NexJ, a leader in intelligent customer management for the financial services industry, embarked on a transition from a monolithic architecture to an API-first model to better accommodate both large and smaller, cloud-centric clients. The company, which serves major clients like Wells Fargo and the Royal Bank of Canada, faced challenges scaling its on-premises deployments, especially for smaller firms that preferred cloud solutions. To address these challenges, NexJ adopted an API-first approach with Kong Gateway, allowing for seamless integration and connectivity within financial services ecosystems. This strategy enabled the company to efficiently serve multiple clients, reduce costs, and enhance the flexibility of deployments without compromising existing operations. By choosing Kong, NexJ was able to maintain a consistent interface, ensure secure third-party integrations, and provide a robust development environment through Kong's Dev Portal, thus aligning with global financial industry standards. The company plans to expand its use of Kong for monitoring API usage and implementing GitOps integration, while evaluating Kong's new service connectivity platform, Kong Konnect, as part of their ongoing architectural evolution.