Workflow requirements from customers are easier to meet with a new platform

ONE Nordic is one of Sweden’s leading providers of technical consulting services, contracting, and maintenance in the energy and industrial sectors. Together with its customers, ONE Nordic plans and designs the sustainable energy society of the future. In short, the company ensures that electricity reaches both households and industries, now and in the future.

ONE Nordic had a legacy-based integration platform. This worked well for the integrations that were in place. However, it was perceived as not being flexible enough for new technical requirements from customers and the business. The existing platform lacked good support for certain technical aspects, such as APIs.

One of ONE Nordic’s competitive advantages is its high flexibility in onboarding and integrating with customers. Another aspect was that the business and support personnel found the existing solution to be like a black box. They had little to no information about how the processes were implemented. There was also a desire for certain processes to be developed by people without deep technical expertise — a democratisation of development. 

ONE Nordic’s objectives for finding a new solution:

• A more transparent process and solution were essential. Users shouldn’t need to be experts to view and understand the workflow and its various steps.
• A technical platform should cater to current needs (adaptability of automation of workflows and integration) while also incorporating features that may be required in the future, for example, machine learning and AI.
• It should also allow for the implementation of custom logic that may not fit within the standard system, providing flexibility beyond it. 

Smoother workflows for ONE Nordic

As an existing supplier, Solita has proven its expertise in integration over the years. After a few workshops discussing future needs and possible solutions, Workato was chosen as the new platform. Workato is a powerful iPaaS platform for enterprise automation and integration, providing functionality to confidently connect, integrate, and automate applications, data, and processes end-to-end. The Workato platform has a low-code editor that helps democratise development. It offers the necessary functionalities such as APIs, orchestration, and connectors, while also being a future-proof platform that continuously evolves. 

The implementation project

The new architecture was implemented in conjunction with a new ERP project, in which a number of APIs, integrations, and microservices were implemented.

Solita was responsible for aspects such as coordination, architecture design, development, and testing. We also established a new wiki-based documentation system covering the aspects of integration.

Our approach of implementing a smaller use case, where most of the critical components of the new architecture could be verified, facilitated the scaling-up of the solution and its components.

“Previously, developers often needed to be consulted, but the new platform has enabled various users—such as process owners, support groups, and those responsible for a workflow or customer communication—to manage and monitor flows independently in a visual and user-friendly way. Existing customer relationships are strengthened through the easy adaptation of work distributions and requirements. Changes can be quickly implemented and clearly shown to all involved parties,” says Robert Skytte, Solution Architect at ONE Nordic. 

Robert continues: “The platform makes it easy to create prototypes for new solutions, which can be used internally or externally to show how a solution works, strengthening internal communication and facilitating decision-making. By creating workflows and building blocks that can be reused for multiple customers, time and resources are saved.”

More flexibility for current and new customers

ONE Nordic can now offer an even more flexible range of integration possibilities to its customers and partners and be more responsive to customers’ requirements.

Robert Skytte explains: “The new platform allows for much faster onboarding of new customers and the adaptation of existing workflows, which is crucial for meeting short deadlines and ensuring that the right processes are implemented. Our users can control workflows themselves without having to wait for support from developers, speeding up work and making processes smoother and easier to manage. It is possible to have the latest documentation and updated workflows gathered in one place.”

“The platform has improved transparency and accessibility for integrations, making it easier to understand and optimise flows. Visual tools like dashboards give users insight into the status of flows, with traffic light indicators to quickly identify problems. The tool’s user-friendliness and flexibility enable faster adaptation to a changing market, which also contributes to increased efficiency and ultimately lower costs. This is a great start, but the journey is ongoing,” explains Robert Skytte, Solution Architect at ONE Nordic.