A Structured and Scalable Approach to Solving the Integration Challenge - Nigel Davies, Vortx

© Copyright Vortx Inc

A Structured and Scalable Approach to Solving the Integration Challenge

Presented by: Nigel DaviesVice President Solution Delivery, Vortx

Ashland, ORwww.vortx.com

http://www.vortx.com/


Prior Approach and Challenges

AspDotNetStorefront – WIS is a data model centric versus complete business object approach

to integration therefore integration layer need to compensate with data syncronization, business and validation logic

– Data structures are AspDotNetStorefront centric versus normalized to industry standard for business objects

• Product / Variant / Color and Size are not represented in external format• Payments and discounts are header level versus 1:n forms of credits used

to pay for the order • No flexibility in passing project level attributes

Custom one off implementation of integration on a project – Point to Point – Customer/system specific message formats – Repeat same design challenges and bugs on every project – Narrow focus on short term project goal


The critical question is Process Syncronization to...

...enable different deployment configurations ...enable process integration of business logic across components ...reduce complexity by common shared services ...enable the implementation of enhanced capabilities


Multi-Dimensional Application Deployment Needsa Canonical Model for Integration

The Open Applications Group is a not-for-profit industry consortium focused on promoting interoperability among business applications and creating business language standards to support this goal– Core standards with vertical overlays– XML Schema based – Built using UN/CEFACT core components

OAGIS is endorsed by all major enterprise applications: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, etc

CANONICAL MODEL– Technology Neutral– Industry Horizontal– Common Scenarios and

Message SetsOAGIS Business Langauge

CRM

`

ERP

`

POS

`

TMS ASPDotNetStoreFront

PDM

WMS


OAGIS BOD Definition

The OAGIS BOD Architecture is defined in the OAGIS Design Guide – A Word Document or on web site in HTML

The OAGIS BOD Definitions are defined in XML Schema, in a text file such as:– ProcessPurchaseOrder.XSD– Equivalent to 850 definition

The OAGIS BOD Instances (occurrences) are defined in XML files that are pure text:– ProcessPurchaseOrder.XML– Equivalent to an 850 occurrence


ASPDotNetStoreFront

ASPDotNetStoreFront

Vortx Integtration

Platform

Vortx Integration Platform

External Systems

TransportProtocols

http / https

SOAP

File / ftp

Socket

MS M

Q

SQL

Project Sp.

Alerting Transform Routing Queueing

ASPDotNetStoreFront Database

BusinessLogic

Cross-Application Business Process Management

OAGIS

ASPDotNetStoreFront


Vortx Integration Platform – Three Cornerstones

1. Common Integration Strategy Vortx is committed to providing cohesive solutions Vortx is actively involved in developing integration standards

2. Common Integration Principles Canonical integration model based on OAGIS Point-to point integrations has been replaced by a service bus architecture

3. Common Integration Technologies Common on-ramp to ASPDotNetStoreFront Common reference adapter model to hook up to the service bus Web services to provide interoperability between platforms


The Case for a Canonical Integration Model

All integrated components speak the same language– Quality assurance of public interfaces and standardized processes– Shared pool of competence (one standard) within Vortx– One component can be exchanged with another

Connectivity to external components through open standard– Commercial EAI tools support OAGIS out-of-the-box

Internals and ”raw” APIs are hidden and managed by Vortx Integration Platform– Protects Vortx intellectual property and customer investment– Common on-ramp to Vortx project solutions

Message and message flows are standardized– Common set of business documents (messages)– Common set of processes (correlated messages)


Customer Application

On-lineStore

Application

Core Integration Services

Receipts

SyncInventory

SyncItemMaster (Product)

SyncSalesOrder (Order)

Drop Ship E-mails

Customer E-mails

Customer Places Order

Item Maintenance


Inventory and Order

Application

On-lineStore

Application

ReceiptsSyncInventory

SyncItemMaster (Product)

SyncSalesOrder (Order)

Drop Ship E-mails

Customer E-mails


Item Maintenance

Account Maintenance

Sync Parties (Customer)


SyncSalesOrder

ShippingApplication UpdateSalesOrder (Shipment)Manifest

Package

SyncSalesOrder

Extended Integration Services


Includes a Number of Admin Refinements


Vortx Integration PlatformExample Solutions


Toolup.com Toolup.com is in the Internet Retailer Top 500

Needed to migrated away from an in-house developed solution that was difficult to support

Wished to extend capabilities to improve overall conversion rates

Business Processes to enable included:– Storefront order capture– Multi-Channel Shopping (eBay, Amazon, PPC) – Order Fulfillment – Inventory and Accounts Payable


Inventory Mgt and Accounting

On-lineStore

Integrated Utilities

Product Feeds

Order Feeds

Order Fulfillment

Bronto Who’s On

RKG P. Reviews

FedEx Ship Manager

Picking Report

Channel Advisor

C. Shop

Amazon

eBay

Prophet 21

MMSI

PayPal

Amazon Payment

Advanced Search

Google Commerce Search


Who


Sunrise Identity Introduction

We are experts at enhancing your brand creatively and responsibly.

• Marketing and promotional merchandise agency

• Talented group of passionate marketing professionals

• Provide full suite of solutions to wide range of clients

• Bellevue, Washington headquarters

• Established in 1976, closely held privately-owned company


• Dozens of B2B E-comm sites powering Sunrise Identity Programs for 12+ years

• 2010 Researched PCI compliant options selected AspDotNetStorefront

• Engaged with VORTX to design and develop ERP integrated solution

Let’s look at a couple sample sites…


People To People First Site To Integrate with ERP (Microsoft NAV) • Product Catalog• Order Processing

ConnectShip Integration• Address Validation• Real Time Shipping quote with arrival Date


StarbucksCoffeegear.com• New site launching next week• Internal site for Partners only (Employees)• LDAP login using Corp authentication (150,000+ Employees)

We can’t show you the inside of the site, but we certainly can take a look

at the back end integrations…


Overall Benefits of Vortx Integration Platform

Flexibility – Integration via configuration is possible – When not development is focused on the 10% not the 90% – A single event can be sent in many different directions to support more

complex integration scenarios Scalability

– Can handle 100,000’s of messages per day – Can connect multiple applications to enable an integrated business process

Supportability– Automatically deals with exceptions – Proactive notification when it cannot – Allow manual recovery of exceptions using a command queue

In Summary Lower Cost of Ownership


Thank You for your Time Questions are Welcome

Nigel can be contacted at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

A Structured and Scalable Approach to Solving the Integration Challenge - Nigel Davies, Vortx