azure's DevSecOps capabilities, addressing both static and dynamic security needs.