Nakisa launches a game-changing cloud-native platform for enterprises

As technology continues to evolve, Nakisa stays ahead of the curve. We are excited to announce the launch of our next-generation cloud-native environment – Nakisa Cloud Platform or NCP. The new architecture leverages independent microservices and utilizes the latest cloud technologies available: Kubernetes, Kafka, CI/CD frameworks, Elasticsearch, Keycloak, and many other state-of-art tech stacks. According to Cloud Native Computing Foundation, these technologies empower organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern dynamic environments.

By moving to the next generation of our cloud-native platform, Nakisa elevates the power of all its product portfolios, enabling clients to reach their business and operational goals even more efficiently.

Why cloud-native solutions are changing the game

Cloud-native solutions are architected as collections of independent, loosely coupled microservices. They are smaller than traditional apps, and typically easier to develop, deploy, and iterate on. They are built in a way that enables them to take better advantage of cloud computing models to increase speed, flexibility, security, and quality while reducing deployment risks.

Watch our video below to learn more about cloud-native architecture.

Discover the benefits of cloud-native architecture

Compared to traditionally designed apps, cloud-native solutions excel at delivering business value due to their:

1. Incremental and automatic improvements, enabling new and enhanced application features.
2. Non-intrusive updates with minimal disruption to the end-user experience;
3. Easier scalability, thanks to the adaptable infrastructure that underpins cloud-native apps.
4. Development process that closely matches the speed and innovation demanded by today's business environment.

How Nakisa Cloud Platform empowers our clients

The next generation of Nakisa Cloud Platform hosts all three Nakisa’s product portfolios: Nakisa Workforce Planning, Nakisa IWMS, and Nakisa Lease Accounting. It means that all our clients can already benefit from this amazing update. NCP provides improved security, efficient scalability, and simpler management compared to previous versions of our applications thanks to the latest cutting-edge technologies such as Kubernetes, Kafka, Elasticsearch, Keycloak, and many others.

Key advantages of Nakisa Cloud Platform:

• Scalability: NCP is designed to be highly scalable, allowing the solution to easily adapt to business needs. To ensure high scalability and fault tolerance, we utilize Kubernetes – an industry-leading container orchestration platform. The new generation of microservices can now spawn new instances as needed and make the whole system infinitely scalable. For example, when a company makes acquisitions and integrates them into one of our solutions, the workload can increase drastically. Operating on Nakisa’s cloud-native platform, out products can easily accommodate the increase in resource needs, as well as other changes to the organization or workflows.What it means for Nakisa's clients: our next generation is faster and more efficient, which makes it easier for end-users to complete their work quickly and effectively. Critical operations are as responsive as possible, which means faster work during closing periods for our finance users and faster alignment in workforce planning for our HR users.

• Time to Market: NCP allows for easier and faster software deployment that doesn't require individual software installations and updates. This means that software updates, upgrades, and maintenance can be performed centrally, without disrupting individual clients' operations.What it means for Nakisa's clients: enhancements and new functionalities are available at a faster pace, allowing our users to take advantage of the latest technology and stay ahead of the curve. We leverage CI/CD best practices to deploy value at the micro-service level, without service disruption. Since each microservice is a separate entity, it can be independently maintained while other microservices can be swiftly added to bring innovations to the market. Enhancements to different features and functionalities won't impact the rest of the application, which allows faster development.

• ERP Integration: By leveraging Kafka – a distributed streaming platform, NCP can provide data parallelism and coordinated distribution of transactions. Seamless real-time data processing and event-driven communication between our microservices enable reliable and scalable data pipelines. It means enhanced performance and responsiveness for our clients. Not only does NCP continue to integrate natively with ERP using our existing Nakisa Connector, it now offers integration with cloud ERPs directly, such as S4/HANA using REST APIs, allowing, for the first time, cloud-to-cloud integration. While upgrading the platform, we ensure that our clients' existing ERP integrations won't be affected by the upgrade.What it means for Nakisa's clients: NCP offers native bidirectional ERP integrations with SAP, Oracle, and Workday. With it, you can integrate with any 3rd party system or app via advanced REST APIs, as well as leverage powerful analytics and report creation modules. NCP ensures smooth integration with all Nakisa portfolios and product suites so that you can easily add any module or product you need.

