business connectivity solution

BUSINESS CONNECTIVITYBUSINESS CONNECTIVITYUnified Interface for BusinessesUnified Interface for Businesses

© Soft Format L, 2004

Business Connectivity Market TrendsBusiness connectivity in the context of evolved Web Services is a critical challenge at the heart of most enterprises’ key business applications, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), e-Business / e-Commerce applications, and enterprise portals.The need for two or more of such applications to communicate both within and out the enterprise forms the basis of the application integration “problem.” The Forrester research estimates that over 70% of today’s IT budgets are dedicated to solving integration issues. In some industries, such as financial services and insurance, this percentage is even higher. The market for business connectivity software components and services is likely to grow throughout 2004- 2008 and the application integration marketed at $1.3 billion in 2002 is expected to reach $7.7 billion by 2007.Yet, business connectivity is understood not only as the issues of internal or external integration, but also as the point of business mobilization, as demanded by the developing m-business market. More and more companies and organizations realize that by utilizing mobilized work they not only make their employees’ work more efficient but also enable then to perform more of their tasks in proximity to the customer, thus increasing the efficiency of customer relations management.According to Ovum the smartphone (as a major means of business mobilization) market has grown from just two million units sold in 2002 to some 10 million sold in 2003, with 25 million expected to be sold in 2004 and 130 million in 2007. ABI predicts similar growth, expecting 150 million units by 2008. Based on various market reports, we can project the relative growth of smartphones with respect to other mobile computing segments as follows:

The overall trend shows a very strong interest in Web Services, as a backbone of business connectivity which can be proved by the fact that 52% of the companies claim to have begun projects or be currently prototyping Web Services as the most optimal solution for their business needs and 37% are considering their implementation.

Web Services and SOA approaches allow solving critical connectivity problems by providing standards-based, loosely coupled interfaces for accessing application functionality and data. Concurrently with the increased demand for business connectivity solutions, Web Services (at $152 million in 2002) are evolving as a portion of the total Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI), application servers and enterprise portals markets, and are expected to reach $3.1 billion by 2007.Web Services will impact the way the software is developed, distributed and used. It creates Dynamic Business Webs – flexible Internet-based applications that will allow companies to create new products and services faster than existing methods, reach new customers, new engagement and business models. Gartner expects that all leading e-business platforms will support the basic Web Services infrastructure and expects a $28 billion market for Web Services by 2008 With new trends appearing and new technologies developing, the analysts project business connectivity and e-business software sales to grow to nearly $9 billion. And the trend is not a short-term one, since forecasts also predict that business connectivity software and services will be a $40 billion market by 2006.

Web Services Market Trends

Expansion of corporate IT systems beyond the boundaries of traditional enterprise and dynamic nature of the competitive landscape are creating significant business and technology challenges. Thisever-expanding universe of new generation of enterprise applications requires a radically different technological approach to building and connecting these applications into coherent large-scale solutions. Web Services are the latest in the series of industry-wide initiatives that are focused on addressing the need for connecting extended enterprise applications.

XML Web Services technology is relatively new however it has already demonstrated a number of critical properties that generated a wave of industry-wide excitement and placed them into the bright spotlight of industry analysts, the press, and leading edge practitioners. The great premise of Web Services is in their ability to flexibly and efficiently connect the extended enterprise.

Business connectivity is a complex issue and can be subdivided into several types: Internal Application Integration, External Application Integration, and Multi-Channel Integration.

Structure of services for Enterprise Business Connectivity positioning1. Deployment of the Enterprise Business Connectivity Framework and creation of the Unified Business InterfaceTM

for the Enterprise;

2. Development of specific XML Web Services for enabling the service-oriented architecture of the enterprise IT infrastructure;

3. Development of the Data Consuming Applications:

Complex information systems;

Client applications for mobile devices;

PC-based client applications;

Web-applications;

Web-oriented and/or mobile-oriented Content Management Systems on the basis of SF-CMS.

Business Connectivity for Modern EnterpriseGeneral Approach

Existing Information System



Subcontractors/suppliers

Remote Employee

Any Web-site visitors

EXTENDING BUSINESS TO THE INTERNET

Corporate Web-site with secure sections and web applications

SF-CMS

Unified Business Interface

ENTERPRISE

Mobile employees &other mobile users

Mobile client application

MOBILIZING THE BUSINESS

Mobile web-browser

B2B INTEGRATION

Office

Information Systems

OTHER BUSINESS

REMOTE OFFICE

Client Application

CORPORATE INTEGRATION

INTERNAL APPLICATION INTEGRATION

Customers

General Vision of Business Connectivity Services

One of the primary tasks for increasing the efficiency of enterprise integration and developing service oriented architecture is the development of the enterprise integration interface. Most of the existing approaches do not assure the requisite access to corporate information due to security and user administration policy.

