HP says Swiss insurer Helvetia Patria has implemented a service-oriented architecture (SOA) designed by the company, and realized significant cost savings as a result by improving efficiencies through repeatable processes and consistent data on clients, policies, claims, benefits and accounting. According to an independent study by Thoughtware Worldwide, HP helped Helvetia Patria achieve a 201 per cent return on investment over a six-year period with its SOA offering.
HP claims that Helvetia Patria also reduced e-business IT operational costs by 59 per cent, and secured an internal rate of return of 26 per cent. Additionally, says HP, the company was able to decrease the amount of time to introduce new products and services as it opened new distribution channels across Europe.
“In the past, we were spending a significant amount of time and investment maintaining multiple IT environments that created more challenges than opportunities for us,” says Didier Beck, head of the eBusiness Center, Helvetia Patria Group. “HP is a true partner who worked with us every step of the way to create a solution that could speed our entry into new sales channels and market segments.”
SOA is described by HP as “an approach for managing computing environments that uses loosely coupled, reusable and standards-based services to address changing business needs.” In reality, Helvetia Patria turned to HP to implement a centralized Internet-based platform for the insurance industry that links information among its employees, distributors and customers across Europe.
Using HP Nimius software and BEA WebLogic Server, HP built the SOA platform on an industry-standard, open architecture with integrated user management and multi-linguistic capabilities.
The new platform enabled Helvetia Patria to consolidate 15 different types of services and platforms – from Linux to IBM CICS OS/390 to .NET programs – and designed front-end web services, technical infrastructure, processes and governance components.
“Helvetia Patria is an excellent example of a company using an SOA approach to develop new business capabilities, at lower costs, while capitalizing on its need to respond to business change,” says Deborah L. Nelson, vice president, Worldwide Marketing and Alliances, HP. “HP helped to consolidate the company’s IT infrastructure onto a single platform, eliminate technology and regional operating silos, and reduce overhead costs while capturing new and greater revenue streams.”
HP claims an expertise in SOAs that encompasses partner offerings, world-class server and storage products, and leading management software, including HP OpenView SOA Manager.
In a separate development, HP has announced what it is calling “four vertical industry frameworks developed with a SOA-based approach” that it says will allow customers to integrate applications. They are aimed at the financial services, manufacturing and distribution (MDI), network and service providers, and public sector industries.
IDC forecasts that worldwide SOA-based external services spending will reach $8.6 billion in 2006, from $3.6 billion in 2005, an increase of 138 percent. By 2010, external spending for SOA services is expected to be more than $33.8 billion on a global basis.(1)
HP says its SOA frameworks will improve communication and information sharing among customers, partners and colleagues by extracting data locked in legacy applications. They can also provide tested, bundled services to help customers assess, design and accelerate the implementation of applications while reducing operational and maintenance costs, says HP.
“HP recognizes that each industry has very specific business and technology requirements to effectively run their operations,” adds Uday Kumaraswami, vice president, Worldwide Enterprise Applications Practice, HP Services.
“HP’s SOA vertical frameworks are tailored to speed up processes and provide a flexible foundation for continuous improvements in their respective industries.”
HP Open Bank and HP Open Payments are designed to ease banks’ channel application integration with an SOA-based approach to commercial and non-commercial software, including Microsoft.NET and BEA WebLogic’s J2EE.
“Four years ago, we found ourselves dealing with a disarray of sales channels built on various software applications all across Europe,” says Nick Stefania, deputy head, eBusiness Center, Helvetia Patria. “We used HP’s SOA framework to help solve this problem, and after just months, our eBusiness Center has operated so successfully that we’ve spun it out into a standalone company, called eSolutions Center. The SOA has enabled more seamless communications between sales channels, better access to real-time information and, as a result, better service for customers. In short, the new architecture has definitely played a key role in the eSolutions Center’s success.”
Based on SOA principles and three years of development, HP’s Manufacturing and Distribution Industries (MDI) reference architecture (MIRA) is designed to ensure that collaborative manufacturing solutions are rapidly delivered, flexibly maintained and harness existing investments. In developing MIRA, HP is working with BEA Systems, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.
HP’s e-government framework aims to help modernize government processes by allowing public agencies to more easily deliver new online services to customers while leveraging existing IT investments.
“As the information technology hub for the Dutch government, we are responsible for deterring illegal activities in our nation’s social payments systems,” says Olf Kinkhorst, director, Dutch Inlichtingenbureau (Information Office). “In 2003, we partnered with HP to implement an electronic data exchange built on an SOA, which has helped us make sure that only qualified citizens are receiving the appropriate payments.”
Anoka-Hennepin School District, the largest public school district in the state of Minnesota, wanted to provide centralized, secure access to everything from bus route information to individual students’ schedules and assignments, attendance records and lunch accounts. “Design and integration services provided by HP consultants for building a SOA were key in helping to bring it all together,” explains Patrick Plant, director of Technology and Information Services, Anoka-Hennepin School District.
In the telecom market, HP has developed two SOA-based frameworks that aim to enable wireless, wireline and broadband operators to create, deploy and manage services.