Build a single integrated view for users quickly and with minimal disruption

Overview

Merging disparate IT systems Continual business change and organizational consolidation, whether from a merger or an acquisition or other event, results in a myriad of hardware, software, and applications that rapidly need to work together as one solution. From the IT perspective, the response to business integration has traditionally focused on consolidating data and applications. Although this is a valid approach, it is a long-term, high-cost activity that must be balanced with the need to demonstrate a more immediate return on investment.

In this series, the IBM Software Group System House team presents you with a scenario focusing on two fictitious insurance companies involved in merging and managing two distributed and disparate IT infrastructures after a company acquisition. One company -- a 50-year-old well-established business with mainframe-based legacy IT systems -- acquires a new company with an Internet-based infrastructure. The collection of articles focuses on developing a set of solutions that provides a rapid return on investment by exploiting a combination of process management and enterprise application integration. The goal is to provide a single integrated view to customers, employees, and business partners across the two companies, with minimal disturbance to the exisitng legacy systems.

Part 1: Use business process management to create integrated solutions
January, 2004
Get an overview of a typical industry integration scenario: this article describes the technical problems faced by an insurance company trying to merge and manage two distributed and disparate IT infrastructures after it acquires another company. It profiles the two companies involved, outlines the business goals, reviews the technical constraints, describes the existing technical architectures, and defines the integration solutions. Other articles in the series describe in detail the tasks and products used to develop the total solution.

Part 2: Understand the claims system
January, 2004
Take a look at the merger and automation of the claims systems across the two companies, resulting in a common front end. This article describes the claims systems and gives an overview of the architecture and implementation of the merged claims system solution, including identification of products, platforms, and tools used.

Part 3: Design the external assessors solution
March, 2004
Learn how a new automated process eliminates manual activity by implementing Web services for interactions with external accident assessors.

Part 4: Develop CICS Cobol applications using WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer
April, 2004
Use one tool -- WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer -- to develop both Java applications and CICS COBOL applications. This article gets you up and running and developing fast.

Part 5: Understand the policy system
May, 2004
Learn the design, architecture, and products used to combine and put a common front end on the distinct policy systems of two merged insurance companies.

Part 6: Create a load-balanced cluster of WebSphere Application Servers
June, 2004
Step through this very comprehensive article to learn how to create a cluster of load-balanced WebSphere Application Servers in preparation for installing and running the applications developed for a merged insurance company solution.

Part 7, Tutorial: Create compensation in a business process
June, 2004
Learn how to handle exceptional situations in a business process by specifying corrective actions for the activities in that process.

Part 8, Tutorial: Configure WebSphere Process Choreographer
August, 2004
Learn how to configure WebSphere Process Choreographer to use an LDAP-based staff repository and create a process in WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition to assign activities to staff members registered in the LDAP repository.

Part 9: Integrate a Microsoft .NET assessor into the existing WebSphere-based claims system
September, 2004
Find out how to integrate a Microsoft .NET system-based external claims assessor within an existing WebSphere-based assessor automation scenario for a fictitious insurance company.

Part 10: Model a business process with WebSphere MQ Workflow
September, 2004
Model complex business processes using IBM WebSphere MQ Workflow Buildtime. This article shows you how to reduce overall administration costs by creating an automated claims process.

Part 11, Tutorial: Develop a SOAP over JMS Web service
November, 2004
Develop and deploy a robust SOAP over JMS Web service using IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer, WebSphere MQ, and WebSphere Application Server.

Part 12: Model Web services with WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker
December, 2004
Learn how to model SOAP messages and implement Web services in WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker. Find how to populate a message set with definitions of Web services messages and how to generate WSDL. And develop message flows to provide Web service hosting in WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker.