Agility Meets Stability

8/3/2019 Agility Meets Stability

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IBM Software

Thought Leadership White Paper

March 2011

Agility Meets Stability: BestPractices for Application IntegrationBy Dan Moore, SVP Professional Services - IBM, Cast Iron


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2 Agility Meets Stability: Best Practices for Application Integration

Contents

2 Introduction

2 Emerging trends in the application environment

4 A hybrid solution for a hybrid world

6 Best practices in a hybrid world

8 Case studies

IntroductionTodays IT leaders are well aware of the growing need for an

effective application integration solution. It isnt the complexity

of the technical challenges that keeps you awake at night; its the

risk of investing time and resources in an integration approach

that may or may not deliver the business value you need. To that

end, you are exploring your options and studying best practices

to keep your organization lean and agile enough to take advan-

tage of the latest best-of-breed solutions, while at the same time

maintaining the stability needed for your IT department to con-tinue to meet the needs of line-of-business stakeholders.

In this paper, Dan Moore, the senior vice president of

professional services at IBM, Cast Iron reviews the current

application environment in light of emerging trends, describes

an ideal complete integration solution, and discusses

commonsense best practices as well as pitfalls. He also presents

two IBM WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration implemen-

tation case studies: Siemens Energy, a sector of the industrial

enterprise giant Siemens, and CompWest Insurance, a dynamic

mid-market provider of workers compensation, which IT lead-

ers like you may find relevant to resolving your own integration

challenges.

Emerging trends in the application

environmentHype aside, in the world of enterprise applications, cloud com-

puting is arguably the next big thing. It is a major shift in the

way applications are purchased, delivered, and implemented.

According to cloud-computing surveys of C-level executives in

Worldwide Cloud Revenue

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

27%CAG

R

$60B

$50B

$40B

$30B

$20B

$10B

$0B

Global Public Cloud Market: $55.5B in 2014, Source: IDC


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IBM Software 3

Australia, Europe, and North America conducted by Kelton

Research in January and September 2009, the number of global

organizations using both local, or on-premise, and cloud-based

applications increased from 33 to 54 percent in just nine months.

IDC reports that cloud applications are the fastest growing sec-

tor in software with a forecasted compound annual growth rate

of 27 percent from 2009 through 2014.

That said, the majority of enterprise applications, whether pack-aged or proprietary, are still on premise. Gartner has reported

that in 2009, Software as a Service (SaaS), which is cloud-based

by definition, represented only 3.4 percent of total enterprise

application spending. Existing on-premise applications hold

crucial business information that private and public cloud-based

applications must be able to access and enhance for organiza-

tions to take full advantage of the cloud. Integration between

on-premise applications is demanding enough, as evidenced by

integration efforts already claiming one out of every three IT

dollars; throw cloud-based applications into the mix, and you

need a very agile, flexible integration solution.

The emerging distribution of computing infrastructure and

applications across locations, including on-premise as well as

managed and co-located data centers, renders integration even

more critical and complex. And the option for hosted sites for

Infrastructure, Platform, and Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS,

and SaaS, respectively) can add an order of magnitude to this

complexity. Connecting nodes in all of these locations to nodes

in any or all of the other locations poses integration challenges

in application functionality and interoperability, developmentproductivity, management and maintenance efficiency, and

flexibility and scalability. If done right, however, application

integration can deliver both strategic and technical value. By

automating the sharing of data between applications, it can help

to streamline business processes for improved efficiency and

performance. Integration can also provide business agility, giving

companies the flexibility to easily adapt to changing business

needs. It can also reduce IT costs by freeing IT resources

from time-consuming, low-level integration tasks for higher

value projects.

Although the benefits of integration between on-premise and

cloud-based applications are clear, previous integration

approaches, including cloud-only tools, EAI/ETL/BPM middle-

ware, and custom code, dont provide the agility and flexibility or

stability and viability you need.


