274 Moving Forward with the On Demand Real-time Enterprise
򐂰 Use access control to securely deliver personalized information to the right
place at the right time.
The WebSphere ESB uses the following hardware and software configurations:
򐂰 Hardware
Intel Server with 1 processor
1024 MB memory
20 GB disk space
򐂰 Operating System
Windows 2000 SP 4
򐂰 Software
DB2 UDB V8.2 Enterprise Server Edition FP7
WebSphere MQ V6
WebSphere Message Broker V6
We have demonstrated two approaches that can be used in implementing a
real-time enterprise. Both accomplish the same task, but Scenario B uses the
latest technology with the ESB. The result is significant savings in development
costs, a more flexible implementation, and a solution based on standards.
6.4 The real-time enterprise - a case study example
In this section we provide a high level overview of the case study described,
implemented and demonstrated in Chapter 7, “The case study” on page 281.
There we illustrate a real-time enterprise example scenario regarding a retail
organization that sells appliances.
The environment
In the example scenario, customers can purchase appliances from this retailer
from a Web site, by telephone, and directly from one of their retail outlets. The
suppliers for the retailer publish their current inventory information via a Web
service which the retailer has integrated into their business application
environment, called the Retailer Appliance System. Figure 6-6 depicts this
system with the customer and supplier channels.
Chapter 6. The project test environment 275
Figure 6-6 Appliance retailer with customer channels.
The retailer replenishes their inventory through Web services published by their
suppliers. The suppliers have also provided Web service interfaces to their
assurance database. The information flow of the business processes for the
retailer is illustrated in Figure 6-7.
Figure 6-7 Retailer functional flow
When a customer transaction occurs from any of the three customer channels,
information about the transaction is captured by the retailers CRM and
operational systems. The interaction of the operational, analytical and data
warehousing systems is shown in Figure 6-8.
Customer
Retailer
Appliance
System
Supplier
Phone
POS
Web
Shipping
Supplier
Web
Orders
Phone
Orders
Point
of Sale
(POS)
Inventory
CRM
Purchasing
276 Moving Forward with the On Demand Real-time Enterprise
Figure 6-8 Enterprise environment
Information from the operational systems is populated to the operational data
store (ODS). The ODS is populated frequently, and so contains current
operational data, except for the CRM data which is transferred to the ODS once
a week. The retailer has BI applications, in the analytical system, that analyze
the sales, inventory and other data in the data warehousing environment (ODS
and data warehouse) to monitor and manage the business. In addition the
customer has applications that analyze the CRM data to monitor and manage the
CRM operational environment.
When an item is purchased, information about both the item and purchase
transaction is recorded in the operational systems. If the purchase is through one
of the retail stores, the sales, inventory and CRM data is updated in the
operational systems. If the purchase is made by phone or through the internet,
shipping data is recorded in addition to sales, inventory and CRM data. The
customer channels interact with the operational systems as depicted in
Figure 6-9.
ODS
Inventory
Sales
Purchasing
Shipping
Operational Systems
Data Warehousing Environment
Data Warehouse
CRM
Analytic Applications
Analytical System

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