CITIC Telecom CPC (“CPC”) had a complex ecosystem of homegrown apps and off-the-shelf applications. Its IT team wanted a consistent way to drive future application modernization and innovation.
With OutSystems, CPC is migrating legacy workflows and building new apps—that include innovative technologies such as augmented reality, deep learning, and blockchain—as it futureproofs its application portfolio.
"Working with OutSystems has been key for differentiating our service in the market. We’re dramatically improving the experience for our enterprise customers."
With customers and operations worldwide, integrated ICT service provider CITIC Telecom CPC found itself with a rapidly expanding application portfolio that grew more complicated every year.
“IT in a telco can be like trying to manage chaos on a daily basis,” says Daniel Kwong, Chief Information and Innovation Officer at CITIC Telecom CPC. With more than 100 homegrown apps and several core systems from Oracle, Microsoft, BMC, and more, Daniel and his team spent too much of their time “keeping the lights on,” with few resources left for innovation.
CPC needed a way to introduce standards across its whole software portfolio, including user experience, development languages, APIs, governance, and deployment methods.
Daniel’s search for a modern application development platform brought him to OutSystems, courtesy of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms. And Daniel quickly found that the OutSystems platform would help his team establish standards, simplify their app dev technology, and speed up innovation.
“We needed a platform that was secure, future-proof, cloud-native, and suitable for all kinds of deployment, including on-premises cloud,” says Daniel. “OutSystems provides all that alongside powerful development tools.”
Improve UX
Enterprise-grade scalability and security
Increase professional developer productivity
Powerful integrationCPC’s first OutSystems project was eDispatch, its mobile app that integrates augmented reality (AR) to help field service engineers complete maintenance. The app uses a REST API to communicate with Microsoft Hololens and CPC’s backend system, giving engineers access to 3D virtual user manuals for equipment managed by CPC.
“We chose three developers as OutSystems ‘champions’ for the initial project,” says Daniel. “They used the OutSystems self-study learning paths to get up to speed with the platform before building the app.” In under four months, CPC had a ready-to-deploy app for iOS and Android.
The OutSystems platform provided a visual development approach, customizable responsive screen templates and UI patterns, and enterprise-strength features baked-in—all of which speeded up development.
“With OutSystems, we have better control over our workflows and development standards. That means we can create new capabilities and deploy them faster—without compromising on the quality of the apps.”
After the first app’s success, Daniel assigned the OutSystems champions to pass on their new expertise to other developers in the team, allowing CPC to run multiple projects in tandem. These projects included AR FSM (Augmented Reality Field Services Management,) a system that enables CPC to give AR-enabled remote data center support to customers anywhere in the world using Secured WebRTC connections, an AI-driven event management system, and others.
The event management app works across the web, iOS, and Android and provides an easy way for organizers to track who’s attending their events. It includes a customizable registration form, API connections with CRM and other third-party apps, and wireless support for on-site badge printing.
The app even provides the option to use AI facial recognition—notifying sales or other staff when VIPs arrive at an event. Integration with CPC’s CRM system provides managers easy access to all the customer data they need to ensure events run smoothly, with built-in reporting and dashboard tools so they can monitor attendance and engagement.
Using the business process automation features built into OutSystems, CPC also created a blockchain-enabled business workflow tracking system that works across all its applications by API. To enable auditing, all applications can log transactions and data hash into Blockchain.
“We have eight different types of audit every year, five ISO certifications to comply with, and a lot of other regulatory requirements,” says Daniel. “By integrating OutSystems with our private Ethereum-based blockchain, we have a clear, reliable audit trail, and it’s all managed through OutSystems workflows.”
"Through the AI-driven event management app’s API, we can push notifications to WhatsApp, or our internal messaging platform."
Daniel is now focused on evolving CPC’s development practice into a ‘digital factory’ with a multidisciplinary team collaborating on OutSystems.
“The flexibility of OutSystems means we can move from specialized project silos to a multi-functional production line,” says Daniel. “It’s a faster, more efficient way to move from design and development to integration and testing, which is ideal for driving innovation.”
CPC is now well on its way to achieving the standardization it needs, with a consistent way to modernize and integrate over 100 applications—including in-house and off-the-shelf packages. Having integrated all of its core systems and legacy applications with OutSystems, CPC’s development team now has a single and consistent way to deliver modern and innovative experiences. With OutSystems, CPC is eliminating the technology silos that made maintenance such a colossal overhead before.
Now, Daniel’s team spends less time fixing bugs and tweaking code and can devote more resources to innovation. For example, the team is deploying new features for eDispatch every two weeks, expanding the app’s value for its engineers and customers.
“Freeing up developer resources with OutSystems helps us drive continuous innovation, instead of spending all day, every day fixing bugs.”