A Web Services-based Service Oriented Architecture supports not only business but also technical possibilities, and focuses on the value derived from integrating information systems. It allows to integrate legacy systems working on different platforms and to avoid limitations imposed by the local network and firewall.

Soft Format L offers its customers the development of the Unified Business InterfaceTM (UBI) which will serve as a reliable, scalable and composite interface for future development of the extended enterprise. Business Connectivity Framework is a complex software solution for

business integration. It enables the business connectivity of the enterprise through the Unified Business InterfaceTM.

The Business Connectivity Framework consists of:

The XML Web Services which provide the data access and reflect the business logic of the source information system;

Web Services Management System SF-WSM, which enables the centralized web services management;

Unified Business InterfaceTM – a set of open standardized XML Web Services for enabling the interaction of the external systems with the enterprise IT infrastructure.

Business Connectivity Framework consolidates the Information Systems into a single cross-corporate system and separates business function logic usage from physical implementation. Thus it provides data consumers with access to the required data from versatile Data Sources.

Business Connectivity Framework Solution on the basis of XML Web Services

Business Connectivity Framework Solution

Enterprise Information System TierEnterprise Information Systems include existing and newly developed information

systems and databases, which will serve as data sources during integration and extending business to Internet.

Adapters allow connection of Web Services to systems that were not originally developed as Web Services-based. Adapters can be written in-house or purchased from software vendors of existing Information Systems. Some examples of systems that can use adapters include internally developed systems, database systems, CORBA, COM/DCOM.

Web Services make up connection technology, which enables integration of WebServices into a service-oriented architecture. The advantage of XML Web Services within the Business Connectivity Framework Solution is their slimmed-down functionality and thus simplicity of maintainability and extensibility. This is achieved by the architectural solution of the Business Connectivity Framework, where XML Web Services reflect the business logic of the source information system and the data access logic.

Unified Business InterfaceTM

Web Services Management System provides centralized management of security policy and authorization of entire corporate Web Services infrastructure. It provides external systems with unified open interface (Unified Business InterfaceTM) for interaction with existing enterprise Web Services infrastructure.

Intranet TierXML firewalls offer the promise of protecting internal systems when using Web

Services. Traditional firewalls offer protection at the packet level and do not examine the contents of messages. XML firewalls, on the other hand, examine the contents of messages. This includes the SOAP headers and the XML content. They are designed to permit authorized content to pass through the firewall.

Internal Applications encompass all enterprise software applications (WinApplications, WebApplications, WebServices, etc), which interact with the existing Web Services infrastructure.

Internet TierFirewalls offer protection at the packet level and protect enterprises from attack.External Applications encompass all enterprise software applications (Win

Applications, Mobile Applications, external ІС, etc) beyond the enterprise, which interact with the existing Web Services infrastructure through the Internet.

Unified Business InterfaceTM

Conceptual Vision

XML Web Services are not the only technology applicable for developing the business connectivity solutions still having a number of significant advantages over other:

• Interoperability — by operating on the “system boundaries”, Web Services achieve a higher level of commonality than previously available. XML Web Services can work with the heterogeneous environment, i.e. they can both receive data from versatile sources and act as data sources for completely incompatible systems, thus ensuring their integration.

• Operational simplicity — using Web Services, business logic of individual systems can beexposed over the Web. Developers or business analysts can compose custom client-side solution for a particular business problem by combining the Web Services that they require.

• Scalability — because of the component-based model of XML Web Services, the technology secures the scalability and extensibility of the solution. Thus it allows the incremental development of the integration solution, assures the capabilities for future modifications, enhancements, etc.

• Ubiquity — because Web Services are provided over the Internet, they are accessible from anywhere and furthermore, because of the standards they are developed with, Web Services respect existing security systems such as firewalls.

Expediency of using XML Web Services

Increase of efficiency and centralized monitoring of Web Services infrastructure;

Web services monitoring and audit enables obtaining real time and historical information about web services functioning, their load and malfunctions;

IT managers are able to perform centralized management and control of Web Services infrastructure;

In case of overload or malfunctions there exists a flexible mechanism of automatic errors handling and system recovery;

Dynamic redirection supports simultaneous functioning of multiple web services and optimal distribution of load;

Flexibility and integration solutions extension management.

There exists a possibility to add new web services and extend interfaces of the system.

Centralized security management for the integrated IT infrastructure.

SF-WSM supports the majority of technological authentication and authorization standards and provides the necessary security of web services.

