MSP platform — MOBEX Service Portal

The client

MOBEX GmbH & Co. KG operates as a managed service provider, running a wide range of customer-specific services and communication processes.

Starting point

The existing customer portal had grown historically, was technically hard to maintain, and only marginally extensible. Central documentation was missing, extensions were risky, and new digital services could only be delivered slowly.

In parallel, MOBEX wanted to put an internal engineering team in a position to develop and operate the platform independently in the long term — without permanent dependency on external providers.

Objectives

• Build a central service portal for customers and internal departments
• Replace legacy structures with a modern, cloud-native architecture
• High security and compliance requirements
• Clear technical guardrails for sustainable evolution
• Enablement of the internal MOBEX engineering team
• Technical preparation for future AI-enabled services

Solution

Together with MOBEX, we conceived and delivered the MSP – MOBEX Service Portal as a cloud-native SaaS platform.

Tech42 took overall technical leadership and was responsible for architecture, security, implementation standards, and sustainable enablement of the internal team.

Architecture & technology

• Microservices architecture on .NET
• Hosted on Azure Container Apps
• Azure API Management as central gateway
• Microsoft Entra External ID for authentication and multi-tenancy
• Event-based integration via Azure Service Bus
• Infrastructure fully defined as Infrastructure as Code (Bicep)
• Clean separation of frontend, gateway, and backend services

Security & identity

• Token-based communication with On-Behalf-Of flow
• Strict role and permission model (RBAC)
• Secure tenant assignment via Entra extension attributes
• Backend services are not directly reachable from the client
• Security-by-design built into the architecture from day one

AI-ready architecture

From the very beginning, the MSP backend was designed for future AI integrations. Rather than retrofitting AI capabilities, architecture, services, and interfaces were shaped so that AI components — for example Azure AI Bot Service or Azure AI Search — can be integrated seamlessly.

Technical foundations for later AI integration:

• Clear service boundaries and domain-driven APIs
• Event-based architecture as the ideal basis for analysis, classification, and automation
• Consistent, structured data access
• Decoupling of business logic and infrastructure
• Scalable cloud resources for compute-heavy workloads

This architecture lets AI services be introduced step by step, without having to rebuild existing core systems.

Automation & CI/CD-first

A cornerstone of the MSP is the consistent focus on automation and continuous delivery. From the start the platform was designed to minimise manual operations and roll out changes in a controlled, reproducible, and safe way.

• Fully automated CI/CD pipelines across all services
• Infrastructure as Code (Bicep) for cloud resources, networks, and security configuration
• Unified build, test, and deployment processes
• Clean separation of development, test, and production environments
• Reproducible deployments without manual configuration steps

Zero-downtime operations. The microservices architecture allows individual services to be updated independently, without affecting end users or running processes: rolling updates without service interruption, clean service isolation, and fast rollback when needed.

Technical leadership & enablement

A central success factor was active technical leadership and coaching of the internal MOBEX engineering team. Tech42 owned:

• Overall architecture and technical decision-making
• Definition of coding, architecture, and security standards
• Best practices for API design, event-driven integration, and cloud-native deployments
• Regular code reviews and architecture feedback
• Mentoring and knowledge transfer

Particularly notable: MOBEX’s existing engineering team came from a PHP background with no prior experience in modern microservice architectures. Through coaching, we shaped the transition into the new technology landscape together — today the team develops independently in the new architecture.

The goal wasn’t only to deliver a platform but to put the existing MOBEX team in a position to develop and operate the MSP independently.

Project approach

The project ran as a service agreement:

• Time and materials with monthly transparency
• High flexibility in a technically unknown legacy environment
• Close collaboration with departments and internal IT
• A combination of advisory work, technical leadership, and hands-on development

This approach reduced project risk and enabled continuous, measurable progress.

Outcome

• Successful delivery of the MSP – MOBEX Service Portal as the central platform
• Significantly improved maintainability and extensibility
• Clean decoupling from legacy systems
• The internal engineering team is now able to develop new services independently, make sound architectural decisions, and operate the platform long-term

The MSP today provides the technical foundation for the further evolution of MOBEX’s digital services, including future AI-enabled capabilities.

Tech42’s role and value

Tech42 acted as overall technical architect, lead developer, coach, and sparring partner for the internal engineering team — and as the interface between business requirements and technical execution. This combination of strategic leadership, hands-on execution, and enablement ensured the project succeeded technically and stuck sustainably inside the company.