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Cloud-only integration toolsare designed for simple cloud-to-

cloud scenarios; however, they lack the sophisticated function-

ality required to integrate cloud-based applications with

packaged or proprietary on-premise applications. Many

cloud-only integration tool providers are relative start-ups

whose viability is yet to be proven. EAI/ETL/BPM middleware platformsprovide rich functionality

to meet Enterprise Application Integration (EAI); extract,

transform, and load (ETL); and business process management(BPM) challenges. These solutions can also equate to a longer,

more complex roll-out cycle, as well as require a dedicated

skill-set to deploy and maintain. Custom code can be a quick integration solution at an initially

lower cost, until labor-intensive and time-consuming mainte-

nance and support reveal its hidden costs. Custom code

requires an initial and on-going investment in skilled

programmers and isnt easily scaled or leveraged for future

integration projects.

Cloud-only tools often appeal to smaller companies with limited

resources and simple integration needs between cloud-based

applications. At the opposite end of the scale, EAI/ETL/BPM

middleware is the approach many large enterprises take because

they have the resources and time to invest in developing plat-

forms for complex integration environments. Custom code is the

traditional approach for the majority of organizations, but recent

advancements offer a more efficient and effective approach to

integrating critical applications.

A hybrid solution for a hybrid world

Public Clouds Private Clouds

PackagedApps

Hom

e-grownApps

Integration is critical in a hybrid world


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5IBM Software

The new generation of integration solutions features single

robust integration platforms designed to deliver everything

needed for cloud and on-premise application integration. The

ideal integration platform provides complete deployment flexi-

bility, integration capabilities, connectivity, and reusability:

Complete deployment flexibility A multitenant cloud-based integration service A physical appliance that can be installed and managed

within a local data center A virtual appliance that can be installed on existing servers

by using virtualization technology

Complete integration capabilities Cloud data migration

Data handling, using the platforms data cleansing and data

migration capabilities, enables companies to cleanse, enrich,

and migrate data from existing applications to cloud-based

applications in real time.

Cloud data synchronization

Connectivity, workflow, and transformation features enable

the coordination of integration processes across multiple

applications in real time.

Cloud user interface (UI) mashups

Information from one or multiple back-end systems can be

unified for display in the user interface of a front-office

application.

Complete connectivity

Native application protocols enable connectivity to the end-

points of hundreds of packaged and proprietary on-premise

applications and public and private cloud-based applications,

including ERP, CRM, databases, web services, and flat files.

This progressive approach to integration makes no distinction

between local and remote applications because connectivity is

established to the endpoints using native application proto-

cols. The advantage is that no additional adapters are requiredand there is nothing to install or change at the endpoints.

Complete reusability

Hundreds of reusable Template Integration Processes (TIPs)

for all of the most common on-premise and cloud-based inte-

gration scenarios are searchable and immediately available in

an online library.

The ease of using the next-generation integration solutions

should match the simplicity of cloud applications. Both eliminate

the need to write any code, do not require installation or deploy-

ment of software and provide configuration capability, while

reducing costs.

Ease-of-use. Ideal integration platforms have comprehensive

functionality within a simple, familiar browser-based interface

that is intuitive and requires minimal training. Integration

projects should be able to be completed without requiring

specialist resources or writing custom code.


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Low IT impact. The solution should provide completely self-

contained services delivered via either on an on-premise appli-

ance or the cloud with nothing else for IT to add or buy.

Ongoing management and maintenance should impose mini-

mal to no requirements on IT. Easy to change. Look for customizations, workflows and pref-

erences that are performed through configuration, not coding.

Changes should be easy to make because the integration just

needs to be reconfigured whenever business needs or processeschange.

Significant cost savings. Term licensing pricing options can

slash up-front expenditure costs. Integration can also reduce

ERP licensing costs by eliminating the need for cloud users

to log into back-office applications.

Best practices in a hybrid worldIn the last three years alone, IBM, Cast Iron has worked with

hundreds of customers on thousands of integration scenarios.

