Overview
In the airline industry, trade management is a vital aspect of business operations and requires best of breed tooling to ensure seamless trade compliance, efficient supply chain operations, and adherence to dynamic regulatory requirements.
Our client, a leading global airline with decades of experience delivering aviation services, has been leveraging Oracle GTM for over 13 years to manage its trade compliance and operations. As a long-term partner of Birlasoft, the client collaborated on several successful IT transformation projects, including system upgrades and process optimizations.
Faced with a pressing need to modernize its trade management processes, the client required a strategic reimplementation of its legacy GTM. They wanted to migrate 13+ years of critical transaction data, ensuring compatibility of highly customized configurations, to the GTM SaaS platform. Birlasoft delivered this migration through a meticulously planned reimplementation strategy, leveraging its Cloud One Approach to ensure a seamless transition to GTM SaaS while minimizing disruptions.
This enabled the client to attain unmatched operational efficiency, future-ready scalability, and stronger compliance mechanisms, positioning their trade operations for long-term success. See how we delivered these outcomes below.
The Challenge
#1. Movement of master data and configurations without risking operational disruptions
The client’s legacy GTM system contained a vast amount of master data attached to screening information and highly customized configurations. In addition to migrating these, all trade transaction data had to be made available in the SaaS instance without any loss or inconsistency.
#2. Integration complexities created challenges in real-time data synchronization
The legacy design involved point-to-point integrations between the GTM 643 system, EBS cMRO, and Fusion applications. The migration required synchronization between two distinct data sources operating within an integrated environment. Real-time synchronization was essential to maintain operational consistency, but the outdated integration middleware (SOA) lacked the capabilities to support seamless data exchange, warranting a shift in the integration tooling and architecture.
#3. Difficulties in retrofitting database objects for SaaS compatibility
The client faced significant hurdles in mapping complex database objects from their on-premise GTM system to the standardized SaaS configurations. The client required meticulous retrofitting of custom objects and workflows to align with the SaaS platform’s predefined structure to keep the functionality intact.
#4. Domain changes disrupted alignment with business entities
The migration necessitated changes to the GTM domain structure to align with updated business entities. This introduced the need for retrofitting domain-specific configurations while maintaining the integrity of existing workflows and trade compliance mechanisms, adding another layer of complexity.
#5. Diverse content data feed requirements strained compliance workflows
The SaaS platform had to accommodate multiple screening requirements based on the diverse needs of customers and suppliers. Migrating and configuring content data feeds to support these dynamic screening processes required tailored solutions to avoid disruptions in regulatory compliance and trade operations.
The Solution
To mitigate these challenges, Birlasoft devised a comprehensive plan leveraging its Cloud One Approach to ensure a seamless migration to the GTM SaaS platform. The solution also entailed redesigning the integration architecture by replacing legacy SOA middleware with Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC).
#1. Developed a structured reimplementation strategy using a phased Cloud One approach
Birlasoft employed its CloudOne approach to deliver a seamless GTM reimplementation across two phases:
- Planning Phase: Our team focused on a detailed analysis of the client’s legacy system, identification of custom configurations, and evaluation of integration dependencies. We devised a robust migration blueprint to ensure alignment with the SaaS platform’s architecture while addressing operational pain points.
- Execution Phase: This phase encompassed the migration and reconfiguration of all critical GTM components, ensuring minimal disruption to compliance workflows and trade operations. The phased strategy enabled seamless adoption of the SaaS environment while maintaining business continuity.
#2. Executed robust master data migration to ensure operational consistency
A meticulous master data migration process was leveraged to preserve the integrity and accuracy of operational data during the transition. Data cleansing was a critical first step, eliminating inconsistencies and addressing special character issues through suppression mechanisms implemented in OIC and GTM SaaS. Rigorous business validations followed, ensuring all migrated master data met quality standards and was ready for operational use. Control files were migrated seamlessly, enabling immediate and effective use in transactional workflows.
#3. Retrofitted complex configurations for SaaS compatibility
To address the complexities of migrating highly customized configurations from the legacy GTM system:
- Mapping and retrofitting: Custom objects and workflows were carefully mapped to the SaaS platform’s predefined configurations to maintain critical functionality while adhering to SaaS standards.
- Business-critical configurations: The team ensured the seamless migration of domain-specific configurations, preserving trade compliance mechanisms and alignment with updated business entities.
#4. Migrated 13+ years of transaction data to ensure trade operations continuity
Birlasoft designed a robust transaction data migration strategy to transfer over 13 years of historical data, comprising 2 million trade transactions and 5 million transaction lines. Transaction data was extracted from the legacy GTM643 system using custom-built scripts and transformed to align with the GTM 24C SaaS platform's data structures. The transformed data was then migrated using web services-based integration, ensuring accuracy and operational readiness.
#5. Modernized integration architecture: Real-time synchronization with Oracle Integration Cloud
Recognizing the limitations of the client’s legacy SOA middleware, Birlasoft modernized the integration architecture by replacing it with OIC. The new architecture eliminated dependencies and data exchange inefficiencies by integrating GTM 643, EBS cMRO, and Fusion through OIC, ensuring enhanced operational consistency and scalability. This also improved system performance, enabling the platform to accommodate dynamic screening workflows and real-time synchronization needs.
The Impact
#1. Enhanced operational efficiency
The reimplementation streamlined workflows and ensured real-time data synchronization, improving the efficiency and consistency of the client’s global trade operations.
#2. Strengthened compliance
Enhanced data integrity and upgraded automation capabilities across regulatory workflows improved the client’s trade compliance processes by 30%.
#3. Productivity gains
Implementing advanced workbenches and new user interfaces enabled a 40% reduction in time spent by compliance officers in fulfilling regulatory requirements.
#4. Cost optimization
Migrating to GTM SaaS reduced infrastructure maintenance costs while enhancing resource utilization and operational performance.
#5. Improved data maturity
Successful migration of over 13 years of transaction data ensured uninterrupted access to historical insights, and modernized integration architecture improved data flow by 70%.
#6. Future-ready scalability
The move to a modern SaaS platform and upgraded integration architecture provided the flexibility to adapt to evolving business requirements and support long-term growth.
Modernize your trade management workflows with Oracle GTM SaaS to attain similar outcomes for your business. Take the first step by getting in touch with Birlasoft today.
