Microservices and microfrontend: the future of sales processes

How Iriscube Reply supported one of Europe's leading banking groups on its path to core banking as-a-service through an omnichannel sales solution.

New sales processes and omnichannel experience

In the course of 2021, one of Europe's leading banking groups decided to launch, in collaboration with Iriscube Reply, a process of modernisation and re-engineering of its sales processes in Italy, with an omnichannel perspective.

The initial objective was to optimise the assisted channels (branch, call centre) and digital channels so that they could coexist by exploiting a common user experience. In fact, the synergy of the channels guarantees the end customer the possibility of purchasing a product or opening an account in a totally autonomous manner, integrating the digital experience with the physical one when necessary.

A complete architecture: from microservices to microfrontends

This was achieved through an architecture based on a microservices and microfrontend approach, introducing evolutions on legacy systems and moving towards core banking as-a-service. The chosen infrastructure is based on one of the main cloud providers in the Italian market, relying on dockerised applications managed by means of a deployment, scaling, service discovery, and load balancing tool, which exploits 'managed' services for several purposes:

API exposure management;

Storage of shared and frequently accessed data via distributed cache layers;

Storage of files and documents, to realise a highly scalable pay-per-use platform.

The introduction of the microfrontend approach thus makes it possible to logically subdivide frontends by creating complete blocks that can be reused in different flows, verticalising responsibilities and developments on dedicated groups (e.g. signature module, KYC, SCA, onboarding).

DYNAMIC MODULAR BLOCKS BASED ON FLOW

Iriscube Reply has realised a solution for the composition and orchestration of 'functional blocks' and different sales processes for cross-selling (e.g. account and paper), in order to maximise reuse.

By exploiting the platform components realised and the potential of a distributed state machine as a focal point for managing the flow of micro-fronts, approval processes and omnichannel resumption, an extremely flexible, highly configurable and customisable solution for the realisation of 'event-driven' sales processes was realised.

Each flow step can be a microfrontend that can be run at the appropriate time thanks to an interceptor that identifies step changes and modifies the microfrontend shown on the page, which can be common or product-specific.

Development teams can then exploit the basic modules common to the various sales processes and the architecture created to realise new product-specific 'blocks' and processes, minimising the effort required for realisation, increasing quality through reuse and consequently reducing testing and go-live times.