Weve developed our expertise based on real-world experience

across industries in businesses of all sizes. In our work with part-

ners and customers, we try to reconcile the stability one often

finds in legacy systems and the potential for agility that cloud

solutions offer. It definitely does not have to be a one or the

other dilemma.

Just like their application counterparts, the difference between

traditional on-premise integration initiatives and cloud-based

application integration couldnt be greater. In the past, business

transformation initiatives were massive: they tended to be

enterprise-wide deployments of complex integration platforms

by large IT teams. These initiatives required extensive develop-

ment and testing cycles and their time-to-value was measured

in years. Todays cloud application deployments are at the

other extreme with lean infrastructure and resource require-ments, including smaller, more dynamic teams. They offer

pre-packaged functionality for rapid configuration and iteration

to add or increase business value, and their time-to-value is

measured in weeks.

We now see companies opting for cloud and virtual deployments

as a viable option to reduce costs associated with hardware. They

want both the stability of legacy systems and the agility of cloud-

based applications, and they need to connect the two to share

data to realize the full value of emerging technologies. To that

end, they dont want to get stuck with an inflexible architecture

that wont evolve with changing business needs, but they are also

risk aversethey are looking for a viable, future-proof integra-

tion solution. In adopting the cloud, our customers also find that

with multiple outsourcing options come multiple vendor man-

agement challenges. Sound familiar? You have a huge job as an

IT leader; our job is to make yours easier.


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7IBM Software

Many of the best practices for hybrid integration will sound

familiar to you, but a few are counterintuitive although proven

effective over time:

Confirm business value before each phase of your integration project.

In other words, diagnose each pain point in your business

processes and prescribe the cure each integration will deliver.

In the legacy world, you always confirm up front the strategic

objective of a large application deployment and a long integra-tion and business process reengineering initiative. In the

hybrid world of on-premise and especially cloud-based appli-

cations, you deploy and realize value very quickly, but then

iterate with additional phases and further business process

reengineering efforts. It is important to identify the business

value of each phase, not just at the beginning of the project.

Note:With phased implementation, it is important to balance

the goals of delivering a reengineered business process quickly

and delivering enough improvement to the business process that

it has a meaningful impact on the bottom line. If you do too

much, your delivery dates will be pushed and efficiency will be

questioned. If you do too little, the rest of the company wont

recognize the business value. In summary, implement in phases

for incremental success, but make sure each phase isnt so granu-

lar that it fails to address any significant process pain point.

Build the framework for the future from the start and phase the

implementation over time.

You may want to connect several systems and applications,

exchange information, and integrate or aggregate around a

particular solution. Take a macro view of the integration issues

and you wont miss any opportunities to add business value in

the future. Again, dont try to do everything in the initial

phases, but as you consider how the business process transfor-

mation will unfold, also consider end states and build the basic

object hooks and infrastructure for connecting to other critical

applications in the future.

Preconfigured Template Integration Processes (TIPs)

Re-use, economize, and optimize with templates and the user

community.

Working with hundreds of customers has shown us that there

is considerable similarity in many of the integration patterns

between applications such as SAP and Salesforce.com and

Oracle EBS 11i or 12i and Salesforce.com. You start by

synchronizing accounts and associating contacts, for example.

Basic system components and key data elements are almost

always involved. You have to work through the customizationsthat are specific to your business to get the full value of the

integration; however, many of the basics have already been

built, packaged, and tested as working software that is available

for download. In addition to providing data elements, objects,

and structures, these templates also offer best practices such

as error handling, exception notification, and documentation.

You dont have to start from scratch when working with an

experienced integration platform provider.


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Ensure data quality and consistency for on-going success.

Never compromise data quality. Enough said.

Build your team early. Evangelize management for buy in

and support.

