OCP opens up the fertilizer value chain with API Management
            

The OCP Group is the world's leading producer and exporter of phosphate and its derivatives. Established in 1920 to extract Moroccan phosphate, its activities have since expanded to cover the entire fertilizer value chain. Today, the OCP Group's activities are split into five main areas: extraction, processing & mining, chemical upgrading, sales & transport, and shipping. The Group has a portfolio of more than 150 customers spread over five continents and 23,000 employees, mainly based in Morocco.

Establishing API-driven services on solid foundations

With a thriving business, and the desire to open up and expand its entire external ecosystem, it was a natural evolution for OCP to start creating API-driven services. But along with new data-driven capabilities, there was an increase in the complexity of OCP's IT system. And the group soon realized that it was going to need an API management platform to expose data and connect it securely.

“We needed a platform to manage all our API-driven services, to ensure cross-system communication and to standardize and scale the lifecycle of these APIs and services. The solution needed to cover design and creation, releases, runtime, openness to the outside world, and naturally, security. These functions were all satisfied by Software AG’s webMethods API management platform.”
- Mounir Zekkaoui, OCP, Architect & Platforms Lead at OCP SA

Selecting a market leader, with the right partner and price

Software AG's webMethods API management was chosen following an open call for tenders launched in 2021. OCP received and studied applications from several integrators and providers of API management solutions. After a thorough analysis of the market, OCP Group finally chose Software AG. “The Software AG solution was chosen for the simplicity of its architecture and infrastructure, its ability to cover all the functions we needed, its position as market leader and its price,” explains Mounir Zekkaoui.

A choice endorsed by the expertise of the integrator, E-Mothep

OCP’s choice of Software AG's API management solution was also motivated by the expertise of E-Mothep – the integrator with whom Software AG works in Morocco. “This integrator had to be very experienced with the chosen solution and needed to have already deployed it for several other customers," explains Mounir Zekkaoui. “E-Mothep's expertise and mastery of the subject was demonstrated during various presentations and workshops organized around Software AG's API management solution. In addition, E-Mothep had already carried out several successful projects with Software AG.”

Implementation between colleagues

E-Mothep was responsible for the entire implementation of webMethods API management at OCP. Software AG took care of all the training and validation of the installations carried out by E-Mothep. “Our integrator was able to demonstrate patience and flexibility in view of our adaptation requests", adds Mounir Zekkaoui. “The Software AG team was at our side throughout the project, particularly during the follow-up meetings. Software AG also provided support together with E-Mothep. Whenever we had a question, especially a technical one, we got an answer from Software AG experts in less than 24 hours.”

OCP optimizes the operation of API management

Now that the platform has been deployed, OCP's goal is to map all its APIs with the support of E-Mothep. “Our integrator will help us map all the APIs and services internally, audit them and expose them at the API management level," continues Mounir Zekkaoui.

To ensure that the deployment of the platform would be a success and to optimize usage, it was important for OCP to go further than just putting it into production—it needed an API roadmap and strategy. With this in mind, the group set up a governance and integration process managed by a dedicated internal team. The team’s mandate was to ensure the administration of API management, to verify the compliance of APIs in terms of best practices and standards, and to supervise projects. “Once all the existing systems have been deployed at the API Management level, the established governance will make it possible to copy and paste ironclad standards over to new applications and projects,” explains Mounir Zekkaoui.

Additionally, OCP Group plans to use the Software AG platform to deploy mobile applications around IoT projects (connected bracelets for users, connected headsets for internal employees). “We are currently setting up a proof of concept with Software AG on an IoT platform, in order to measure its feasibility,” adds Mounir Zekkaoui.

Benefits already identified

While the platform has only recently become operational, OCP Group has already started to experience several benefits, particularly in terms of productivity, optimized use of APIs and openness to its partners' IT systems. “In addition to increasing our productivity, API management allows us to have a catalog of standard API-led services," says Mounir Zekkaoui. “By understanding our existing systems better, we can now capitalize on our API-driven services rather than developing them from scratch. We can also standardize our APIs, meaning less duplication of effort and a reduction in costs. This solution also allows us to open up more to our external ecosystem and thus develop new projects and improve cross-system communication,”

Finally, this platform is clearly in line with the OCP Group's sustainable development strategy. “API management covers all our internal services and business units," says Mounir Zekkaoui. “All our future projects will exploit and utilize the services identified in this solution.”