People ask about the name often enough that it deserves its own post. The "7L" in 7L International stands for seven layers, a reference to the Open Systems Interconnection model that describes how networked systems communicate, from the physical wire up to the application a person actually uses.

The model in one paragraph

The OSI model splits communication into seven layers: physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application. Each layer has a clear job and a clear interface to the layers above and below it. A problem in one layer can be diagnosed and fixed without rewriting the others. It is one of the most durable ideas in computing.

Why it describes how we work

When we say we deliver end-to-end solutions, we mean something specific. A business problem is never solved at just one layer. A slow checkout page might be a database index, a network configuration, a third-party integration timing out, or a design that asks the customer for too much information. Looking at only one layer produces a fix that does not hold.

Our proposals are therefore structured the way the model is:

  1. Infrastructure and cloud. Where the system runs, how it scales, how it is secured and backed up.
  2. Data. Storage, integrity, migration from legacy systems and analytics.
  3. Integration. How the system talks to ERPs, payment providers, IoT devices and partner APIs.
  4. Application logic. The custom software that encodes how the business actually operates.
  5. Interfaces. Web, mobile, kiosks, AR and VR, whatever the user touches.
  6. Operations. Monitoring, support, documentation and training.
  7. Business outcome. The layer everything else exists to serve.

Clear interfaces between layers

The most useful lesson from the model is that layers should talk to each other through well-defined interfaces. In practice this means we design APIs and data contracts early, so that a mobile team, a backend team and a client's internal IT department can work in parallel without stepping on each other. It also means a client can later replace one layer, say a payment provider or a hosting vendor, without a rewrite.

The short version

Seven layers, one solution. We take responsibility for the whole stack because problems rarely respect layer boundaries, and neither should the people solving them.