Supporting the API transformation journey

The challenge

Enterprise-wide migration from legacy systems to digital technologies

Known for brewing beer and building brands, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) grew rapidly through acquisitions. As a result, by 2013, numerous disparate systems were used for similar purposes across different business units. The Global Vice President of Solutions envisioned more standardization and optimization by establishing an enterprise-wide abstraction layer, which consisted of an application programming interface catalog (API) for more effective integration between different systems. 

AB InBev is a global enterprise; therefore, the issues they experienced were multiplied across business units and geographical zones. The company needed to migrate to digital technologies, but struggled getting started. Had they not taken the opportunity to align their efforts and systems, this issue would have had a negative impact on operations and communications, reducing performance. 

This wasn’t supposed to be a tech project. We were a beer company and we thought we just needed a quick fix. Now we also consider ourselves a tech company.

Tassilo Festetics, Global Vice President of Solutions at AB InBev 

Solvd identified the elements of the challenge, including: a need for deep technical expertise across all business units, organizational silos resulting in low communication flow and a lack of API strategy. Moreover, multiple stakeholders were entrenched in the legacy solutions and held differing opinions on how to handle the existing challenges.  

The approach

Building an API management strategy

AB InBev needed a solution that everyone would buy into. With Solvd support, they conducted multiple interviews with different stakeholder groups to collect and formalize the requirements. The results informed the requirements for an API strategy that would meet company-wide needs. Armed with criteria, they analyzed the top API Management Systems on the market to determine the best fit to meet the needs for all business units and technical challenges. 

The approach with AB InBev was unique. It pulled together the requirements and considerations from multiple stakeholders for a strategy tailored to their business model. Solvd’s recommendations to AB InBev’s technology leadership included establishing an API Center of Excellence to involve all stakeholders in decision-making and developing cross-functional teams. 

The foundations and framework we established will continue to transform AB InBev over the next 10-15 years as we establish this new platform that sits on top of our various legacy systems. It totally changed the way we think, plan for, and build platforms.

Tassilo Festetics, Global Vice President of Solutions at AB InBev 

AB InBev understood the importance of digital transformation for the future of its business. When they decided to internalize some of their resources, they struggled with legacy platforms that were too deep and trying to satisfy too many stakeholders. 

The API Program roadmap provided an implementation plan of an enterprise-wide API Management Platform, as well as the process of management and governance. The team identified MS Azure API Management as the standard solution that would meet the most needs across their global business units. A Center of Excellence and Innovation would also facilitate the API culture within the enterprise and help establish best practices for API development and management and a project implementation plan to get the company well on its way.  

Ultimately, the company made several forward-looking steps as a result of the collaboration with Solvd.  

We felt really confident about the set of solutions that EastBanc Technologies recommended for us. We have worked with big consultants. But they don’t have the necessary specialized and deep expertise for this type of problem. We needed specialists.

Tassilo Festetics, Global Vice President of Solutions at AB InBev 

The outcome

From the burden of legacy systems to a technology-driven company

As a result of Solvd early involvement, AB InBev was better poised to use technology and data to meet its changing business and market requirements. They shared that, while they had always run thousands of promotions each year, they weren’t entirely sure how effective they were. Until they were able to extract that specific sales data, they couldn’t do promo testing. The API integration gave them new visibility into these efforts and a significant increase in margins.  

They established an innovation lab to research the impact of digital technologies on the future of the company; they implemented new processes for IT development with dedicated teams to work on specific parts of each integration project. Then, AB InBev fundamentally shifted to building with a mindset of “How will this fit into our API strategy?” and shared that culture-changing mindset with their business units, to create a new sense of connection to each other and shared objectives.  

All these steps enabled by creating a connected enterprise through simplification and standardization of the IT infrastructure and effective utilization of the enterprise data and services, AB InBev enabled and streamlined innovations, increased operational efficiency, started reusing IT assets, gained better access to data in all areas of the business and transformed to a technology-driven company.

Solvd,Inc. is involved in all QA tasks that we do across the board. Their team brought in tools and information frameworks they had already established in order to manage similar systems. They are the main execution drivers on all of our regression testing and on all of our development projects as well.

Tassilo Festetics Global Vice President of Solutions at AB InBev