A client with 50-plus offices all over the world needed us to integrate a multi-vendor system into a unified architecture that supported their entire business - including resource management, financials business intelligence and analytics, vendor management, and inventory. Instead of spending valuable time going all around the world trying to standardize processes, we created data flow "pipes" using Fusion Middleware that connected and synchronized each of the legacy systems.
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Business Challenge
Our client is a large media company headquartered in the US with several branches in Europe, and all locations running on disparate third-party solutions. Their US location is using Great Plains as their financial software in addition to the third party software, and those two systems are tightly integrated. However, Great Plains is not integrated to any of the locations outside US and there is a lot of manual intervention required to keep the other locations in sync. The current technical challenges impact our client’s financial department’s ability to provide timely reporting and react quickly to customer demands. The biggest challenge was their requirement to keep their respective operational solutions intact, hence the solution needed to be rich enough to integrate the day to day transactions happening at various locations keeping all the systems in sync. One of the key challenges was that not only must the new solution use state of the art technology, but it should also be easy to use and maintain. The integration must be scalable to enable additional worldwide growth and should be able to cater the our client’s unique requirements in the years to come.

Solution
Innowave developed the solution using a unique SOA based approach to integrate our client’s systems with the E-Business suite.  Because of the open, standards based approach provided by AIA, Oracle’s Fusion Middleware was the obvious choice. Innowave designed Enterprise Business Objects (EBO) for the business entities, created the XML Schema Definitions (XSD) for the EBOs and created BPEL processes based on the XSD’s that integrate the client systems. Various checkpoints will be maintained by the system during the integrations. The most important part to designing the integrations between the E-Business Suite and our client’s current systems is that they need to be real time and talking to each other seamlessly so that they are in sync. Also, our client’s systems are on different databases e.g. 4D and Filemaker, so our processes need to be designed in such a way that we do not have to replicate code for every design. Hence the approach for creating generic EBO’s and XSD’s and building pipes to the specific client systems be it using Web services or JDBC or simple old flat files. BPEL Process Manager will be used for the almost 40 plus integrations. Innowave plans to use Business events and poling tables to trigger off the integrations.  Different production system specific Enterprise Business Services (EBS) will be built to facilitate the integrations.

Results
Due to the flexible and Independent components (pipes) being designed, our client’s architecture will be reusable and supportable to maintain future worldwide organizational growth. Future deployments may include Oracle Business Intelligence, Hyperion and Siebel CRM. In addition, our client desires that the current footprint be deployed be rolled out to all of their worldwide offices, not just US and Europe.

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The City of Las Vegas utilized Oracle BPEL Process Manager to standardize and centralize integration between Oracle E-Business Suite and SPL application used for utility maintenance management. These integrations include Requisitions, Receiving Transactions, Item Catalog, and General Ledger information flowing from SPL to E-Business Suite as well as Purchase Orders, AP Invoices, Vendors, & Employee information flowing from SPL to E-Business Suite.
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Business Challenge
The purpose of the SOA initiative was to automate the synchronization of information between the City of Las Vegas’ Oracle Financial System and SPL EAM for the Water Pollution Control Facility. Prior to deploying this solution, the City was manually entering transactions in both systems to replenish inventory and redundantly capturing time entries. The City wanted to bring together divisions that had previously been isolated because of incompatible technologies. The City Manager’s Office decided to introduce Service-Oriented Architecture using Oracle Fusion Middleware to integrate the City’s Enterprise Applications.

Solution
The City utilized Oracle BPEL Process Manager, a key component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, to standardize and centralize integration between the City’s Oracle E-Business Suite and its SPL application used for utility maintenance management. These integrations include Requisitions, Receiving Transactions, Item Catalog, and General Ledger information that flow from SPL into Oracle E-Business Suite. In addition, Purchase Orders, AP Invoices, Vendors, and Employee information flow from SPL into Oracle E-Business Suite. Leveraging Advanced Queues, business events in both systems as well as scheduled concurrent programs within Oracle E-Business Suite trigger the launch of specific BPEL processes. This prevents SPL and Oracle E-Business Suite from needing to communicate directly since they both communicate to BPEL through the shared Queue. It also establishes a central location for initiating BPEL processes, which improves manageability. To further improve the auditing capabilities of the BPEL integrations, another layer of monitoring was introduced that uses custom tables within the E-Business Suite database to track the status of various transactions. The BPEL processes update this auditing table in order to communicate details about successful or failed instances. Business owners who depend on the BPEL processes may not have access to the BPEL Console, so by storing additional information about the processes in this audit table, solutions such as custom reports and forms can be built within the Oracle E-Business Suite for these users.

Results
The decision to proceed with an enterprise system integration approach for the Water Pollution Control Facility and integrating E-Business Suite with SPL applications enabled the City to gain several efficiencies, including automation of inventory replenishment, improved costing of work orders in SPL and eliminating redundant time card entry. This initiative has also brought about increased visibility and better manageability of the interfaces with lesser staff intervention, saving the City training and support costs. BPEL is now the preferred integration tool used at the City of Las Vegas, and additional BPEL processes are currently being built to further improve the efficiency and manageability the city’s other integration points. Given its success with using Oracle Fusion Middleware for the Water Pollution Control Facility, the City has already started several other initiatives across its departments and will definitely recommend it to others.

