Baolande BES Middleware Enables Hong Kong Mobile's Seamless Core System Modernisation

Customer: Hong Kong Mobile – a regional telecommunications operator serving the Hong Kong market, offering mobile, broadband, and enterprise communication services to a diverse customer base.

Industry: Telecommunications

Challenge

Hong Kong Mobile's core business support systems—including its CRM, BOSS (Business Operation Support System), billing, and front‑end web interfaces—had long relied on established commercial middleware. Initially, the company's IT infrastructure was centrally managed alongside a larger regional hub, with its HKCRM system hosted at an external data centre. As the operator expanded its local footprint and customer base, it became clear that the existing middleware stack imposed several constraints:

• High licensing and maintenance costs – The proprietary middleware consumed a significant portion of the IT budget, limiting investment in new capabilities.
• Dependency on external hosting – With core systems running outside Hong Kong, the operator faced latency and operational control challenges, particularly as service demands grew.
• Limited flexibility for independent scaling – The shared infrastructure model did not allow rapid, autonomous adjustments to meet Hong Kong‑specific traffic patterns and product launches.
• Migration risk – Any replacement had to be seamless, requiring zero code changes to avoid disrupting live production systems that supported millions of subscribers.

Objective

Hong Kong Mobile sought a middleware solution that would:

• Enable a smooth, risk‑free migration from the existing commercial platform without altering application code or business logic.
• Deliver comparable or superior performance across all core system modules, including CRM, BOSS, billing, and web channels.
• Provide cost‑effective licensing with predictable operational expenses.
• Support the operator's plan to decouple its IT environment from the central hub and operate independently, with full local control and agility.
• Ensure long‑term stability and scalability to accommodate future subscriber growth and new digital services.

Solution

In a major system modernisation project (initiated during a broader infrastructure upgrade phase), Hong Kong Mobile evaluated several application server middleware options. Baolande BES was selected as the replacement for the incumbent commercial middleware, with the following implementation approach:

• Zero‑code migration – Baolande BES fully supported the existing application frameworks and proprietary communication protocols (including the custom Remote Call Protocol used by the system integrator). No modifications to the CRM, BOSS, or front‑end code were required, enabling a quick, low‑risk cutover.
• Seamless integration – The new middleware was deployed alongside the existing environment in a phased manner, allowing thorough testing before full production go‑live. It integrated flawlessly with the underlying operating systems, databases, and third‑party components.
• Phased rollout across modules – After the initial successful deployment, Hong Kong Mobile extended Baolande BES to cover additional systems in two subsequent expansion phases (in later years), comprehensively covering CRM, BOSS, billing (Nengkai), and all public‑facing web interfaces.
• Operational continuity – The migration was executed without any service interruption, maintaining 24/7 availability for the operator's subscribers.

Results

• Complete middleware consolidation – Baolande BES is now the sole application server middleware used across Hong Kong Mobile's entire production environment. All legacy commercial middleware instances have been retired.
• Long‑term stability – Since its initial deployment, the Baolande middleware has operated with exceptional stability, with zero critical incidents attributable to the middleware layer. It has successfully replaced multiple previous middleware deployments and has become the trusted runtime foundation for all core systems.
• Substantial cost savings – By moving to Baolande's cost‑efficient licensing model, the operator significantly reduced annual middleware expenditure, freeing up budget for innovation projects.
• Operational independence – With the middleware running fully on its own infrastructure, Hong Kong Mobile now enjoys complete local control over system scaling, maintenance, and upgrades. The decoupling from the central hub has reduced latency and improved response times for local transactions.
• Scalability for growth – The deployment has grown to cover a large number of production nodes across all critical modules, and the architecture is designed to easily accommodate future expansions as the subscriber base and service portfolio continue to evolve.