There exists a possibility both to create own directory of users and to utilize domain users directory

Speeding up the implementation and deployment of new web services.

Since SF-WSM provides centralized XML web services management (routing and monitoring, SLA, access control and security management) it enables avoiding development of given management functions for each specific web service.

Advantages of utilization of Web Services Management System (SF-WSM) for Business Connectivity Framework (BCF)

Advantages of utilization of Content Management System for developing the Extended Enterprise

Enterprise will significantly benefit from implementation of the CMS because the latter:

Ensures scalability and extensibility of the IT infrastructure of extended enterprise;

Reduces time-to-market and Total Cost of Ownership for enhancements and modifications of the IT infrastructure;

Assures integral maintainability and manageability of the extended enterprise;

Empowers business users to manage their own content and removes constraints of having IT staff maintaining content;

Enables business users to deliver Web applications, such as online forms for internal and external use without involving IT;

Increases customer, partner and supplier satisfaction with accurate and timely web sites;

Automates processes and increases velocity of Web site, Intranet, and Extranet content changes;

Supports organizations’ need to deliver the same content to multiple locations in multiple presentation formats and eliminate costly, redundant steps.

Business Challenges

Technological Challenges

Provide cost effective, scalable IT infrastructure of the enterprise

Increase business efficiency by means of IT integration

Provide extensibility of existing enterprise IT infrastructure without necessity of its reengineering

Provide integration of versatile information systems in heterogeneous business environment

Avoid necessity of information system reengineering for its integration with other systems

Offer flexible and reliable security management mechanism within the enterprise information systems

Achieve high maintainability and operability of the integrated information systems

UBI-based Internal Application Integration

Any existing enterprise information systems can be used as Internal Data Sources. Integration is achieved through customized XML Web Services which utilize existing enterprise Information System’s business logic and provide access to the system data.

Web services are controlled through the Web Services Management System SF-WSM, which is the integral part of the BCF.

The BCF consolidates Information Systems into a single cross-corporate system and provides Data Consumers with access to the required data from versatile Data Sources.

Both existing and newly developed Client Applications and Information Systems can act as Internal Data Consumers.

Since all Data Consumers connect to Data Sources via the UBI, the BCF allows centralized application of security policy and realizes unified access to existing Information Systems.


Business Challenges


Gain additional competitive advantages through acceleration and increase of effectiveness of collaboration with business partners

Increase business efficiency within and beyond the enterprise through improvement of procurement processes, maximization of supply chains, reduction of transaction costs

Enable interoperability between information systems of business partners

Provide secure information flow between integrated systems

Provide scalability for integration of information systems of business partners

UBI-based Business-to-Business Integration

Service-oriented architecture of enterprise IT infrastructure is implemented through customized XML Web Services, which utilize existing enterprise Information System’s business logic and provide access to its data.

Web Services Management System SF-WSM enables Business Connectivity Framework to be based on both newly developed and existing XML Web Services, enabling consolidation of Data Sources into integrated information environment for B2B integration.

The BCF assures extensibility and scalability of Business-to-Business integration, enabling the enterprise to be concurrently integrated with a number of business partners through the UBI. Both existing and newly developed External Client Applications and Information Systems can act as Data Consumers.

SF-WSM ensures centralized XML Web Services management and enables application of centralized security policy for all types of Data Consumers.


Business Challenges


Gain additional competitive advantages through development of web-extended enterprise solutions

Increase business efficiency by enabling web interaction between company’s employees, business partners, clients, suppliers and contractors

Transform static, presentation-type web-sites into web-enabled, service-oriented corporate web portals

Extend range of services, gain new markets with utilization of e-businesses

Enable interaction with the existing Information Systems through web interface

Provide flexible and reliable mechanism of security management

Achieve convergence of versatile web applications into corporate web portal

Extending Business to Internet using UBI

Development of web-applications and enabling their interoperability with the existing information systems of an enterprise are main constituents of extending business to Internet.

SF-CMS enables development and subsequent maintenance of web applications as the parts of a corporate web-portal, providing an enterprise with a scalable and reliable platform for e-business and its integration into the enterprise IT infrastructure.

As in previous cases, integration with the existing IT infrastructure is performed through the BCF, which enables consolidation of data sources and provides Data Consumers with the UBI.

SF-WSM ensures centralized XML Web Services management and application of centralized security policy for all types of Data Consumers, thus supporting the reliability and manageability of the Business Connectivity Framework as the basis for web-enabling an enterprise.

Business extension to Internet can be achieved through a variety of custom web-applications depending on web-enabled business function. Although when planning Web EnterpriseInfrastructure, an option of using Content Management System might be considered for securing its manageability and maintainability.


