Integration and flexibility are central to the mid-office. The mid-office is, after all, a main junction for various distribution channels. Electronic integration is of major importance, one of the reasons being that external parties also carry out or manage services surrounding the handling process. The Inter Access WEB+ Suite does not just enable this integration using the latest technology. We, like no other, are also capable of bringing uniformity into the terminology used by different internal and external parties.
Organisations, products, services and processes change all the time. And the ability of responding to changes determines the success of an organisation. ICT may not be a bottleneck. Your solutions should be able to grow alongside internal and external developments effortlessly. This requires a clear separation between logic and programming code in areas such as workflow management and knowledge development. Processes and expertise systems must be adaptable and applicable in a mid office system fast and without risks.
The WEB+ Suite provides the mid office with an intelligent communication and control layer that handles the exchange of messages with the front office and back office. Furthermore, the mid office uses data from the primary back office systems. By integrating part of this operational information into the databank of the mid office, accessibility is continually guaranteed, even when a system or source of information is temporarily unavailable. Moreover, a high transaction certainty is achieved by the many checks in the mid office.
Both NORA and EGEM have established a local government reference-architecture for the mid office. The basic principle is to disconnect the front and back office by setting up a mid office. The WEB+ Suite already applies this disconnection now and has been incorporated into the evaluation of the reference architecture as a result.
Inter Access keeps supporting this reference architecture, enabling simpler development of new functionality – including the integration with Business Process Management (BPM) and the DMS function – as a result of standardisation.
Setting up a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the way to integrate back applications and to promote their reuse. And BPEL is the standard for the organisational rearrangement surrounding a SOA. The BPEL Process Manager offers web-based possibilities for automating workflows enabling users to merge heterogeneous applications without depending on self-built and complex point-to-point connections of other parties.
In years to come the focus will shift to this process orchestration. Inter Access has already applied the BPEL-technology in WEB+ implementations for various local government organisations. Research bureau IDC has rated the application of BPEL within the WEB+ Suite as ‘outstanding’ and an excellent example of cost efficient SOA application within local government organisations.