A live platform, rebuilt in parts
A loyalty software company in Singapore whose platform ran member programmes for dozens of beauty brands across Asia.
/work/platform-rebuildCame in under strain
- System
- Loyalty and CRM platform, dozens of live member programmes
- Ask
- An upgrade
- Symptom
- One codebase, slower to change every year. One shopper could become several records.
- Region
- Singapore, programmes across Asia
The piece One core and eight lugs: the eight modules around the customer profile.
- 8modulesaround one core
- 20monthsdecision to regional win
- Dec 2020 → Aug 2022decision to choice
- v0.1 to v0.5numbered releases in 2022
- 1numberper member, enforced at the counter
The ask
An upgrade. The platform had grown into one large codebase that got slower to change every year.
The real problem
Client projects always came first, so the core kept growing and could never be moved quickly. Data sat brand by brand and was copied overnight into a mirror database, so nobody could see a shopper whole.
At the counter one shopper could become several records, and sales and points landed on the wrong profile or on none. The 2020 fix was a refresher session for consultants and a manual merge of duplicates, which left the cause sitting in the platform. And dozens of live programmes ran on the old core, none of which could stop while it was fixed.
One codebase into parts
- Idle
- Live
- Strain
- Fail
BeforeOne codebase. Brand data copied overnight into a mirror database, so one shopper could become several records.
AfterEight modules talk to one customer profile and CRM core through APIs, on a shared data layer read close to real time.
What we built
We took the platform from one codebase to API-first services around a customer profile and CRM core. Eight modules sit around that core: the loyalty engine, member portal, store app, brand console, campaigns, QR sign-up, surveys and dashboards. Each talks to the core through APIs.
A single shared data layer replaced the overnight copy. It reads each source where the data lives, close to real time, so every module sees the same customer.
The store app moved the checks consultants used to do by hand onto a managed handheld that runs nothing else. It searches by mobile number first, allows one mobile number per member, collects consent at the counter and scans every sale to a member.
How we made it hold
A bridge version ran the old core and the new services side by side. Brands moved onto the bridge first, then across to the new suite in planned waves, so the move happened in generations with the old core still serving the brands that hadn't crossed. A migration console tracked every programme across the three states: old core, bridge, new suite.
From about March 2022 the suite shipped as numbered releases on one roadmap, with client projects planned against each release.
Backstage The decisions behind the build, and the hardest problem
Decisions
A bridge version, running the old core and the new services side by side.
Dozens of live programmes ran on the old core and none of them could stop while it was fixed.
One shared data layer in place of the overnight copy.
It reads each source where the data lives, close to real time, so every module sees the same customer.
The counter checks moved onto a managed handheld that runs nothing else.
Mobile number first, one number per member, consent at the counter and every sale scanned to a member.
Ruled out
The 2020 fix: a refresher session and a manual merge of duplicates.
It left the cause sitting in the platform.
The hardest problem
Moving brands without stopping them. Brands went onto the bridge first, then across to the new suite in planned waves, and a migration console tracked every programme across three states: old core, bridge, new suite.
The difference
- A global beauty group's regional office chose the new suite as its loyalty partner for several brands across several markets in August 2022.
- Twenty months from the decision to rebuild in December 2020 to that choice.
- The migration was designed so no live programme had to switch off to move.
- Numbered releases on one roadmap from about March 2022.
- What consultants once learned in a refresher session is now enforced by the store app.
