CASE STUDY
WSO2 Fuels e& Telco Ecosystem: 5M+ Users and 6,000+ Partners
Product Area
API Management, Identity and Access Management
Region
Middle East
Industry
Telecommunications
Highlights
70M+ daily transactions at 2,500 TPS:
Achieved lightning-fast scale post re-platforming without performance dips.
Scaled seamlessly:
Serves 5.4 million users and 6,000+ partners.
Zero SLA breaches:
Delivered mission-critical reliability with 24/7 technical coverage including mission-critical events.
Overview
e&, the global technology group headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, was established in 1976. Today, it serves more than 189 million customers across 38 countries spanning the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe. e& is renowned for having the world’s fastest 5G network and has been recognized as the fastest-growing brand globally, reflecting its commitment to innovation and digital transformation.
Within its portfolio, e& offers a comprehensive range of services, including mobile and fixed-line voice and data services, internet and broadband solutions, entertainment streaming and fintech platforms, and enterprise services such as cloud computing, IoT, cybersecurity, and managed services. The company also provides carrier and wholesale services, leveraging its robust infrastructure to support regional and global telecommunications needs.
Smiles, a loyalty program by e& in the UAE, rewards customers for their usage and spending. With over 5 million users globally, the program allows members to earn Smiles Points through bill payments, mobile recharges, and shopping at partner stores. These points can be redeemed for exclusive discounts on shopping, dining, entertainment, and travel, making everyday spending more rewarding. To power the Smiles program, e& leverages WSO2's API management and identity and access management solutions to securely integrate diverse systems and scale its digital services efficiently.
WSO2’s flexible and secure platform has enabled us to scale our services, reduce integration complexity, and deliver a seamless digital experience to millions of users. Their technology continues to support our long-term goals for innovation and growth."
Lakmal Godahena
IT Development/Loyalty Platform
e&}
Challenge
In the fast-evolving technology and connectivity industries, e& must continuously innovate to maintain its leadership position. As a provider of cutting-edge digital services, the company required a robust IAM and API management strategy to ensure seamless integration across its vast ecosystem from business support systems (BSS) and CRMs to partner ecosystems and mobile and fixed-lined services.
A key challenge they contended with was managing API authentication, authorization, and security at scale. With numerous interconnected systems, secure and efficient API interactions were critical to maintaining service reliability and user trust. e& sought an established and trusted solution that could enforce strong access controls, prevent security vulnerabilities, and facilitate scalable microservices architecture, all while minimizing complexity within its existing infrastructure and avoiding the need to reinvent their API landscape in-house.
Since the inception of e&’s Smiles loyalty program, the platform has evolved from serving a few offers to a limited consumer segment into a lifestyle application with an extensive marketplace. This growth necessitated a shift away from their existing monolithic architecture to a more agile microservices architecture in the interest of supporting scalability of their growing customer base and reducing customer churn. In order to establish a seamless shift, e& required significant planning and support across multiple teams to ensure security was robust in the midst of the transition while maintaining a seamless experience for users.
Objective
e& reached out to WSO2 with the aim of studying the capabilities and benefits of implementing a middleware and IAM solution centered around enhancing operational efficiency and scalability across its vast ecosystem.
- Improved Integration Across Systems: e& aimed to streamline the integration of its BSS, IT infrastructure, and value added services (VAS) for a seamless flow of data and processes across diverse systems, reducing complexity and improving overall performance.
- Enhanced Security: With a growing marketplace that involved multiple partners and millions of customers, e& focused heavily on ensuring robust security across all systems. This was crucial for protecting sensitive data, maintaining customer trust, and adhering to regulatory requirements.
- Scalability to Support Growth: e& recognized the need for a flexible, scalable solution capable of adapting to the evolving demands of its expanding customer base and business offerings. As services grew and new digital solutions were introduced, scalability was essential to maintaining high-quality service delivery without disruptions.
- Operational Efficiency and Cost Reduction: e& focused on improving operational efficiency by simplifying and automating key processes. This included reducing manual interventions, minimizing system downtime, and optimizing resource allocation to drive down operational costs.
- Enhanced Customer Experience and Retention: They aimed to improve customer experience through seamless and efficient service delivery. With better integration and more responsive systems, e& aimed to offer personalized services and relevant offers to keep customers engaged and reduce churn.
By focusing on these objectives, e& aimed to ensure continued growth, maintain its competitive edge in the telecom industry, and improve both customer and operational outcomes. e& turned to WSO2 owing to its superior product stack, global presence with relatable use cases, and the flexibility and technical expertise showcased by the team.
Solution
e& embarked on a digital transformation initiative to modernize its services, focusing on the Smiles loyalty program and the Mobile Apps Project. Each initiative addressed specific business and technical challenges—ranging from scalable microservices to secure customer access—while aligning with their broader goals of delivering secure, reliable, and high-performance digital services.
The Smiles loyalty platform, originally a small-scale rewards program, evolved into a comprehensive lifestyle marketplace serving over 5 million users and 6,000+ partner brands. To support this scale and enhance performance and security, e& adopted an API-led architecture through WSO2 API Manager that powers communication across over 200 APIs, enabling seamless integration between Smiles platform components ranging from mobile and web interfaces to backend loyalty engines. The previous monolithic architecture was transitioned into microservices, allowing individual components of the Smiles ecosystem to be independently managed and scaled. WSO2 Identity Server handles all user and partner authentication, authorization, and access delegation. The system ensures secure interaction between users and services, offering scalability for e&’s growing digital footprint. The solution delivers a 360-degree customer view, empowering customer service teams with real-time access to user activity and history of over 5 million users across UAE.
With the success of the Smiles loyalty program and with the objective of replacing the soon-to-be-decommissioned Oracle ATG Commerce system, e& initiated the Mobile Apps Project in collaboration with WSO2, focused on providing advanced self-care and partner care services via mobile and web platforms.
WSO2 Identity Server enables secure access for an array of logins starting from basic authentication, federated UAE Pass login to OTP-based verification and Emirates ID, supporting multiple user identities and access patterns. The platform’s B2B capabilities support 700+ partner agents, each with tailored access portals along with ensuring only verified personnel gain access to sensitive account data. Through the new streamlined mobile and self-care portals, end-users can manage billing, subscriptions, and services with ease. With WSO2’s solution, e& is equipped with real-time access to customer data and services, streamlining operational workflows and improving reliability.
Results
- Seamlessly scaled to serve 5.4M users and 6,000+ partners: powering the Smiles platform with a robust, API-led architecture.
- Support delivery with zero SLA breaches: 24/7 coverage including unwavering technical assistance during critical launches
- 200+ APIs integrated effortlessly: ensuring smooth, secure communication across mobile, web, and legacy systems.
- 360-degree customer insights: empowering support teams to boost engagement and reduce churn through data-driven interactions.
- Centralized and robust security mechanisms: owing to centralized identity and access management across users and partners.
- Successful replacement of Oracle ATG Commerce: with a modern, secure, and scalable alternative.
- Enable 700+ partner agents: with secure, role-based portals for personalized account management.
- Increased customer autonomy and satisfaction: through enhanced mobile and self-care experiences.
- Improved security, ease of access and user trust: by implementing federated UAE Pass, OTP, and Emirates ID-based authentication methods.
- Reduced operational complexity: unifying backend services and streamlining access logic.
- Accelerated time-to-market: eliminating in-house development burdens with a proven integration platform.
- Future-ready scalability delivered: underpinned by a resilient microservices architecture and laying the groundwork for plans for a unified control plane.
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