EXG — Operational & Technology Strategy

Where We're Going

EXG is building a connected, AI-enabled operating platform that gives our teams better data, less manual work, and more control over how the business runs.

Four priorities. One direction.

These reinforce each other. Centralisation creates the foundation. AI builds on top of it. Reducing third-party dependency is the long-term result of doing both well.

1 — Centralise Systems and Data

The problem today

Our tools don't talk to each other. Zoho, Xero, Shopify, Amazon, and TikTok Shop each hold a piece of the business — but decisions still get made from last week's export and knowledge lives in spreadsheets.

What we're building

The Oasis — a single internal platform that connects our tools, surfaces live data, and gives every team what they need without switching between systems.

• One access point for all tools and company knowledge
• Department hubs connecting directly to live business systems via API
• Project and task management built in — no external tool needed
• Microsoft Azure AD Single Sign-On — one identity, all of The Oasis → live by end of April 2026
• A knowledge base that's always current: SOPs, policies, contacts, onboarding

Why it matters

Connected systems mean faster decisions, fewer errors, and an operational picture the whole business can see.

2 — Automation and AI Enablement

The position

AI embedded into existing workflows — not bolted on as a separate product. Every capability we build must answer: what does this remove, or what decision does it improve?

Where we're applying it

The result: less time assembling data, more time acting on it.

3 — Low-Code Enablement for Non-Technical Teams

The problem today

Every internal tool, form, or workflow that needs building goes through engineering. That creates a bottleneck — and a backlog of processes that simply aren't running yet.

What we're building

A low-code / no-code layer alongside The Oasis, so non-technical teams can build and automate without writing code.

How it works

Platforms under evaluation: Microsoft Power Platform, Retool, or a custom builder within The Oasis.

The approach

1. Evaluate platforms against our existing stack
2. Pilot 1–2 high-impact use cases (approvals, PO forms, content briefs)
3. Define permissions, templates, and data access guardrails
4. Roll out with lightweight onboarding

What we'll measure: fewer engineering requests, faster time-to-build, team adoption, satisfaction.

Looking ahead: As prompt-to-app AI matures, we'll integrate it here — so anyone can describe a process and have it built automatically.

The Platform Layer — What People Will Actually Use

For this strategy to work, the tools have to be ones people will genuinely pick up and use — both the teams doing daily work and the developers building the infrastructure underneath.

For non-technical teams — The Oasis and low-code front ends

The primary tool for everyone at EXG is The Oasis — and that's intentional. Rather than sending teams to a dozen different platforms, the goal is one place that surfaces what they need, pre-built and ready to use.

The principle is low friction, high access — teams should be able to do their job entirely within The Oasis, with AI doing the heavy lifting in the background. Low-code tools like Power Apps extend that for edge cases, but they're the exception, not the rule.

One login, everything connected: Azure AD SSO (live April 2026) means The Oasis, Power Platform, and all connected tools share a single identity. No separate accounts, no permission juggling.

For developers — the intelligence layer

This is where EXG's competitive edge is built. The developer stack isn't just a collection of frameworks — it's a purpose-built AI infrastructure that turns raw business data into live intelligence.

The architecture in one sentence: business data flows in through Railway workers, AI processes it via Claude, and the results surface instantly in every hub — all without a human in the loop.

This means agents aren't demos or prototypes. They're production infrastructure:

• The reconciliation agent compares Xero, Zoho, and Shopify line by line — automatically
• The compliance agent calculates EPR obligations from live invoice data — no spreadsheet needed
• The commerce agents monitor channel performance, flag anomalies, and draft listing copy — as a background process, not a manual task

Developers build integrations and agents once. The whole platform inherits the capability.

Why this combination allows AI to run as infrastructure

Most businesses add AI as a layer on top — a chatbot button, a summary feature. The EXG approach is different: AI is embedded in the infrastructure itself, not bolted on after the fact.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

1. Live data flows in — Zoho, Xero, and Shopify sync to The Oasis continuously
2. AI has full context — Claude sees stock levels, order anomalies, reconciliation gaps, EPR obligations in real time
3. Non-technical teams get the output — surfaced directly in their hub or low-code dashboard, ready to act on
4. Developers build it once — integrations and agents are shared infrastructure, not one-off projects

A practical example: a team member in compliance no longer pulls a Zoho export, opens Excel, and manually calculates EPR fees. The AI does the calculation, the result appears in their hub, and they review and act. No spreadsheet. No wait.

The same logic runs across e-commerce (stock alerts, channel anomalies), finance (automated reconciliation), and marketing (listing optimisation, social scheduling). The business runs on the data it already has — AI just makes it usable in real time.

4 — Reducing Reliance on Third Parties

The principle

If a capability is core to how EXG operates and we can build it ourselves, we should own it. Not everything — but the things that matter most.

What we're replacing

The balance: Zoho, Xero, and Shopify remain. We're not replacing best-in-class tools — we're owning the layer above them: the workflows, the reporting, and the decision-making.

What Success Looks Like

April 2026

• Azure AD SSO live across The Oasis
• The Oasis 2.0 fully launched and board-ready
• All marketing AI agents operational
• Internal project management running

Q3 2026

• Three major reporting workflows fully automated
• Low-code platform piloted with active usage across teams
• Third-party tool audit complete — replacement plan in place

End of 2026

• Single source of truth across the entire business
• Material reduction in third-party licensing cost
• New capabilities deployable in days, not months
• The Oasis is a genuine competitive advantage

Priority Initiatives

Maintained by Digital & Technology — reviewed monthly. Last updated March 2026.