U.S. Bank Implements Microapp Architecture and Camunda for Efficiency, Flexibility, and Scalability

At the forefront of financial innovation, U.S. Bank has embarked on a transformative journey. At CamundaCon NYC 2024, Prashant Appikatla, software engineer and assistant vice president at U.S. Bank, took to the stage to bring us his insights into the implementation of microapp architecture to address complex orchestration solutions for various business lines.

Prashant presents a compelling case study into how U.S. Bank tackled efficiency roadblocks in centralized infrastructure management. Adopting a microservices approach, they used Camunda for process orchestration and automation, and microapps for individual functions and features.

U.S. Bank is an American banking powerhouse headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As the fifth largest commercial bank in the US, it offers a wide array of financial services to a diverse clientele, ranging from personal banking to complex financial solutions for businesses and governmental entities. Last year, it was 149 on the Fortune 500 list and was recognized as a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

By leveraging microapp architecture and orchestration and automation, the bank is setting new standards for efficiency, flexibility, and scalability in the banking and financial services industry.

The need for agility

The software engineering and IT team at U.S. Bank were tasked with a formidable challenge: managing a centralized infrastructure that simultaneously meets the specific requirements of assorted internal business units and customer-facing functions.

The traditional system required individualized templates or applications per business line, leading to mounting inefficiencies and a disjointed approach. This system also lacked the agility needed to keep pace with the ever-changing regulatory pressures and dynamics of the financial sector.

Microapp architecture and Camunda

Prashant, along with his team, recognized the potential in microapps—tiny, independent applications dedicated to executing a single task or function. In his presentation, he discusses how they advocated for an innovative architecture that would harness both horizontal and vertical microapp structures.

This meant having microapps work in concert for collective functions (horizontal) and having them execute distinct, standalone features (vertical).

The team integrated microapp architecture into their case management system using Camunda, streamlining the process for customer disputes and improving the overall customer experience. Customers can now initiate dispute processes through user-friendly apps connected with backend microservices—a harmonized deployment model designed to serve more diverse business needs with minimal adjustments.

In his presentation, Prashant speaks about how the transition to microapp architecture, with Camunda, saw the creation of specialized microapps for functions such as processing disputes and managing case attachments. This new system empowered U.S. Bank with the ability to seamlessly handle disputes, attach evidence, and integrate services much more efficiently.

During the implementation, the team overcame issues such as ensuring communication between microapps without creating dependencies, addressing latency and complexities during maintenance, and managing the repercussions of individual microapp failures on the overall system.

Prashant also discusses how they introduced feature flagging to dynamically respond to any operational issues, thus maintaining service continuity.

Microapp benefits and Camunda integration

According to Prashant, the adoption of microapp architecture delivered several significant advantages to U.S. Bank:

1. Efficiency: Quick templating for business lines meant expedited responses to customer demands.
2. Scalability: The system could easily integrate new microapps, promoting growth and flexibility.
3. Flexibility: Independent development and deployment of microapps led to quicker iterations and shorter time-to-market for new services.
4. Orchestration: Camunda’s integration facilitated microservices orchestration, offering real-time process management, real-time process observability and troubleshooting, and enhanced data connectivity.

U.S. Bank’s swing to microapp architecture has reshaped their infrastructure management approach, yielding a system that is flexible, scalable, and efficient. Prashant discusses how business units now benefit from speedier, more customized solutions, and the central team can oversee the system with improved control.

This successful architecture sets the stage for future advancements and AI-enabled process orchestration, ensuring that U.S. Bank remains a Fortune 500 leader in innovation and customer-centric service.