Often, particularly with cloud application integrations, project

teams today are smaller and members are part-time or ad

hoc, which is a big change from having a manager or expert

who becomes part of the team for the duration of a businessprocess transformation project. Now youll have various

experts from across the organization that youll rely upon

depending on where you are in the development and testing

cycle. This places a premium on setting expectations and

aligning leadership to provide real-time access to these experts.

You will plan and schedule their time, but your team will need

access to their expertise as issues arise. Management has to be

on board to make that happen, and you as the projects cham-

pion have to evangelize to upper management and across the

line of business. It may seem intuitive that a smaller team

working together for a shorter period of time would require

less communication, but experience has proven the opposite

to be true. Due to the nature of todays project teams, it is

far more productive to over-communicate.

Work with outside experts, rather than hiring, while your team

learns.

Cloud computing focuses on speed to market as one of its

primary values, and this emphasis on speed compresses the

time you have to become acquainted with a new technology.

There are many specialists now who have deep expertise in

these technologies; take full advantage of their knowledge and

experience while your team gets up to speed. Theres no need

to add any additional stress when you are trying to deliverbusiness value quickly under tight deadlines with limited

resources.

Case studiesBoth of the following companies have done an admirable job of

hybrid integration projects using WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud

integration. For more information on our solution, please visit

www.castiron.com

Siemens Energy

In the United States, the industrial giant Siemens consists of

three sectorsEnergy, Healthcare, and Industrywith three to

six divisions in each. Six of the six divisions of Siemens Energy

Fossil Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Oil and Gas,

Service Rotating Equipment, Power Transmission, and Power
http://www.castiron.com/http://www.castiron.com/


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9IBM Software

Distributionare using IBM WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud inte-

gration to connect their public cloud-based Salesforce.com cus-

tomer relationship management (CRM) application and

on-premise SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Salesforce.com is distributed across 640 seats in six divisions and

is used by Siemens Energys North American sales force. SAP is

Siemens Energys worldwide back-office standard for order

management, financials, and purchasing and the sectors system

of record for testing and diagnostics in the U.S.

Four major challenges and one critical goal

1. Siemens Energy had made significant progress in standardiz-

ing its business processes between SAP and Salesforce.com,

but the platform consolidation was incomplete partially due to

the unique reporting needs of individual businesses.

2. Although a business warehouse is part of Siemens Energys IT

roadmap, it was not yet in place. It would allow for some

aggregate reporting but initially not enough customization to

meet the needs of the various divisions.

3. The need and demand for reporting key business performance

data from SAP was very high. Internal customers wanted to

be able to display and view business results in customized

dashboards.

4. In-house developer support was limited to SAP, and two of

the divisions have no development staff for IT projects.

The divisions goal was to integrate SAP and Salesforce.com,

making the data in the ERP system available in the CRM appli-

cation without writing code. Specifically, they wanted complete

visibility of the forecast pipeline, including orders, shipments,

and invoices, in one place within Salesforce.com with dynamic

reporting.

salesforce.com

SAP salesforce.com

Custom CodeCustom Code

Siemens Energy, INC: Sales order and invoice visibility


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Options

Siemens Energy initially considered developing the integration

in house, but writing custom code, although quick, was too pro-

gramming intensive and they lacked programming resources. It

was also too difficult to modify as their business needs changed.

The divisions also considered traditional EAI middleware, but

concluded that it was too costly, posed too steep a learning

curve, and offered no native Salesforce.com connectivity.

When the company brought IBM, Cast Iron in to do a live

demo, they were impressed by the simplicity of its configuration-

based approach to real-time, bidirectional integration and built-

in Salesforce.com and SAP connectivity. Not wanting to

maintain code or servers, Siemens Energy leases a WebSphere

Cast Iron Cloud integration appliance on a monthly basis, which

includes full 24/7 support.

Project strategy

Siemens Energys IT has a phased approach to success. They

start small to build integration expertise and confidence, and

then expand to other projects and business units.

