Primeo Energie digital platform – agility through modular system architecture

Intro: Innovation from a strong partnership

Codify AG has been assisting Primeo Energie, a leading energy provider with over 180,000 supplied households in Switzerland and France, in the digital transformation of their business processes for a long time. One outstanding project of this collaboration was the comprehensive redesign and introduction of Primeo Energie’s central digital platform.

Challenge: Monolithic structures and high complexity

The modernization of the existing digital platform presented the project team, consisting of Codify AG and two other highly competent partner companies, with complex challenges:

• Replacing a monolithic architecture: The previous portal application was monolithic, which led to development blockages, limited agility and scalability.
• Complexity of system disassembly: The transformation of the monolith into smaller, independent units required an in-depth analysis and a precise architectural decision that met the specific requirements of Primeo Energie.
• Technological transformation: The switch from a classic web server environment to a modern Docker host infrastructure brought new requirements for deployment, operation and maintenance.
• High quality standards: As a critical platform for Primeo Energie’s core business, the highest performance, security, reliability and code quality requirements had to be met.
• Coordination of multiple partners: Successful collaboration within a team of three companies required excellent stakeholder management and a clear communication strategy.

Approach: Strategic Modularization with Self-Contained Systems

To meet these challenges, Codify AG took an agile approach together with the partners:

• Architecture choice: Self-Contained Systems (SCS): Instead of a pure microservice architecture, which would have led to high complexity and communication costs in this context, they opted for the Self-Contained Systems paradigm. This design reduces overlaps between units and enables the implementation of self-contained systems with well-defined interfaces. This minimized administrative burden and promoted the independence of the teams.
• Technological stack: Robust and proven technologies were chosen: Spring Boot for backend services and Angular for front ends to ensure a high-performance and future-proof solution.
• Agile development and DevOps transformation: The development process was comprehensively adapted in order to be able to individually develop and deploy smaller units. This streamlined DevOps approach solved previous blockages and enabled faster, more flexible delivery of new features. The move to Docker hosts was a central part of this transformation.
• Collaborative approach: Close cooperation with the teams from the other partners and Primeo Energie itself ensured that all requirements were precisely recorded and implemented and that acceptance of the new platform was guaranteed.

Outcome: Technically strong, strategically scalable

The result of the project is a technologically advanced and strategically sustainable digital platform for Primeo Energie:

• Increased agility and efficiency: The successful transformation from monolith to self-contained systems has significantly increased development speed and now enables the independent development and deployment of individual modules. Various blockages in the development process were resolved.
• Scalable and robust architecture: The new SCS architecture, combined with Spring Boot and Angular, provides a highly scalable and maintenance-friendly basis that meets the high requirements of a leading energy provider.
• Optimized DevOps workflow: The adapted DevOps process has improved collaboration and efficiency within the development team and removed bottlenecks.
• Future-proof technology base: The smooth transition to the Docker host environment creates a flexible and modern infrastructure for future innovations and ensures a high level of operational reliability.
• Strengthening digital transformation: Primeo Energie now has a cutting-edge digital platform that further strengthens its position as an innovative leader in the energy sector and optimizes access to key market information.