As global enterprises strive for digital transformation, seamless integration between diverse systems and applications becomes essential for optimizing business processes. Roche, a world leader in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, embarked on an SAP S/4HANA transformation that required integrating a wide variety of systems across its vast operations.
To tackle the complexities of this transformation, Roche implemented a co-exist integration strategy, leveraging MuleSoft to connect non-SAP systems with SAP, while using SAP’s Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) for SAP-to-SAP integrations.
We’ll discuss Roche’s challenges, the strategic use of MuleSoft in its SAP ecosystem, and how this approach drove efficiencies, improved scalability, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Roche’s integration challenges: Complexity across systems
Roche’s scale and the complexity of its operations posed significant challenges in integrating its IT systems. The company’s internal processes were highly complicated, making it difficult to manage its technological landscape, which in turn resulted in slower delivery times and poor customer feedback.
The company also struggled with maintaining a large, centralized integration team. Managing this team required substantial effort, further hindering the company’s ability to streamline its integration processes. Additionally, the integration platform Roche was using at the time was unreliable, adding layers of complexity and making it difficult to implement and maintain integrations at scale.
A key challenge for Roche during this transformation was the harmonization of business processes across multiple lines of business. With diverse functions and operational processes, achieving consistency and uniformity was critical for driving efficiency. Additionally, increasing customer satisfaction and speeding up the delivery of services were primary goals as part of the transformation effort.
The co-exist integration strategy
Roche recognized the need for a robust and scalable integration solution to address these challenges and ensure the success of their SAP S/4HANA transformation. Instead of relying solely on one integration tool, Roche implemented a co-exist strategy that involved using MuleSoft for non-SAP systems and SAP’s Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) for SAP-to-SAP integrations.
Roche’s co-exist strategy was designed with the understanding that integrations are critical enablers for various business functions. By using MuleSoft to connect its non-SAP systems into the SAP ecosystem, Roche could effectively automate processes, enhance security, and improve the reliability of its integrations.
“We think of integrations as enablers for reuse, automation of processes, provision of security, enhancement of reliability, and ease of scalability,” a Roche spokesperson noted.
This approach allowed Roche to integrate its solutions across its diverse ecosystem while maintaining a separation of concerns for SAP-specific integrations handled by CPI. This combination enabled Roche to take full advantage of MuleSoft’s flexibility while leveraging SAP’s native integration capabilities for SAP-to-SAP communication.
Roche’s integration journey with MuleSoft: 5 success factors
Key success factors emerged from Roche’s integration journey with MuleSoft, including integration reuse, decentralized and federated teams, observability and reliability, security and scalability, and faster delivery with improved feedback.
1. Integration reuse
Roche focused heavily on reusability, enabling the company to scale integrations quickly and efficiently. By creating an integration marketplace within MuleSoft, teams across the organization could reuse integration components, drastically reducing the time required to develop and deploy new integrations.
2. Decentralized and federated teams
Initially, Roche used a centralized delivery model but eventually transitioned to a federated approach. This decentralization empowered various teams to manage integrations independently while still benefiting from a shared platform. MuleSoft’s platform enabled this federated approach, ensuring that different business units could develop and manage integrations autonomously without relying on a central team.
3. Observability and reliability
Roche prioritized observability and reliability across its integration platform. With MuleSoft, Roche implemented monitoring tools and processes – such as DORA (DevOps Research & Assessment) metrics – that allowed the platform team to maintain oversight while ensuring integrations were performing as expected. This enhanced the stability and security of transactions occurring between various systems.
4. Security and scalability
Security was a paramount concern for Roche, given the sensitive nature of the healthcare industry. MuleSoft provided the necessary security protocols, while also enabling scalability, allowing Roche to scale its integration solutions as the company continued to grow.
5. Faster delivery and improved feedback
With the introduction of MuleSoft, Roche saw a significant reduction in delivery times for new integrations. This improvement, coupled with enhanced feedback mechanisms, allowed the company to deliver high-quality integration solutions faster, leading to better customer feedback and overall satisfaction.
What did Roche learn during the integration process with MuleSoft?
- Platform-as-a-Product approach: Treating the integration platform as a product, Roche developed self-service tools and accelerators tailored to different personas within the organization. This approach allowed various teams to access the integration resources they needed without depending on a central authority.
- In-house integration expertise: Roche invested in building in-house technical expertise, combined with a governance and review framework. This resulted in higher-quality integrations and ensured that projects were delivered on time.
- Strategic vendor partnerships: A high-performing delivery team from Roche’s strategic vendors played a critical role in ensuring the success of the integration efforts. Roche emphasized the importance of strong vendor relationships in executing such large-scale transformations.
- Drive reuse through Exchange and Marketplace: Roche’s creation of an integration marketplace fostered a culture of reuse, significantly improving efficiency and scalability across the organization.
- Centralized to federated approach: Starting with a centralized delivery model and gradually transitioning to a federated approach allowed Roche to maintain control initially, while eventually empowering teams to manage their own integrations.
An AI-powered future with MuleSoft
As Roche continues its digital transformation journey, MuleSoft has become instrumental in enabling the company to take full advantage of modern technologies. By leveraging AI and automation, Roche aims to further streamline its business processes, enhancing the customer experience while improving efficiency.
MuleSoft’s capabilities in connecting diverse systems and automating workflows provide the foundation for Roche to scale AI initiatives and stay ahead of the competition in the healthcare industry.
By adopting a co-exist integration strategy, Roche has successfully navigated the complexities of its SAP S/4HANA transformation and continues to drive innovation with MuleSoft at the core of its integration strategy.
