Modernizing Assortment Management Platform on Google Cloud

How Wavicle accelerated platform deliverables for an MRO eCommerce company

Overview

For this MRO eCommerce company, the Assortment Management Platform (AMP) is a business-critical system to strategically select, plan, and optimize the mix of products (SKUs) sold across different channels, regions, and stores. In the three years of in-house rapid development on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), the AMP platform had evolved to support the core business needs, including processing product data, validating inputs, and integrating the data with downstream systems.  

However, prioritizing the release of the platform over following best practices in software development, led to cluttered infrastructure and code limiting the scalability and affecting the reliability of the platform. Besides that, users had requested for additional enhancements, new requirements,  and documentation that required further development on a fragile platform. During this critical phase, the MRO eCommerce company engaged Wavicle as their implementation partner to help with additional development, modernizing the infrastructure, and optimizing the code, for an accelerated delivery timeline.    

The challenge  

AMP faced a combination of the following structural and operational challenges that needed to be addressed.

• Infrastructure drift caused by a combination of Terraform-managed GCP resources and manually created or updated infrastructure configurations. This led to inconsistencies and increased maintenance risk  

• CI/CD limitations due to reliance on an existing Jenkins setup, adopted without evaluating native GCP alternatives like Cloud Build. This impacted scalability and cost efficiency  

• Evolving requirements with continuous additions of new features and enhancements driven by business users without any project management. No prioritization, merging, or management approval of these enhancements leading to project sprawl  

• Organizational and technology shifts in a three-year period, resulting in changes to tools, platforms, and engineering practices  

• Inconsistent cloud architecture with a transition from GCP’s Gen 1 to Gen 2 Cloud Functions, introducing the need for a structured migration strategy 

How Wavicle delivered

Wavicle engaged with the MRO eCommerce company as a trusted hands-on implementation and project acceleration partner. The existing architecture was analyzed, and key modernization initiatives were executed following best practices. 

• CI/CD modernization (POC)
  Proof of concept using GCP Cloud Build to demonstrate native build and deployment of Cloud Functions. Using GCP Cloud Build enabled evaluation beyond Jenkins  

• Repository migration (Bitbucket → GitLab)
  End-to-end migration by updating Jenkins pipelines, reconfiguring repository references, and ensuring zero disruption to build processes  

• Terraform decentralization
  Transitioned from a centralized infrastructure model to project-based repositories, including documentation of existing resources and dependency mapping  

• Cloud functions modernization strategy
  Planning and enforcing best practices for migrating from Gen 1 to Gen 2 Cloud Functions  
• New Product Introduction (NPI) workflow migration
  Transitioning from Airflow-triggered workflows to AMP-owned infrastructure, improving ownership and system alignment 
• Strategic architecture support 
  Sharing best practices starting from architecture-level discussions to defining implementation processes for platform modernization initiatives 

The impact

With Wavicle’s support, the MRO eCommerce company implemented best practices modernizing AMP with an accelerated delivery timeline, minimal business disruption for a scalable and reliable platform, and achieved the following outcomes.  

Operational outcomes 

• Bitbucket to GitLab migration with pipeline continuity ahead of plan
• Jenkins pipelines updated to support the new repository with a smooth transition
• Terraform decentralization initiated with a structured, project-based model
• GCP Cloud Build POC completed to support CI/CD modernization decisions
• Improved visibility into operational disruptions through Looker dashboard enhancements  

Business outcomes 

• Improved platform stability with reduced operational risk
• Optimized engineering workflows for streamlined execution
• Enhanced visibility into system performance and failures
• Stronger cross-team alignment and collaboration
• Scalable foundation for continued modernization and growth

“Wavicle partnered with a leading MRO eCommerce company to execute critical infrastructure and CI/CD modernization, transforming legacy systems into a scalable and reliable foundation on GCP.” 

Ready to modernize GCP? 

If your platform is constrained by legacy code, fragmented pipelines, or limited visibility, the opportunity to modernize is closer than you think.  

Realize the full value of your GCP investment with Wavicle. Get in touch