Mazda faced a 2025 digital cliff because the Java framework it had used for the past 10-years was reaching “end-of-life.”
With 500 legacy systems to migrate—and an anticipated significant redevelopment costs—Mazda went in search of a modern application platform to transform its app dev approach.
In 2018 Mazda adopted OutSystems and has since redeveloped multiple applications. With OutSystems, Mazda has seen a fourfold increase in developer productivity and now expects to achieve considerable savings while completing its IT migration ahead of schedule.
Seiichi Shinagawa, Technical Leader IT Department, Mazda Motor Corporation : “With OutSystems, we’re replacing an enormous number of legacy systems while reducing the cost of development across the board. We’re also making business operations more efficient by providing mobile support for a wide range of applications.”
Challenge
Staring Over a “2025 Digital Cliff”
Mazda Motor Corporation celebrated its 100-years anniversary, selling nearly 1.5 million vehicles in the year ended March 2020. Mazda is justly proud of its engineering strength and design-focused products, but back in 2016, its IT department needed to escape from a burning platform.
“We called this as our “2025 Digital Cliff,” says Seiichi Shinagawa, Technical Leader IT Department at Mazda Motor Corporation. “For the previous decade, we’d relied heavily on the Java Platform SE version 8, for most in-house application development. Support for that runs out in 2025. We had around 500 legacy systems to migrate to a new technology stack, and that looked impossible.”
“We called this as our “2025 Digital Cliff,” says Seiichi Shinagawa, “For the previous decade, we’d relied heavily on the Java Platform SE version 8, for most in-house application development. Support for that runs out in 2025. We had around 500 legacy systems to migrate to a new technology stack, and that looked impossible.”
Seiichi Shinagawa: “We selected OutSystems because of its complete feature set, including visual design and assembly, high productivity for developers, high integration compatibility with existing systems, support for mobile apps, and the ability to deliver refined user experiences.”
Mazda knew that it would take an army of developers and a significant monetary investment to migrate all the applications in time unless they could dramatically improve their app dev efficiency.
Moreover, their software engineers found it difficult to keep up with the demand for new features with their current development tools. Plus, it was hard to provide users with modern, mobile-friendly experiences that would raise productivity.
Mazda started looking for a new IT framework. After considering various options, including general development frameworks, code generators, and low-code tools, Mazda settled on OutSystems as its modern application platform.
Solution
Establishing Mazda’s Software Development Factory and OutSystems Center of Excellence
Given the mammoth development backlog and Mazda’s engineering excellence culture, the IT team decided to plan carefully, rather than rushing headlong into development. They wanted to ensure they had strong foundations to ensure consistent, efficient, and high-quality software engineering in the future.
“We aimed to use OutSystems for core systems across Mazda, so before starting a wide-scale roll-out, we needed to prepare an environment for repeatable success,” says Shinagawa. “This included making interfaces with existing systems, a framework for authorization and security, and modular software architecture standards.”
Most of 2018 was spent setting up this environment, but the investment has paid back ever since. “Our standards enable a consistent level of productivity and quality across projects,” says Shinagawa.
Simultaneously, Mazda set up an in-house OutSystems Center of Excellence (CoE), a central team of OutSystems experts that provides governed standards and best practices to developers.
Seiichi Shinagawa: “The CoE regularly provides one-week lean startup workshops, building UI screens, and processes directly with business representatives. The goal is to clearly understand requirements by prototyping on OutSystems. The users greatly appreciate this approach.”
Results
Happier Users and Massive Savings on Legacy Migration
While Mazda established its development standards and COE, they intentionally kept development projects to a minimum. But during 2019, adoption started to accelerate. Functions were now being implemented on the same level as they had been on the Java framework, and the development team started using OutSystems to replace its legacy Java applications.
Users liked the speed and agility of development and the much-improved user experiences of these new apps. In the second half of 2019, the number of OutSystems projects grew rapidly. The team delivered various applications, including core systems used for car manufacturing and distribution, back-office systems used by employees for internal processes, and systems for managers’ daily work logs.
