Mulesoft

  Home   :   Ipass Solutions   :  Mulesoft  

Streamlining Operations with MuleSoft and RPA

Challenge

A Logistics company faced significant delays and errors in processing international shipping documents. The process involved manual data entry from scanned documents (PDFs, images) into multiple systems: a legacy AS/400 mainframe for core logistics, Salesforce for customer tracking, and a web-based customs portal. Lack of APIs for the mainframe and customs portal made direct integration difficult. This manual effort was slow, costly, and prone to compliance risks.

Solution

Our consultancy implemented a hybrid solution leveraging both MuleSoft and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

  • MuleSoft Anypoint Platform: Acted as the central orchestration engine. A Mule application was built to monitor incoming scanned documents (from an S3 bucket or email inbox).
  • MuleSoft RPA Bot: Deployed to handle interactions with systems without API

Process Flow:
  • MuleSoft detects a new document.
  • MuleSoft calls an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service (external or MuleSoft component) to extract data.
  • MuleSoft validates the extracted data and calls Salesforce System API to update customer records.
  • MuleSoft triggers an RPA bot via the MuleSoft RPA Connector, passing the necessary data.
  • The RPA bot logs into the AS/400 terminal emulator, navigates screens, and enters the required logistics data.
  • The RPA bot then logs into the web-based customs portal and submits the relevant information.
  • The RPA bot reports success/failure back to MuleSoft.
  • MuleSoft handles exceptions, logs the entire process, and notifies relevant teams.

Architecture Diagram:
single-img-twelve
Results:
  • Reduced document processing time by 75%.
  • Eliminated 90% of data entry errors./span>
  • Improved compliance adherence through consistent processing.
  • Visibility into the shipping document lifecycle.

Achieving a 360° Customer View via SaaS Integration

Challenge

A retail company used best-of-breed SaaS applications for different functions: Shopify for e-commerce, Salesforce for CRM, Marketo for marketing automation, and SAP for ERP/Finance. However, these systems were poorly integrated. Customer data, order information, and marketing interactions were siloed, leading to inconsistent customer experiences, inefficient marketing spend, and difficulties in generating accurate sales and inventory reports. Manual data reconciliation was time-consuming and error-prone.

Solution

We implemented a robust SaaS integration strategy using MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.

  • System APIs: Developed MuleSoft System APIs for each core SaaS application (Shopify, Salesforce, Marketo, SAP), leveraging MuleSoft's pre-built connectors where possible. These APIs exposed key data entities (Customers, Orders, Products, Campaigns, Financials) in a standardized format.
  • Process APIs: Created MuleSoft Process APIs to orchestrate key business flows, such as:
    • Customer Sync API: Ensured customer data consistency across Salesforce, Shopify, and Marketo.
    • Order-to-Cash API: Managed the flow of order data from Shopify -> Salesforce ->SAP.
    • Campaign Performance API: Aggregated marketing campaign data from Marketo and sales data from Salesforce/SAP.
  • Experience APIs: Created MuleSoft Experience APIs to integrate / orchestrate data to client applications
  • Experience Layer: This layer has the client applications mainly:
    • Internal Dashboard: Shows the Dashboard of the Order & Customer related information
    • Analytics App: Shows the analytics of the customers vs prospects
  • Data Synchronization: Configured near real-time and scheduled synchronization jobs within MuleSoft to keep data aligned across platforms.

Architecture Diagram:
single-img-twelve
Results:
  • Provided a unified 360-degree view of the customer across sales, marketing, and service.
  • Reduced order processing time by 40%.
  • Improved marketing ROI through better targeting and campaign analysis.
  • Enabled accurate, real-time reporting for inventory and finance.

Modernizing Legacy Systems with API-Led Connectivity

Challenge

For a Manufacturing company that relied on in house, monolithic ERP and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) that housed critical production, inventory, and quality control data. Accessing this data for new digital initiatives – like a customer self-service portal, a supplier collaboration platform, and predictive maintenance analytics – was extremely difficult, slow, and required brittle point-to-point integrations. This hindered innovation and responsiveness.

Solution

We implemented MuleSoft's API-led connectivity approach to create a modern orchestration and 3600 View

  • System APIs: Developed MuleSoft System APIs that acted as wrappers around the legacy ERP and MES systems. These APIs provided a clean, modern RESTful interface (e.g., ERP System API - Get Inventory, MES System API - Get Production Order Status), abstracting away the complexity of the underlying legacy protocols or database structures. Security and access policies were enforced at this layer.
  • Process APIs: Created MuleSoft Process APIs that orchestrated business logic by composing calls to multiple System APIs. Examples include:
    • Inventory Availability API: Combined data from ERP (stock levels) and MES (work-in-progress) to provide a real-time availability picture.
    • Production Order API : Aggregated order details from ERP and real-time status from MES.
  • Experience APIs: Developed MuleSoft Experience APIs tailored for specific consuming applications. Examples include:
    • Customer Portal API: Exposed order status and inventory information (via Process APIs) formatted specifically for the customer portal frontend.
    • Supplier API: Provided access to production schedules and material requirements (via Process APIs) for the supplier platform.
    • Analytics API: Exposed structured production and quality data (via Process APIs) for the data science team's predictive models.

Architecture Diagram:
single-img-twelve
Results:
  • Accelerated development time for new digital applications by 60% by providing reusable, easily consumable APIs.
  • Modernized access to legacy systems without requiring costly and risky replacements.
  • Improved data security and governance through centralized API management.
  • Enabled new business capabilities like the customer portal with 3600 view and predictive analytics.
  • Reduced integration maintenance costs by eliminating brittle point-to-point connections.