First project

Phase 1: extracting invoice and order status from SAP and

bringing it into Salesforce.com Phase 2: entering line item data from orders into product

opportunities

Second project Phase 1: synchronizing customer and product master data

from Salesforce.com for accounts in SAP Phase 2: creating opportunities for the Service Divisions spare

parts quotes and order creation.

WebSphere Cast Iron

Cloud Integration

salesforce.com

SAP salesforce.com

Siemens Energy, INC: Real-time integration in days


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11IBM Software

Results

In less than three weeks, IT completed Phase 1 of the first proj-

ect, providing greater visibility into Salesforce.com, which

resulted in faster adoption by the sales team. The simplified user

interface and reusability of WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integra-

tion provided Siemens with a platform for all future integration

projects, and was subsequently used to enable the use of

Salesforce.coms newest offering, Chatter, to provide real-time

updates from SAP.

Future plans

Siemens Energy plans to expand its integration capabilities

across departments to enhance supply chain visibility so that cus-

tomers can see where their order is at any point. This includes

going mobile for reps and agents and by driving customers

to a portal to access their order status.

Lessons

Siemens Energy learned that its integration strategy was very

similar to its CRM platform strategy: Make simplicity a must-have: no software and no develop-

ment, just rapid deployment, low maintenance and the flexibil-

ity to easily make changes. Choose simple solutions, not build-it-yourself tools:

WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration provided simplicity

and complete functionality. Clearly define and agree to the business and technical require-

ments up front. This is the key to rapid deployment. Start simple to deliver quick results. Build on your initial expe-

rience and success.

CompWest Insurance Company

Founded in 2004, CompWest is a dynamic mid-market provider

of workers compensation insurance in the western United

States. With distribution through a partner broker network,

CompWest provides employers with long-term cost savings by

caring for injured workers.

With rapid growth, CompWest had multiple business processes

that needed to be integrated, including a mishmash of applica-tions and file types as well as FTP and email for external and

internal document routing. The company also had outgrown its

manual processes for the management, transmission, and deliv-

ery of data.

Michael Knibbs, Vice President and CIO of CompWest imme-

diately identified the need for application and data integration

and consolidated management. Their first project was to imple-

ment connectivity between the companys Stone River policy

management system and proprietary cloud-based CompWeb

quoting system:

Phase 1 - New business processing Phase 2 - Renewal policies

Phase 3 - Agency upload of submissions

Currently under development is integration between the

Stone River policy management system and the Guidewire

claims system.


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FTP/Flat files

StoneRiverGuidewireSQL ServerFTP (Flat Files)

ManualDataEntry

CompWest Insurance: Policy quote and claims processing integration

Challenges

CompWest faced two major systems integration challenges:

Multiple electronic data interchange (EDI) vendors were

using FTP to deliver various file types, ranging from claims

documentation to transactional data. Workflow was manual:

User logged in to see what was routed into the queue

User manually copied files to production endpoints

No contingency for workflow if user was unavailable

Time consuming, inconsistent routing and error-prone

data entry

Latency in claims reporting increased risk for all parties

CompWest also had challenges specific to integration of its pol-

icy and quote systems that resulted in data accuracy problems,

time-to-service delays, and increased labor costs:

Insurance applications were made through a web-basedquoting system.

Upon sale, data was re-entered into the policy management

system.

Options

CompWest tried spaghetti wiring and custom code, but multi-

ple point-to-point hard-coded integrations on different plat-

forms and in different languages didnt provide process

management or scheduling across vendors, and maintenance

became unmanageable.

They considered the Microsoft BizTalk Server, but this solution

seemed more focused on database and messaging instead of

speed and agility. The traditional architecture simply didnt fit

their overall IT strategy.


