Why MACH?

The structure of the MACH architecture can be compared to a modular system consisting of individual microservices that are independent from each other. Microservices are individual components that fulfill specific functions in the overall solution. Due to their independence, the (further) development of individual microservices is possible separately from other technical areas. In concrete terms, this means that technical competence is simultaneously transferred into innovative features by several cross-functional teams in an agile working environment and the solutions can be delivered to the customer autonomously ("Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery" [CI/CD]). Further advantages of microservices are that they can be freely combined with each other as needed and that their operation and support is carried out on shared infrastructure in order to achieve high synergy and efficiency of the individual areas.

APIs (Application Programming Interface) are technical interfaces of a software solution to enable the smooth integration of further systems ("best-of-breed approach"). The documentation of our API is publicly accessible and describes for partners and developers exactly how functions of the platform can be used and which data formats are provided. The fulfilmenttools API is client agnostic. This means that the platform works in principle with any type of client and keeps the usage hurdle low by common standards. The clients provided by fulfilmenttools also run 100% on the officially operated and published APIs.

In the MACH architecture, the term "cloud-native" means that not only the data of the software solutions are stored in the cloud, but also that the data processing is cloud-based. By doing so, the costly use of local on-premise systems are redundant and the solutions can be scaled without limits. In this way, retailers profit from flexibility to adapt their capacities to market and customer requirements while keeping operating costs as low as possible. The fulfilmenttools platform is also operated in the cloud with state-of-the-art technologies. The data processing and storage of all components used is located in Belgium and Germany, but can also be operated in other regions if desired. Furthermore, all platform components follow the best-of-breed approach and allow independent and cost-efficient scaling. The operation and support of the cloud infrastructure is covered by our in-house site reliability engineers - in terms of scaling we rely on our hyperscaler, the Google Cloud Platform.

If the functionality of a system or solution can be accessed primarily via an API, it is called a headless architecture. The microservices, i.e. the business logics, can thus be flexibly connected via APIs to any frontend, regardless of whether it is developed in-house or available through other channels. This is possible due to the fact that the system architecture is designed ensuring that all systems and frontends are able to work together on a technical level. In addition, machine-to-machine communication, which is the absolute basis for any automation, is guaranteed. fulfillmenttools stands for headless "plus". This means that our platform can be operated 100% headless. But for some components of our system (e.g. the operative processing of customer orders), applications developed by fulfilmenttools, like apps or web applications, can be helpful. We make standard solutions available to our customers – but they can choose, whether they want to use them or not!