From integration to hyperautomation

The Challenge

Aalto University is a multidisciplinary science community where science and art meet technology and economics. Aalto builds an innovative society through high quality research, teaching and artistic activity.

Aalto had used many different Open-Source integration platforms in the past and the cost of continuous use was a problem. This was especially evident as a resource challenge for day-to-day operations and management, when even basic maintenance required developer-level expertise.

The Target

The aim was to revamp the implementation model of integrations so that one integration solution can meet the business development needs and the gradual replacement of the back-end systems. In addition, integrations of new services implemented with the SaaS model required new solutions such as OpenAPI interfaces. Particular emphasis was placed on centralized management of data flows and their ability to control them by Aalto's own personnel.

The Solution

With HiQ's frends integration platform, Aalto can implement new process automation and application integration solutions faster and more efficiently. frends also enables integration of background systems of different ages and technologies. Process automation has become easier and integration of legacy back-end systems with third parties can be accomplished using modern methods. Especially for Aalto, the ease of process control and day-to-day operations has been a major factor.

The Results

Aalto has implemented numerous integrations through the frends integration platform. The new integration platform has also allowed Aalto to manage and control his own integrations. Aalto has implemented frends public interfaces in accordance with the OpenAPI standard as well as traditional data transfers between systems. Process automation at the interface level is also a significant part of Aalto's integrations.

"With FRENDS we are able to operate and understand everything without technical knowledge"

Head of Integration, Aalto University

Patrick Maltusch

From an integration platform to a hyperautomation platform

Aalto University is a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence (AI). For example, Aalto has implemented an API, following reusable SOA architecture, that receives all support requests to Aalto's IT. Due to the native features of frends, this interface is inherently compliant with the OpenAPI standard. After receiving the support request message, the frends process asks the pre-taught machine learning algorithm in Azure, "where does this ticket belong to?" Based on the answer, the frends process transforms the message to the correct format and routes it to the right support ticket queue. The need for automation is evident. In an organization that is the size of Aalto university, there are many daily IT-requests of different types of support requests concerning various systems. In this and many other processes automated by frends, Aalto university uses AI in decision-making that previously required people.

Process automation flow controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) is also called hyperautomation or IPA (Intelligent Process Automation).