SOA Not Just For Big Business Anymore

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February 23, 2007

SOA Not Just For Big Business Anymore

SOA isn't just for big business anymore. An electrical cooperative and auto parts retailer show how costs can be avoided and customers better served, thanks to SOA.

The Southside Electric Cooperative in Virginia turned to SOA to better manage its growing account base and provide more responsive service. As explained in this recent article, the utility's number of accounts had increased by 73% over the past five years, from 30,000 to 52,000. The utility's goal was to respond quickly to customer requests and service outages. However, the utility had six unconnected databases to store information on outages, dispatches, electricity usage, geographic mapping, billing and accounts receivable.Employees had to manually key in service requests and query several databases just for a single service trip.

Enter SOA. In 2005, the utility began work on its SOA to integrate information from all the separate databases. The goal was to have all databases appear as if they were one, and to create a system that linked all departments and functions to provide employees with reliable information, says Linda Easter Davis, information systems supervisor at Southside Electric.

The systems integrated include a customer information system (CIS), geographic information system (GIS), automated meter reading, financial management, materials management and mobile data. The GIS uses an Oracle database, and the CIS data resides on an IBM i5 operating system.

Southside Electric integrated its six databases using IBM's WebSphere product line, which includes three basic components: messages, adapters and a broker, Davis says. "Messages are the data," she points out. "Adapters are used to retrieve the data from a database and send it to the broker, as well as sending it from the broker back to the database. The broker sits in the middle between all databases and is programmed to know what data needs to be sent to what database."

Southside Electric estimates the efficiencies will help decrease average power outage times from a week to no more than two days.

Davis says one of the biggest challenges was blocking enough time out for the SOA project. "When we first started this, we would hit it for two weeks, then wait, then go another two weeks. Other projects strained the department," Davis recalls. "Finally, we just took a deep breath and said, 'We've got to dedicate a month of time and get this done.' That's the only way I'd ever approach this again."

VIP Auto, based in Maine, employed SOA to modernize its supply chain applications without the need for a painful systems overhaul. VIP installed a layer of software services that provide a common interface to its existing IBM i5-based retail back office systems while also enabling the incremental development and delivery of new in-store, warehouse and back office business processes. (See article here.)

VIP is using Avorcor's SOA for Supply Chain and Logistics (SOA4SCL) solution. The approach has "enabled us to turn the tactical replacement of aging warehouse scanners into a strategic asset for the company, enabling real-time access to inventory data, warehouse operational metrics, and rapid processing of special orders to our retail network," said Dan Grosz, VIP's vice president of information technology. "Going forward we see continued significant benefits from the system in improving warehouse efficiency and supporting electronic commerce."

Posted by joemckendrick in SOA | Digg This | Add to del.icio.us