Mobilexpense is a European tech group based in Brussels, committed to simplifying expense management for large multinationals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and their employees. Established in 2000, Mobilexpense creates smart, simple, seamless expense management solutions to improve cost-effectiveness and workforce satisfaction.

The challenge: Legacy system and resourcing acting as a roadblock to improvements 

Mobilexpense wanted to iterate on one of its business-critical applications, Business Optimizer, to improve features like monitoring and auditing logs. The technologies used for the legacy system needed to be updated, making development expensive and inefficient. Mobilexpense looked towards implementing a new system with better availability and response times to avoid future issues with legacy technologies. To add to the challenge, the product development efforts were focused on core system development, leading to a resourcing dilemma.

The solution: Eficode as a comprehensive partner to meet Mobilexpense’s requirements

Mobilexpense chose Eficode as their trusted partner for developing and maintaining the new Business Optimizer. Eficode recommended building a cloud solution, and the Azure Kubernetes Service was selected as the most cost-efficient solution for processing the extensive audit logs. The new system was built following a microservice architecture, with extensions introduced through tools such as Linkerd and Edge-Stack–ensuring high application availability and fast response to changing load.

The development project was finished in collaboration between the Eficode development team and Application Management, making the transition from the project phase to maintenance mode as smooth as possible. Throughout the cooperation, the product ownership from Mobilexpense has been invaluable in translating the business needs to Eficode teams. 

The application management team’s primary focus has been to cater to Mobilexpense's need to ensure high system availability and quick response to possible incidents. In addition, continuous improvements and updates are part of the regular maintenance work to avoid accumulating technical debt.

The Eficode development team delivered on these requirements by utilizing AzureDevOps for storing application code and infrastructure as well as deployment, automated testing, and other tasks. Azure Functions were also used for data transformation for periodic report generation and for creating alerts on Slack. Regarding databases, the Eficode development team utilized a SQL database in both hosted and serverless variants for dev/test environments, with standard Blob/Storage accounts being used to store static files.

The benefit: Flexibility and system reliability as enablers for further development and business continuity

One of the most significant benefits of collaboration with Eficode is the Flexibility in resourcing. Mobilexpense has had complete control over the effort used in the system development, with Eficode continuously providing expertise and recommendations toward the most significant development tasks. This allows small and large-scale development efforts without committing to a complete project. 

Eficode Application Management specializes in tailored business applications, so Eficode is an excellent match to help with Mobilexpense’s needs. As high system availability is a central business requirement for Mobilexpense, the new system’s SLA has been agreed upon accordingly. Eficode’s team is always ready to help with incidents and other development needs.

Mobilexpense continues collaboration with Eficode to build on its new system

Rizwan Bashir from Mobilexpense recommends other companies use Eficode’s Application Management services, especially if they do not have the resources to undertake specific projects.

“We often hear from different customers that they are not doing changes because they don't have any developers. So I think they should use services like you provide because then they can continue the ball rolling.” Rizwan says.

Mobilexpense continues to work with Eficode on this project, ensuring their services with the Business Optimizer application continue to achieve customer success.