Digitising Logistics Integration Solutions for XPand Logistics

About XPand Logistics

XPand Logistics is a privately owned UK business that delivers worldwide bespoke shipping and logistics solutions. With over 20 years of experience, they are dedicated to providing the quickest, most efficient and economical logistics services, including Third Party Logistics ( 3PL ) for businesses of all sizes – whether by road, sea, or air.

The challenge

XPand Logistics, as a forward-thinking enterprise in the global logistics and supply chain sector, had effectively leveraged Azure Logic Apps and Integration Accounts, for seamless integrations with the internal CargoWise system. This existing integration framework addressed the company’s integration needs; however, it was proving to be unscalable and inefficient.

As XPand Logistics looked to advance its integration capabilities, the goal was to build a scalable and secure solution to expand integration capabilities and services to customers by utilising  Azure API Management to enhance lifecycle management and implementing Azure DevOps to improve automation, version control, and team collaboration. 

The strategic goal was to evolve the current integration framework into a robust model that would offer comprehensive documentation, developer engagement, and a consistent, managed approach to handling integrations. This aligned with XPand Logistics’ business objectives to optimise operational efficiency, enhance customer and partner relations, and foster an agile, innovation-conducive environment. 

The solution

The complete list of integration endpoints is shown in the diagram below and include such things as creating new products, creating and cancelling orders, creating and uploading invoices, and viewing the status of shipments and ground transportation.

Those shown in green in the diagram above had been developed previously using Azure Logic Apps running under an Integration Account. However, this was proving unscalable and inefficient. Therefore, our solution enhanced all the existing integrations and added the remainder to provide a comprehensive and robust API Management layer.

The process we went through to deliver this solution began with scoping, writing acceptance tests and the full technical specifications.

The development and system environments and CI/CD were set up, using a combination of BICEP templates to deploy the Azure resources between the environments, and APIOps for full CI/CD deployment of all API Management processes.

Moving into development, each individual integration endpoint was developed per the specifications and included the use of Altova MapForce within an Azure Function App, to transform the Customer Input into formats that would be accepted by the CargoWise system, all automatically, and without the use of costly liquid mappings.

Next, manual and automated tests were carried out and monitoring and alerting set up, via the use of Azure Monitor, Azure Log Analytics and Azure Application Insights, with a full, bespoke, dashboard created for XPand Logistics. This allows them to see the use of the endpoints along with any errors in real time, and even to filter down to individual customers by day.

For the endpoints that had existing integrations, migration was done, creating brand new resources and migrating the endpoints to the new API Management system. A full deployment strategy was then carried out to ensure reliability, minimal disruption and a focus on quality assurance and operational continuity. Finally, we provided immediate post-live system support along with comprehensive documentation, training and mentoring of the XPand Logistics team to ensure the ongoing confident management of the system.

This phase of the project did not include an Azure Landing Zone as XPand Logistics had one set-up for the integration to be deployed into and also did not include a user interface, such as a customer portal. However, customers do receive endpoints to view API Documentation via the use of OpenAPI. 

The technology used in our solution:

• Azure Logic Apps
• Azure Functions
• Altova MapForce
• Azure API Management
• Azure Storage
• Azure Key Vault
• Azure Monitor
• Azure Application Insights
• Azure Log Analytics

The Outcome

XPand Logistics has already onboarded new clients using the API gateway and is seeing excellent business outcomes including:

• “Faster Onboarding: With a standardised API Gateway, new clients can onboard faster, reducing costs and time associated with custom integrations.
• Competitive Advantage: Not all 3PL providers can offer an API gateway. Providing this service positions us as a tech-driven logistics partner, attracting more customers.
• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Providing valuable integration that significantly improves the customer experience leads to increased satisfaction and loyalty. Customers who find value in the API are more likely to remain long-term partners.
• Reduced Manual Efforts: The API can automate a number of processing tasks which will provide faster data insights throughout logistics processes and result in fewer errors, which includes the ability to add 3000+ products within minutes.” – Chris Pye, IT Strategy Manager, XPand Logistics

Additionally, the migration of the previous integrations to the new developments has shown significant increase in uptake, speed and response times.