Food manufacturing

Cost-optimized enterprise communication platform

Client project

A project delivered by BCT. Client and end-user names are withheld; figures come from project records. The image is illustrative.

Cost-optimized enterprise communication platform

Project Overview

IndustryFood manufacturing
Duration12 months, planning to production release
Team Size5-member BCT offshore team
EngagementDedicated offshore team, hybrid plan-driven governance

BCT supported a consulting and systems integration partner in building an open-source internal communication platform for a large food manufacturer. The platform keeps the benefits of the client’s first DX initiative while reducing recurring licence costs, handling complex organizational access rules and scaling with actual usage. It has been released to production and is now under maintenance.

The Challenge

After several mergers and reorganizations, headquarters, production sites and sales offices formed a complex organization whose permissions were managed on a legacy mainframe. A familiar commercial chat product had improved frontline communication, but rolling it out to about 40,000 users was estimated at around JPY 40 million a year, while most users needed only basic features.

  • Permissions could not be redesigned from scratch; they had to be analysed and migrated from mainframe rules.
  • Support up to 40,000 employees without a permanent footprint sized for theoretical peaks.
  • Keep the simplicity of a familiar chat tool so frontline adoption is not lost.
  • Provide enterprise-grade authentication, authorization, information handling and incident response.

Our Solution

  • Familiar user experience: A chat-centred web app for headquarters and a compatible mobile app for production sites and sales offices.
  • Legacy rule decomposition: Organization structures and permission rules from the mainframe translated into maintainable role- and organization-based access control.
  • Scalable cloud architecture: Capacity follows actual concurrent usage rather than a fixed footprint for all 40,000 employees, balancing availability, performance and operating cost.
  • Structured delivery governance: The client’s Product Owner owned priorities and acceptance; a Bridge System Engineer coordinated requirements and feedback with the offshore team.

System Architecture

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Headquarters Web app Production sites Mobile app Sales offices Mobile app CLOUD — SCALES WITH ACTUAL CONCURRENT USAGE Open-source chat platform Familiar chat interface, essential features only Authentication & authorization By role and organization Organization model Migrated from mainframe rules Security & information control Enterprise-grade controls Existing mainframe Source of organization and permission rules Rule migration Familiar chat-centred UX Mainframe rules → role/org access No fixed footprint for 40,000 users

BCT’s scope

  • High-level and detailed design
  • Web and mobile application development
  • Cloud architecture and scalability planning
  • Organization- and role-based access control
  • Technical risk and incident management
  • System, integration and release testing; UAT support
  • Production release and transition to maintenance

Results & Impact

≈ 1/5Projected recurring licence cost
40,000employees in scope
12months to production release
  • Released to production and now under maintenance.
  • Projected recurring licence cost of about one-fifth of a broader rollout of the commercial chat product.
  • Web and mobile access for headquarters, production sites and sales offices.
  • Complex organizational permissions implemented from the existing mainframe environment.
  • The client promotes the platform on its corporate website as a successful DX initiative.