Documenting Digital Transformation with Revelation: An E-Commerce Case Study

In today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape, businesses often face complex challenges as they transition from legacy systems to modern architectures. Documenting this transformation effectively is crucial for maintaining visibility and alignment across stakeholders. Revelation makes this process seamless by enabling teams to visualize transitions through START, END, and MODIFIED fields that define the lifecycle of systems and interactions.

In this blog, we’ll explore an illustrative example of an e-commerce and customer relationship management transformation, focusing on how Revelation’s framework can help document and visualize each transition stage.

The Illustrative Example: E-Commerce Transformation

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Imagine an e-commerce business operating with a legacy on-premise architecture. The systems include:

  • An On-Prem Website for customer browsing and orders.
  • A Legacy ERP managing orders, inventory, and billing.
  • A Legacy CRM for customer records.
  • An On-Prem Data Warehouse for analytics and reporting.

Over time, the company wants to modernize its architecture to include cloud-native systems and microservices. This transformation occurs in three key transitions:

  1. T1: Introduce an API Gateway and a Product Microservice.
  2. T2: Replace the Legacy CRM with a SaaS CRM.
  3. T3: Deploy microservices for orders, payments, and inventory while transitioning to a cloud-native website and modern data warehouse.

The Role of START, END, and MODIFIED Fields

Revelation’s START, END, and MODIFIED fields provide a powerful way to document these transitions:

  • START Field: Indicates when a system or interaction is introduced. If the entity is present from the initial state, the START field is left blank.
  • END Field: Indicates when a system or interaction is retired. If the entity persists into the final state, the END field is left blank.
  • MODIFIED Field: Captures any changes during transitions (e.g., reconfigurations, updates, or improvements). It contains a comma-separated list of transitions in which the changes occur.

These fields give structure to the transition model, making it easier to understand what changes happen and when.

Transition Stages in the Example

Initial (As-Is) State: The On-Prem Website, Legacy ERP, and Legacy CRM are tightly coupled, with the ERP acting as the central system for data and workflows. The On-Prem Data Warehouse receives nightly batch updates for reporting.

Transition T1: Introduce an API Gateway and Product Microservice to serve product catalog data and offload queries from the ERP.

Transition T2: Replace the Legacy CRM with a SaaS CRM, shifting customer interactions to a cloud-based solution.

Transition T3: Finalize the architecture with a Cloud-Native Website and microservices for orders, payments, and inventory, while retiring the Legacy ERP and On-Prem Data Warehouse.

Visualizing the Model with Revelation

To illustrate this transformation, we’ve created a Revelation workbook. The workbook documents each system and interaction across transitions using the START, END, and MODIFIED fields. You can download the workbook below and load it into Revelation to explore the model:

Download the Revelation Workbook

Why Use START, END, and MODIFIED Fields?

  • Clarity of Transitions: Easily identify when systems and interactions come into play, evolve, or are retired.
  • Stakeholder Alignment: Provide a clear roadmap for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Planning and Governance: Ensure smooth transitions by tracking temporary systems or interactions that enable migration.

Conclusion

Revelation empowers teams to document and visualize their digital transformation journey with precision. By leveraging START, END, and MODIFIED fields, organizations can create a structured representation of transitions, making complex transformations easier to manage and communicate.

Download the provided workbook and load it into Revelation to see this example in action. Whether you're tackling a similar e-commerce modernization or a completely different transformation, Revelation provides the tools to document, visualize, and execute your journey with confidence.