Flybuys Australia Limited

As enterprise architects at Flybuys Australia Limited, Leo Ramsamy and Krishna Soni know that effective collaboration and communication are key to working with partners and satisfying customers—especially in today’s remote work environment. They’ve found that visuals drastically improve communication among team members, which is why the Flybuys organization chose to make Lucidchart readily available for all employees. 

Lucidchart’s intelligent diagramming capabilities allow the Flybuys team to share ideas, swap feedback, create shared understanding, and maintain a central source for accurate documentation.

Communicating solutions 

When asked why he incorporates diagrams into his teamwork, Leo explains, “Primarily communication. It’s how I want to communicate with my team and how I want to communicate with the rest of Flybuys. If it’s a business representative that I need to relay information to, I will document the appropriate contextual type of diagram for them. If I’m working with more technical team members, I’ll supplement with additional details.”

Leo focuses on Flybuys’ enterprise data platform,and he relies on Lucidchart to visualize his solution architecture in varying levels of detail. Additionally, he often needs to diagram both current and target state architecture. Leo relies on Lucidchart to take the audience from a 10,000-foot overview down to the detailed components and data that make up a solution. 

With a higher-level view, Leo can easily communicate with the stakeholders who requested the solution, even if they have less technical knowledge. He can also work more efficiently with technology partners to get assistance resolving existing issues. The more detailed diagrams provide his internal team with the level of information needed to actually implement solutions. 

Collaborating remotely 

Both Leo and Krishna find that Lucidchart’s collaboration capabilities are key to the success of their work, especially in today’s remote work environment. The product allows their teams to work together seamlessly, wherever they are. 

Leo can see exactly where his peers are working as they collaborate within a single shared document and he can leave comments for them as they work. Lucidchart is always easily accessible so anyone on the team can start collaborating at any time. Leo explains, “The big advantage for me is not having a tool tied down to a specific operating system. I can work across my Mac, or my Linux laptop, or Windows, and that accessibility is fantastic. You don't need to have something installed on your machine just to get to your documents.” 

Now working remotely, Krishna has found immense value in being able to get five architects on a diagram at once. This real time collaboration makes it far easier to explain concepts and build on each other's ideas. And he loves that he never needs to worry about saving his work. Krishna also uses Lucidchart’s powerful sharing capabilities to share his diagrams with vendors and easily work with them in a visual workspace. 

Creating clarity  

Whenever Krishna is assigned a new “initiative” to work on, he creates a conceptual architecture diagram in Lucidchart to understand what existing systems will be impacted by the new work and how they will interact. 

Within the diagram, he uses color coding and layers to convey which components currently exist, which will be added, and which will be modified. Next, he creates a logical architecture diagram to present a new view that goes one level deeper to describe which specific components will be impacted (e.g. if the CRM system will be impacted, what exactly within that system will be touched). Finally, the engineering teams are brought in to create a more detailed design, such as any associated non-functions, protocols, and defined structures. 

Krishna explains that they might have three to four domains, each with four to five initiatives per quarter—which means it’s key that they are able to replicate this process over and over again. Making Lucidchart a part of their workflow gives Krishna and his team insight into how to tackle every initiative they are presented. 

Working faster together 

As they communicate and collaborate with Lucidchart, the team at Flybuys has been able to work towards solutions more quickly and efficiently. 

Leo explains, “Not to pull a cliché, but I guess a picture's worth a thousand words. We have technical team members who hate reading documents. A good visual can help someone understand what’s in scope within 30 seconds of glancing at it, which expedites the next steps of how we create a solution. If a diagram wasn't available, it would probably take us 10 times longer.”

Creating a single source of truth

When Flybuys separated from Coles to become its own independent entity, Krishna and his team were tasked with migrating all their solutions and infrastructure into Flybuys’ own infrastructure. As part of this two-year migration, the company adopted new technology solutions and became 100% automated. He and his team relied on Lucidchart to create all of their architecture and design documentation throughout this process. 

Using Lucidchart’s Confluence integration, they were able to store all diagrams in a central location alongside supporting documentation. Now anyone on the team can reference the visuals they need to understand the new infrastructure and technology solutions. 

Leo describes the importance of Lucidchart as a reliable source of documentation throughout the company, saying, “Of critical importance to me is the longevity of solutions, which means we need sufficient material and knowledge being managed and captured inside of Lucidchart. As a result, it doesn't disappear as we have staff come in and move out.” 

Across the organization, Lucidchart users are working together to visualize their ideas, make sense of complexity, and align as a team around the solutions that will best serve their ever-expanding customer base and accelerate Flybuys’ rapid growth.