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13IBM Software

FTP/Flat files

StoneRiverGuidewireSQL ServerFTP (Flat Files)

WebSphere Cast IronCloud Integration

CompWest Insurance: Real-Time Integration in Days

Solution

WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration offered CompWest

many benefits: The no-coding approach delivered real-time, bi-directional

integration in weeks. The availability of tested and proven templated integration

processes (TIPs) for common scenarios saves time and

resources. Professional services were available for the first phase. The IT team could be quickly trained to be self-sufficient. The easy-to-use interface provided a centralized management

console. WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration was agile and flexible

enough to serve as the platform for all future integration

projects.

Results Using WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration, CompWest

has eliminated manual data entry between systems to reduce

claims adjustment costs by eliminating erroneous and dupli-

cate payouts. By integrating systems, CompWest also has eliminated gaps

in its workflow for a significant improvement in employee

efficiency and productivity.


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Key IT resources are now available for higher value projects

such as re-engineering and automating processes instead of

correcting manual data processing errors. Real-time integration has reduced claims processing times and

risk, resulting in incremental revenue from increased customer

satisfaction and retention.

Future plans

CompWest plans to continue to enhance its legacy policy systemby connecting it with web-based services using WebSphere Cast

Iron Cloud integration. The company will enable policy

renewals with its CompWeb application. CompWest is also

exploring the possibility of delivering outbound documents using

Adobe XML and WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration to

populate Adobe XML forms.

Lessons

Understand your business processesre-engineer for optimal

performance instead of automating existing processes:

Analyze requirements. Identify current and potential business partners. Enable your environment for external services. Follow the 80/20 rule.

Understand the total cost of ownership of processes to ascertain

their value, e.g. the hidden cost of data correction due to manual

entry errors.

Partner with IBM, Cast Iron to leverage best practices:

Re-use design patterns when applicableleverage TIPs! Identify industry trends and future-proof solutions such as

standards-based messaging ACORD XML. Think beyond integration to business process outsourcing

for non-core processes.

About the author

Dan Moore manages worldwide

professional services for IBM,

Cast Iron. He has more than

17 years of senior management

experience leading global profes-

sional services organizations at

both start-ups and top-tierconsulting organizations. Prior to

joining IBM, Cast Iron, Dan led the

development and implementation

of a SaaS solution to track world-

wide maritime cargo as the

Director of Operations and Advanced programs for

SaviNetworks. As Vice President of Professional Services for

Saqqara Systems, he oversaw all customer implementations

and operations for a SaaS catalog management solution to

support over 25,000 production users in Asia, Europe, and

the U.S. Dan has also served as Director of Alliances for

Avayas $700 million software portfolio and was responsible

for double-digit growth in the groups OEM and partnerchannels.

As an entrepreneur, Dan was the co-founder and CTO of

OpenShelf, where he oversaw all development and customer

services until the start-ups acquisition. Earlier in his career,

he spent nine years at Accenture, contributing to the growth

of the firms CRM practice into one of its largest revenue

drivers. He holds a BS in Finance and an M.B.A. with

a concentration in Computer Science from the University

of Florida.


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Notes


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Please Recycle

For more informationTo learn more about the WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integra-

tion, please contact your IBM marketing representative or

IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website:

ibm.com/software/integration/cast-iron-cloud-integration/

Additionally, financing solutions from IBM Global Financing

can enable effective cash management, protection from technol-

ogy obsolescence, improved total cost of ownership and return

on investment. Also, our Global Asset Recovery Services help

address environmental concerns with new, more energy-efficient

solutions. For more information on IBM Global Financing,

visit:ibm.com/financing

Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

IBM CorporationSoftware GroupRoute 100Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A.

Produced in the United States of AmericaMarch 2011All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com and WebSphere are trademarks ofInternational Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other

countries or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked ontheir first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol ( or ),these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned byIBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may alsobe registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current listof IBM trademarks is available on the web at Copyright and trademarkinformation atibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

Cast Iron Systems is a trademark or registered trademark of Cast IronSystems, Inc. (or its affiliates), an IBM Company.

Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or servicemarks of others.

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Agility Meets Stability