IT Development Team, Building the architecture and proof of concepts.
Darren
IT Development Team, Building the architecture and proof of concepts.
Ed
Tech Lead, AI implementation, Responsible for Aimee development.
Ivan
External Solution Architect (Harmonication), Advising on conceptual architecture.
James
External Technical Architect (Async Jam), Advising on practical tech implementation and cloud deployment.
Systems and tools
Myriad
ESco's legacy, on-premises core subscription management database. The system this programme is designed to reduce dependency on.
MongoDB
A NoSQL document database used for the Harbour, initially as a data warehouse (Phase 3), then as a process queue system (Phase 4).
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
The cloud infrastructure provider hosting the new architecture, API endpoints, and AI services.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft's cloud platform. Evaluated during Phase 1 for a full infrastructure migration. Rejected.
Aimee
An agentic AI chatbot for the ESco client portal, enabling self-service tasks such as promotion code creation.
Orbit (Apteco)
A third-party business intelligence and data analysis tool, used for the Single Customer View product in Phase 3.
GoCardless
A cloud-based Direct Debit platform being integrated to replace traditional BACS processing.
Zoho Desk
A customer support platform being integrated to handle omnichannel subscriber service.
Glossary
The Crane (ETL / RTL Engine)
ESco's custom middleware tool that extracts, receives, transforms, and loads data. Acts as the universal translator between the CRM and all downstream microservices.
The Harbour (Process Queue System)
The central data repository (built on MongoDB) that holds data in schemas and queues tasks for microservices to consume and action.
SCV (Single Customer View)
A consolidated, 360-degree view of all data held about a single customer, gathered from multiple different systems. The initial use case for the Phase 3 architecture.
CRM agnostic
An architectural approach in which no core system is permanently dependent on a specific CRM platform, allowing the CRM layer to be swapped without rebuilding everything around it.
iPaaS
Integration Platform as a Service. Cloud-based tools that connect different software applications. ESco is evaluating whether to procure one to replace or supplement the in-house Crane.
Webhook
An automated, event-driven message sent from one system to another in real time when a specific action occurs, for example, when a customer updates their subscription. Replaces the older approach of scheduled polling.
Microservice
A small, independent software service that does one specific thing (such as fulfilment, document generation, or AI responses). Designed to be replaceable without affecting other services.
Proof of concept (PoC)
A narrow, focused build to test whether a technical approach works in principle, before committing to full-scale development.
Tech Transformation