Business Challenges


Increase human resources work effectiveness through mobilization of business processes

Provide responsiveness of businesses in collaboration with partners, clients, suppliers and contractors

Provide possibilities for the mobile company’s personnel to perform their business functions

Extend enterprise services range through implementation of mobile solutions for the customers

Provide secure information interchange between the company and its mobile business partners

Develop unified interface of client applications for access to enterprise information systems through mobile devices

Fulfill excessive functionality of client applications for mobile devices

Achieve interaction with existing information systems

Mobilizing Business using UBI

Any existing enterprise information systems can be used as internal data sources. Integration is achieved through customized XML Web Services which utilize existing enterprise Information System's business logic and provide data access to the System.

Web services are controlled through SF-WSM, which is an integral part of the BCF.

The BCF consolidates Information Systems into a single cross-corporate system and provides mobile consumers with access to the required data from versatile Data Sources.

Mobile clients can access data through rich-client applications installed on mobile devices as well as interact using a web-browser with a web-application which is integrated with the existing IT infrastructure through the Unified Business InterfaceTM.

Since all Data Consumers connect to Data Sources via the UBI, the BCF allows centralized application of security policy and realizes unified access to the existing Information Systems.

Mobile client applications can be developed for laptops, tablet PCs, PDAs, Smartphones, cellular phones or any other kind of mobile devices with any software installed (mobile browsers, rich client applications, etc.). Both existing and newly developed client applications and Information Systems can act as Internal Data Consumers.


Soft Formal L can offer its customers high-quality services within the following technological profile:

Operation Systems: Microsoft operation systems for PCs and mobile devices; Symbian OS

Platforms: Microsoft .NET, Microsoft .NET Compact Framework, JVM

Programming languages: C#, C++, VB .NET, XML/XSLT, HTML/DHTML; Java, J#

SQL: PL/SQL, T-SQL, ANSI SQL

Script languages: VBScript, JScript

Technologies: Web Services, .NET Remoting, COM/DCOM, COM+, ADO.NET, ADO

Web-technologies: ASP.NET, Mobile ASP.NET

Databases: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server

Software Architecture: client/server, multi-tier

Technological Expertise

Business Connectivity Framework provides a universal platform for business integration and ensures scalability and extensibility of the IT infrastructure

Cost-effective and efficient integration of the legacy systems using brand-new technologies (XML Web Services)

Business Connectivity Framework allows integrating the IT systems without reengineering them, thus allowing to reduce the cost of maintaining and developing the enterprise IT infrastructure

Low cost of the solution as compared to other existing solutions

Possibility of modular implementation which does not require considerable initial investments.

Unified Business InterfaceTM ensures the interoperability of the enterprise with is business partners, thus increasing the business transactions efficiency as well increasing market attractiveness and competitiveness of the Customer.

Business Connectivity Framework allows the centralized management and control over the integrated information system of the extended enterprise.

Extending business to the Internet or mobilizing the business via the Business Connectivity Framework allows adopting new business models or transforming the value chains to ensure higher efficiency of co-operation with remote employees, dealers, subsidiaries, etc. Moreover, they allow for more proximity with the customer thus increasing his satisfaction and more precise fulfillment of the requirements and needs.

Valuable Offer to Customers

Partnership Benefits

Generation of a new highly remunerative profit source by establishing a smooth and synergetic business partnership with Soft Format L, effectiveness of which is ensured by aligning the positioning with your business

Extending the range of CMS-based services

Possibility to use existing customers base thus reducing time and cost of partnership market entry

A low technological and financial barrier of client acquisition ensured by low time and cost investments for initial implementation and possibility to realize the solution on any Information system without the need for reengineering.

Reducing costs and shortening time-to market due to:availability of a wide scope of ready made components, which are used for the solutionreusability and extensibility of the solution on the basis of the existing re-use components and proven architectural practices and those generated in the course of providing the services to the customerhighly-qualified offshore personnel, which ensures low cost and high quality of the services

This positioning allows to create a unique business offer of the partnership based on: market differentiation, which is achieved by the convergence of the ready-made solutions (WSM, CMS) and qualitative custom services.application of structural components of the solution which are entirely developed and owned by the partners and positioned as transparent and manageable integral parts of the entire solution, as contrasted to the third party vendors providing similar services.reliability, predictability, and low level of uncertainties and risks granted by the technical transparency of the solution

Due to the complexity of the solution, the partnership is flexible in selecting profit sources within the services, thus ensuring the highest possible revenue rate in every certain case.

business connectivity solution

Economy & Finance

unified business

realizes unified

business connectivity

source information

versatile

data consumers

internal data

internal data