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Partner Lead Reception API Platform (PSR)

Partner Lead Reception API Platform (PSR)

Centralized API platform routing real estate leads from dozens of external partners to the commercial CRM.

February 2021 - 2024
~3 years
Project Manager / Product Owner - API Platform Owner
REST APIMicrosoft APIMAdobe Campaign v7Dynamics 365AWS EKSKubernetesK8sDockerGitLab CIJira

Partner APIs

Dozens

Integrated and maintained

Lead Volume

~**K/day

~1 lead every 2 seconds peak

Lead Loss Rate

~0%

Zero major loss incidents

Onboarding Time

weeks -> days

Reduced from weeks to days

Presentation

Project definition and scope

The project in a nutshell

The PSR is the centralized API platform for partner lead reception that I led. Every partner connects via a dedicated API endpoint, which normalizes the data and transmits it to the commercial CRM through the marketing routing layer and the Microsoft API Manager (APIM).

As Technical Lead and API Platform Owner, I supervised the integration of each new partner API and the platform's functional evolutions, coordinating with the marketing teams and external technical service providers. The PSR is a business-critical system: every lead lost or incorrectly routed translates directly into a missed sales opportunity in a highly competitive real estate market.

What the platform is

Centralized REST API platform for multi-partner lead reception, normalization, and CRM routing

Business domain

Real Estate / PropTech - Lead Management (B2B internal + B2B external partners)

Functional Scope
  • Standardized REST APIs per partner.
  • Lead data normalized regardless of partner format.
  • Routing to the commercial CRM.
  • Anomaly detection: blocked leads, duplicates, format errors.
  • Centralized credentials and access via APIM.
  • Real-time lead quality monitoring with alerts.
Key Architecture Decisions

Managed API Gateway

OAuth, throttling and per-partner analytics out of the box, instead of rebuilding it in-house.

Routing via a marketing enrichment layer

Enrichment and deduplication before CRM injection, to preserve the commercial workflow.

One dedicated endpoint per partner

Isolated normalization logic, easier debugging, no complex runtime configuration.

Objectives, Context, Stakes & Risks

Strategic vision and constraints

Goals and success criteria
  • 1Onboard dozens of external partners without per-partner CRM-side development.
  • 2Keep major lead loss incidents at zero during and after each onboarding.
  • 3Cut new partner onboarding time from weeks to days.
  • 4Enforce auditable credential and access governance across all partners.
  • 5Detect processing anomalies within minutes instead of days.
Why this project came to life

The project was initiated within the SI Marketing team at Groupe Pichet, where the growing number of external lead sources (real estate portals, advertising partners, marketing platforms) created the need for a single entry point to centralize and normalize incoming leads before routing them to the commercial CRM.

The existing landscape was fragmented: each partner had its own data format, authentication method, and delivery protocol. Without the PSR, integrating a new partner required custom development on the CRM side - an unsustainable approach as the partner ecosystem grew. The PSR was designed to absorb this heterogeneity and provide a clean, standardized interface to the downstream systems.

Business and strategic stakes

Leads are the lifeblood of commercial activity in real estate. Each lead represents a potential buyer, and the market is fiercely competitive: losing a lead to a routing error or a delayed integration means giving that prospect to a competitor. With dozens of partners generating leads simultaneously, the PSR became the single most critical data pipeline feeding the commercial teams' daily pipeline.

The commercial impact was direct and measurable: a partner API down for a single day could mean dozens of lost prospects - each worth potentially hundreds of thousands of euros in property sales.

Security & RGPD Compliance
  • Per-partner credential isolation via APIM: unique API keys, scoped permissions.
  • Systematic API key rotation via APIM lifecycle management.
  • GDPR compliance: HTTPS only, no persistent storage in intermediate layers, CRM as sole data repository.
  • Formal security audit during the project → hardened access controls and updated firewall rules.
  • Gateway-level input validation: format checks, payload size limits, malformed request rejection.
Risks identified upfront

Lead Loss

Any API failure or routing error directly translates into lost commercial prospects - unrecoverable in a competitive real estate market.

Format Heterogeneity

Each partner sends data in its own format with different required fields, validation rules, and encoding - making generic processing impossible.

Credential Sprawl

Managing API keys, tokens, and access for dozens of partners across APIM requires rigorous credential lifecycle management.

Marketing Routing Layer Dependency

The v6 to v7 migration of the marketing routing layer required URL changes across all partner configurations - a single misconfiguration could silently drop leads.

Lead Lifecycle Pipeline
End-to-end lead lifecycle from partner source to CRM

The Steps - What I Did

Chronological progression of the project

Phase 1
Platform Foundation & First Partner
Feb 2021
  • Integrated the first partner API: VotreAppartementNeuf
  • Established the PSR platform architecture: reception, normalization, routing
  • Configured Microsoft API Manager credentials for the commercial CRM
  • Set up monitoring with SOFT Monitor and email alert notifications
Phase 2
Rapid Partner Onboarding
Jun - Dec 2022
  • Integrated SeLoger API - major real estate portal
  • Integrated Myopla API - marketing partner
  • Integrated Cooper Advertising - deployed in pre-production
  • Integrated Akrivia Leads and Visibilitie
  • Integrated Clovis API - December 2022
  • Added "Commentaire" and "Apport" fields to the API
Phase 3
Stabilization & Evolutions
Jan - Feb 2023
  • Integrated Fine Media API - final documented partner
  • Resolved routing anomalies and blocked-lead handling
  • Migrated all URLs from the marketing routing layer v6 to v7
  • Diagnosed and resolved a cross-system lead-routing anomaly
  • Conducted formal security review on the platform infrastructure
Phase 4
Architecture Refactoring
2024
  • Led the major PSR refactoring: new SeLoger API architecture
  • Redesigned the marketing routing layer API integration
  • Improved error handling, retry logic, and observability
  • Documented the full partner onboarding playbook for team continuity

