Unify the subsidiary bodies in the cloud to create a global API

In modern business, many organizations have taken the form of acquiring other companies to make a difference in different areas, and have thus left a profound footprint on a global scale. These acquired companies can sometimes maintain basic and complete independence, and sometimes become an important part of integrating various businesses together. One of the biggest challenges in this problem space is that you might want to integrate these companies to show a single global view of the Organization as a whole, making it easier for customers and partners to integrate with your organization.

In this article, we'll take a fictional example based on a real-world scenario as a research object, observe some typical challenges, and analyze in detail some of the good practices that should be achieved in order for this solution to succeed.

Business background

In this example, we'll look at a company called Acme Employee Assistance Group, referred to as ACME. As a large company, Acme has a large number of local businesses around the world, and its development strategy includes the acquisition of other businesses in newly developed countries. Their core business is to provide support services for employees of other companies traveling around the world. Acme contracts with companies from many countries, and the execution of contracts is managed by Acme's local business organization. Because each country has some special management requirements, this means that creating a global application that manages all customers is not a simple matter, and most of Acme's business relies on a very old legacy IT system.

A big challenge arises when one of Acme's customers needs help when they travel. They will contact the local Acme Office, and the office will then provide the staff with the necessary help for support. This means that the local ACME office must be able to access the system of the employee's place.

The example below shows how the system processes when an employee from the UK is seeking help in Australia.

While this initial example may not seem too complicated, if you multiply Acme's global number of businesses, the system will quickly become spaghetti-like mess.