• Customer Support Experience: NCP is designed to provide more flexibility, visibility, and reliability in terms of cloud management, allowing for a better customer experience.

  What it means for Nakisa's clients: Upgrading to Nakisa’s cloud-native platform ensures that our clients will have access to the best support: faster incident resolution, a focus on feedback collection and needed features, and observability-integrated principles deliver a better personalized support experience, as well as simpler change (release/versioning) management. Once a client identifies an issue, it will be fixed for the entire customer base without interruptions, ensuring customers have the best experience and get the most from our client community.

Successful upgrade to Nakisa Cloud Platform

During the past few months, some of the world’s largest companies in the retail, beauty, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and energy industries have successfully used our next generation of products based on the NCP technology. We are excited to see the adoption of our tools at this phase.

This success is possible thanks to our progressive 3-phase upgrade strategy with distinct characteristics for each phase to adjust the process to your organization's readiness.

Here are the stages of moving to Nakisa Cloud Platform:

Nakisa follows a progressive upgrade strategy to ensure control over upgrades, considering the client's environmental complexity. As a new Market Release could significantly impact the customer's experience (new features, configuration, etc.), Nakisa has the obligation to mitigate risks through a phased and gated approach. Let's explore three gated phases of the Nakisa upgrade strategy:

Phase 1: Early adopters

1. 1. 1. Involves Nakisa deploying Next Generation to selected clients based on criteria such as geography representing approximately 10% of our client base.
      2. Early adopters have the opportunity to influence product development, gain early access to new features, and enjoy an extended validation period.
      3. During the UAT (User Acceptance Testing) cycle, early adopters benefit from extensive UAT testing with dedicated support and product team assistance.

Phase 2: Early majority

1. 1. 1. Involves rolling out Next Generation to approximately 20-30% of the existing client base once early adopters are live.
      2. During the UAT cycle, Nakisa support and solution experts will be available to assist clients.

Phase 3: Late majority

1. 1. 1. Involves rolling out Next Generation to the rest of the client base once feedback from phases 1 and 2 has been addressed and incorporated.
      2. Provides training and support resources to help users adjust to any changes.
      3. Nakisa continues to monitor the rollout, provide prompt support, and make any necessary fixes or improvements as part of our automatic hotfixes and patches strategy.
      4. During the UAT cycle, Nakisa support and customer success managers will be available to assist you.

Note: We will ensure that the current version of the Nakisa products is accessible until you have completed your validation of updating to NCP.

Here is an estimated timeline for each group:

Prerequisites and client involvement

We prioritize a seamless transition, from initiation to completion, with Nakisa taking the lead in many areas to ensure the upgrade process is efficient and effective. Clients will mainly focus on testing, specifically User Acceptance Testing (UAT), ensuring that the new solution meets their needs without creating an overwhelming workload.

Here is the RACI matrix for the transition:

RACI Key:

R: Responsible – The person who is responsible for completing the task.

A: Accountable – The person who is ultimately accountable for the task being completed.

C: Consulted – The person who is consulted before a decision or action is taken (not used in this matrix).

I: Informed – The person who is informed of the decision or action after it is taken.

We are committed to providing you with a smooth transition to NCP and hope for your understanding and collaboration.

Are you ready to embrace the future with cloud-native technologies?

As Nakisa continues to innovate and deliver industry-leading solutions, transitioning to Nakisa's cloud-native platform is a strategic step forward for our clients. By leveraging the scalability, speed, and integration capabilities of NCP, businesses can unlock greater operational efficiency, streamline processes, and stay ahead of the competition. With our phased and gated upgrade strategy, we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for all clients while providing world-class support throughout the upgrade process.

Get ready to explore the potential of NCP, which not only empowers Nakisa's products but also offers a range of cutting-edge solutions designed to elevate your business. We invite you to dive into the world of advanced cloud-native technologies and take advantage of the numerous benefits it has to offer. Stay tuned for more information, webinars, and resources to help you learn about the powerful capabilities of NCP and how it enables seamless integration between our products' modules so that large enterprises can use the same platform for various departments and centralize their operations.

Don't miss the opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation – stay connected with us and get ready to embark on the journey to the next generation for Nakisa's products, as we help you unlock the future of cloud-native technology!

Want to learn more about your new opportunities thanks to Nakisa Cloud Platform? Reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager or contact us.