HCL Commerce Cloud PBCs Bring Value to Microservices-Based eCommerce Solutions

HCL Commerce Cloud is introducing Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs) as a new way to provide solutions to B2C, B2B, B2B2C, and D2C organisations.

PBCs are self-contained, pre-built, and reusable units of capabilities designed to work together, as part of a fully-integrated solution or independently-integrated into your organisation’s existing systems and processes. PBCs offer a middle-ground between tightly integrated monolithic architectures and distributed components of microservices. They are ready-made modules providing functionality within specific business domains, such as eCommerce, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing, or Supply Chain Management.

We are introducing PBCs for Search, Pricing, Personalisation, Cart and Checkout, Identity, Subscriptions, Participant, Approvals, Catalog, Promotions, Quotes, Inventory, and Location within the eCommerce domain.

Previously, only available as part of HCL Commerce–our enterprise eCommerce solution–each PBC is based on over twenty-five years of development, making it rich in functionality and fully production-ready with no additional start-up effort required. When combined with the comprehensive business user tooling, extensibility framework, and continuous innovation, we believe it can offer any organisation already invested in a microservices-based architecture significant business value through:

1. Accelerated Time-to-Market

• Pre-built Solutions: PBCs are pre-configured modules covering specific business functions (for example, Search, Inventory, Personalisation). Integrating these into your organisation’s existing systems and processes can drastically reduce development time compared to building from scratch, allowing you to focus on developing differentiating features rather than commodity capabilities.
• Focus on Core Competencies: You’ll be able to concentrate on core areas providing a competitive advantage while leveraging PBCs for production-ready foundational functionalities, such as inventory or product recommendations.

2. Scalability and Flexibility

• Modularity and Composability: PBCs are modular and designed to integrate easily with existing microservice architectures. They support multi-cloud environments or can be run on-premises. This flexibility allows you to replace or upgrade individual components without overhauling the entire system, providing scalability and adaptability as the business evolves.
• Interoperability: Designed to work with a variety of systems and services, PBCs allow for integration into an existing microservices setup with minimal friction. You’ll benefit from efficient scaling without locking into a specific technology stack.

3. Cost Efficiency

• Reduced Development and Maintenance Costs: Developing and maintaining microservices in-house can be expensive. You can significantly cut development, testing, and support costs by leveraging PBCs. This cost savings is particularly beneficial for necessary non-core capabilities.
• Commercial Agility: We offer flexible pricing models, permitting you to pay based on usage. Each PBC is measured by usage, which can be shared across multiple PBC modules. This enables commercial flexibility and adaptability, proving to be more cost-effective than investing in building and maintaining similar capabilities internally.

4. Improved Innovation and Upgrades

• Access to Best Practices and Innovations: We continue to invest in ongoing updates and enhancements, ensuring our solutions adhere to best practices and the latest industry standards. By adopting these solutions, you can keep your platform up-to-date with minimal effort, benefiting from cutting-edge technologies and features without innovating internally.
• Focus on Differentiation: By offloading standard business functionalities to PBCs, your development team can innovate in areas directly impacting customer experience and competitive advantages, such as personalised shopping experiences or advanced analytics.

5. Risk Mitigation

• Reduced Dependency on Internal Expertise: Maintaining complex systems requires specialized knowledge. PBCs reduce this dependency by shifting the responsibility for updates, compliance, and security management to us, decreasing your operational risk.
• Future-Proofing: We continuously align PBCs with regulatory requirements and emerging trends, ensuring your systems remain compliant and relevant as the digital landscape evolves.

Our team believes adopting PBCs offers a balance between flexibility, cost-efficiency, and innovation, enabling B2C, B2B, B2B2C, and D2C organisations to optimise their microservice architecture while staying focused on their strategic goals. Connect with the HCL Commerce Cloud team of advisors to learn more about how your organisation can benefit by integrating PBCs into your existing solution.