Complex Integration Issues Lead GPI To Highway SOA

Enterprises these days are looking at SOA models that fit with their business; however, the process is one that is approached with a considerable amount of caution. Furthering its commitment to the SOA philosophy and to support its growing business needs, Godfrey Phillips India recently started its Oracle BPEL process manager implementation.

Alagu Balaraman, EVP (IT & Corporate Development), Godfrey Philips India (GPI) gives a brief regarding the recent implementation process.

What was your IT infrastructure like before you started the Oracle BPEL manager implementation?

The legacy IT infrastructure at Godfrey Phillips was based on client/server running on Oracle. The applications were developed in-house. About 4 years ago, we decided to move onto a platform that would support our field representatives. So, the focus was on developing web-enabled and mobile applications. Hence, we were running applications on a 3-tier model and all new applications were browser based for easier deployment, lower cost of administration and accessible over the Web exactly as it is in office.

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What convinced you to go the SOA way? Was it the fact that you were already running on a considerable amount of legacy?

We did have a considerable amount of legacy; however, these were always going to be replaced and not re-used. So, that did not influence the decision for adopting a SOA.

After meeting immediate business needs for mobile connectivity, we wanted to create a more robust backend. For this, we decided to implement an ERP and selected Oracle’s E-Business suite. However, there were still processes that we felt were best served with custom built applications. Since integration of multiple applications has always been complex and expensive, we decided to adopt a Service Oriented Architecture.

The company was also undergoing considerable changes as it developed new products and business lines. To ensure that our processes could be changed as quickly as possible, we were keen to move as many custom built applications onto platforms that utilised standard tools and open standards.

What kind of direct benefits do you expect post deployment?

Well, the immediate benefits are in terms of time and cost savings on application projects. Such tools reduce response times to business needs. In the future, once we have absorbed these new capabilities, we expect to be able to turn around new requirements much more quickly and help make the company more agile.

How does Oracle BPEL process manager fit in GPI’s SOA strategy?

We had a business need and needed tools that would solve it. Any design we came up with had to be implemented using available tools. This meant that we adopted a design approach that studied available tools and found out what had the best fit.

As it turned out, Oracle’s product suite met our requirements and using services helped come out with a simpler design. So, initially we didn’t set out to develop a SOA strategy. Instead we found that the problems were best solved with a set of tools and those tools used an SOA approach.

The BPEL process manager is being used to configure and manage workflows. Relatively simple screens in a custom built application can be linked together into a workflow and immediately benefit from features like e-mail notifications, generation of to-do lists, automatic re-routing in case of a person not being available, escalation if the job is not completed in a pre-defined time frame etc. Coding all this by hand would be an expensive and error-prone process.

Apart from the BPEL process manager, we are also using the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), to interface our ERP with custom applications.

Are all the phases of the project complete?

The architecture and high-level design was done by the Godfrey Phillips team led by Sudeep Dey, senior manager - IT. TCS is currently working on four projects in Godfrey Phillips.

This is not a case of a single implementation. It is a series of projects, each one complete in itself. So, while the first business intelligence project, targeted at sales, is complete, other projects are under final stages of implementation.

What’s next on GPI’s IT agenda?

There is a lot more to be done. The ERP project itself will be extended in subsequent phases. That will keep us busy for a while. Also, the data that will be available in it will need to be utilised for better operations planning. There is more exciting work to be done in the area of mobile computing.