The Actors - Interactions

Teams, stakeholders and collaboration

Coordinating marketing, IT & external partners

The PSR project operated at the intersection of marketing, IT, and external partners. Each new partner integration required coordinating between the partner's technical team (for API specifications), the SI Marketing team (for business validation), and the CRM team (for lead routing confirmation). I served as the single technical point of contact for all partner integrations.

  • Franck C. (Manager) - Validated integrations and prioritized the partner onboarding backlog.
  • Cyril M. (SI Marketing) - Coordinated technical specs and business requirements with partners.
  • Emilie D. (Prestataire externe) - Maintained PSR Confluence documentation and knowledge base.
  • External partners (SeLoger, Myopla, Cooper...) - Provided API specs, test credentials, and validated integrations before go-live.
Technical Leadership & Knowledge Transfer
  • Partner integration playbook documented on Confluence.
  • API documentation maintained across 5 versions (v1 to v5).
  • External partners trained on API specs, auth and test procedures.

The Results

Impact for me and for the company

What I personally took away
  • Enterprise-scale expertise in API integration patterns (auth, normalization, routing, error handling).
  • Multi-stakeholder coordination across marketing, IT and external partners.
  • Ownership of a business-critical platform where every failure hit commercial results.
Value delivered for Groupe Pichet
  • Dozens of partner APIs integrated, diversifying lead acquisition channels.
  • Single entry point, removing the need for CRM-side custom dev per partner.
  • Real-time monitoring, cutting silent lead loss from days to minutes.
  • New partner onboarding reduced from weeks to days via the PSR playbook.

The Aftermath

What happened after delivery

Where the project stands today

After the initial wave (2021-2023), the PSR entered a stabilization phase and kept processing leads daily. The 2024 refactoring modernized the SeLoger integration and the marketing routing layer.

Today, the PSR remains the single entry point for all external lead acquisition at Groupe Pichet. The onboarding playbook I documented lets the team integrate new partners autonomously.

Technical Effort Distribution

My Critical Reflection

Lessons learned and honest assessment

What worked and why
  • Incremental partner-by-partner approach: each integration validated before the next, zero major lead loss.
  • APIM as gateway: credentials isolated, throttling handled, partners never touched internal systems directly.
  • Real-time monitoring: issues caught in minutes instead of days.
  • Normalization layer: dozens of heterogeneous formats unified into a single clean CRM-compatible schema.
What could have been better
  • The v6 to v7 migration required manual URL updates across every partner configuration.
  • Deduplication stayed basic: edge cases needed manual review.
  • End-to-end integration tests were manual and time-consuming.
  • Documentation often arrived after the fact rather than during development.
Trade-offs & Technical Arbitrages

Accepted technical debt on deduplication in Phase 2

Basic dedup to hit the 6-partner deadline; proper implementation planned for 2024.

Refused to bypass the marketing routing layer

Kept traceability and the commercial workflow intact rather than shave 200 ms.

Dedicated endpoints per partner

More code, but each integration stays isolated and easy to debug.

No async retry queue in Phase 1

Synchronous first for easier monitoring; retry added in Phase 4.

Lessons Learned
  • In lead management, speed matters as much as accuracy - leads go cold fast.
  • An API gateway layer (like APIM) is essential when dealing with multiple external partners.
  • Partner-by-partner validation with business teams is non-negotiable, even for technically identical integrations.
  • A well-documented onboarding playbook outlives its author - best long-term investment for team autonomy.

Related journey

Professional experience linked to this achievement

Technical Lead · Flows and Products: content and enterprise integration

Skills applied

Technical and soft skills applied

Hard Skills

Architecture & Design5/5

System Architecture & Design

End-to-end architecture: API gateway, normalization, enrichment layer, CRM routing

Architecture & Design5/5

REST API Design

Partner-facing REST endpoints, data contracts and 5 API versions

Security4/5

Web Application Security (OWASP)

APIM credential isolation, GDPR compliance and 2023 security audit

DevOps & Cloud3/5

Monitoring & Supervision

SOFT Monitor dashboards, real-time email alerts, per-partner flow observability

Image gallery

Project screenshots and visuals

Groupe Pichet architecture committee presentation showing objectives, governance process and IS vision diagram
Architecture committee - Objectives and governance
Detailed technical flow diagram showing partner data integration sequence with decision points and API calls
Technical flow - Partner data integration sequence
Legacy-to-CRM data flow diagram showing API calls, event processing and database synchronization
Data flow - legacy-to-CRM event processing
Azure API Management architecture showing Active Directory auth, API Gateway, MongoDB, Power BI and Terraform infrastructure
Architecture - Azure API Management platform

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