Case Study: Enabling the Sportscar Design Experience
Providing an exceptional and interactive customer experience is crucial for luxury car manufacturers looking to stand out and attract discerning buyers. In this case study, a leading luxury sports car manufacturer aimed to offer a fully immersive and interactive website, allowing potential customers to build and customize their dream car online.
However, achieving this without overhauling existing operating systems presented a significant challenge. The solution? Adaptigent’s Adaptive Integration Fabric.
The Challenge: Integrating Real-Time Data Without System Overhaul
The manufacturer wanted to enhance customer engagement by allowing prospective buyers to customize vehicles using an interactive online platform. This required integrating various systems that housed parts inventories and business rules around component compatibility. The primary challenge was to access accurate, real-time data from these systems and apply existing business logic without replacing the underlying IBM mainframe systems that were vital to the company’s operations.
The manufacturer considered several options, including connecting to a Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) with IBM WebSphere and developing a Java GUI combined with enterprise application integration. However, these alternatives were either too costly, complex, or did not meet corporate guidelines. The company needed a solution that could seamlessly integrate their current systems without requiring extensive programming or additional hardware.
The Solution: Adaptigent’s Adaptive Integration Fabric
After evaluating various solutions, the luxury car manufacturer chose Adaptigent’s Adaptive Integration Fabric. This innovative solution provided a way to publish the business logic residing on the mainframe (using CICS with COBOL and DB2) as APIs, which could then be used by the new web interface to display real-time data and enforce business rules on the fly.
Adaptive Integration Fabric was particularly attractive because it did not require any new programming, allowing for rapid deployment that aligned with the company’s tight timelines and budget constraints. Additionally, the integration solution did not necessitate any additional processing capacity on the mainframe, which helped keep costs down and avoided the need for extra hardware or personnel. With the Adaptive Integration Fabric, the entire integration process, including developing, publishing, and using APIs, was completed in less than one day.
This quick turnaround was crucial for the manufacturer, enabling them to launch their new web platform without delay. By leveraging this technology, the manufacturer could connect their mainframe applications to an interactive web portal, providing prospective buyers with a seamless and engaging experience without disrupting existing operations or incurring significant costs.
The Results: Enhanced Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency
The implementation of Adaptigent’s Adaptive Integration Fabric had a profound impact on the manufacturer’s operations and customer engagement. The new interactive web portal allowed customers to design and customize their vehicles with real-time data on parts availability and compatibility, creating a more personalized and satisfying buying experience.
This increased customer engagement and fostered a stronger emotional connection to the brand. Moreover, the solution integrated all mainframe assets, regardless of their underlying platforms, languages, and data formats, without adding any processing load to the mainframe. This efficiency ensured that the manufacturer could maintain high performance and reliability across all systems.
The Adaptive Integration Fabric met all project guidelines, budget, and time constraints, making it a cost-effective solution that complied with the company’s strict requirements. The absence of additional hardware or software licenses further reduced costs and simplified the project. The secure and flexible nature of the integration also allows the manufacturer to use the new APIs for other applications and processes in the future, providing a scalable foundation for continued digital transformation.
The Impact: Driving Innovation in Automotive
By adopting Adaptigent’s Adaptive Integration Fabric, the luxury sports car manufacturer successfully transformed its online customer experience, offering a fully interactive and engaging platform for vehicle customization. The solution met all their requirements without the need for costly system replacements or extensive coding, demonstrating how innovative integration technologies can drive both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. As a result, the manufacturer not only enhanced its market position but also set a new standard for digital engagement in the luxury automotive sector.