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Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) is an intercity passenger train system that provides fast, reliable & affordable service to 16 stations in 8 Northern California counties. For improved rider experience & increased efficiency, CCJPA implemented a robust Automated Ticket Validation (ATV) system that allows train conductors to utilize handheld devices for ticket sales, validation & centralized maintenance of ticket data from various trains for tracking & reporting.
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Business Challenge
CCJPA’s current onboard ticketing service is dependent on paper-based procedures. Conductors, who must make their way through a large number of passengers on the train between each stop, are challenged with the tasks of properly validating tickets quickly and thoroughly, tracking when passengers board and exit the train, and accessing updated price list Tariff books for current fares based on origination and destination stations. An automated scanning solution would obviously improve the situation, but the conductors must remain very mobile, meaning no extensive equipment can be carried around for scanning, processing, printing receipts, etc. Also, because tickets are sold in various ways (kiosks at stations, online, on the train, etc.), the validation of the tickets must take into account a master list of valid tickets from different sources, regardless of the origination of the sale. This includes consolidating information from other sources as well as tracking ticket types and usage so that a single-ride ticket cannot be used more than once and multi-ride tickets are not used more than allowed or outside the life of that ticket. In addition, certain tickets may be reported stolen or invalid for some reason, and those identified tickets must quickly be identified on trains and not honored. A centralized system that consolidates all of the train information must be provided for CCJPA officials to manage and oversee the daily operations. This system would be a central location to maintain information about invalid/used tickets, sales promotions, passenger ridership, and conductor usage. A user-friendly and efficient way of accessing the data both for updates as well as dynamic and ad-hoc reporting is essential to the adoption of this solution.

Solution
Oracle provides industry-leading technology for key components to this solution, including the scalable and robust Oracle database, the Oracle SOA Suite for integration, and Oracle Application Express for reporting and user interfaces. Oracle BPEL Process Manager easily handles the complex and timely integration requirements between the handheld devices and the central management system as well as between the central management system and other systems that provide feeds of ticket sales information, fare lists, etc. Using a SOA-based approach, CCJPA can reduce implementation time while also maximizing scalability, flexibility, and reusability. The BPEL processes can be exposed as Web Services that are called from the handheld devices to communicate with the central management system. With the large amounts of data and extreme performance requirements (including rapid searches of large ticket tables, etc.), the Oracle database provides an ideal solution to ensure success on this project. In addition to the database’s industry-leading set of features and functionality, the ease of clustering the database makes it very attractive for this solution. Real Application Clusters (RAC) enable additional scaling and options for high availability within this solution. Finally, the last component that is key to this solution is the ability to quickly and effectively provide user interfaces that help users manage the central system, which is based on the Oracle database as described above. Oracle provides a database-driven tool called Oracle Application Express that renders Web applications and includes security, support for Web Service interaction, and robust reporting tools. The user interface screens allow different resources to have different levels of access as well as providing some very comprehensive reporting and ad-hoc information gathering tools. Since the base of this solution is the SOA integration, the easy interaction with Web Services also opens the door to more options for managing the communications within Application Express and the overall solution.

Results
The obvious benefits of this project include the ability for conductors to much more quickly and reliably validate tickets of passengers on a train. The ability to scan and immediately know if the ticket is valid is a very helpful tool for the conductors and significantly cuts the possibility of fraud. In addition, the added functionality that assists with managing passenger boarding and leaving the train help for safety measures so there is always an accurate passenger list for the trains. Onboard ticket sales using credit cards is also a very significant benefit since now the credit cards can be verified on the spot and a response can be provided to the conductor regarding the charge. This added feature improves the convenience for travelers. From a management standpoint, the solution provides substantially more visibility to the overall business activities taking place. A change in a train fare no longer results in a need to reprint all the fare guides because that fare change can be entered into the central system and it will be integrated to each of the handhelds. Since data for this solution is not yet available, actual numbers in terms of time saved, increased sales, invalid ticket rejections, etc. cannot be provided at this time. However, the added features of this system will undoubtedly make a big impact on the CCJPA daily operations and overall business efficiency.

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JDE 8.11 would only render the checks and make them available to be manually selected and printed one by one. Innowave's "Print Immediate" solution is a combination of processes that take the place of JDE Print Immediate when the XML Publisher is used to create the Print Automatic Payments checks (R04572). After the checks get rendered in JDE by the built-in functionality provided, this solution directs the output to a designated printer so that the checks get printed immediately without any manual intervention.
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Business Challenge
A large homebuilder decided to replace the existing check rendering approach and use XML Publisher to print their checks from JDE 8.11. However, JDE 8.11 would only render the checks and make them available to be manually selected and printed one by one. Given the volume of checks, this was cumbersome and Frontier Homes required the checks to print immediately without manual intervention. Oracle Support notified us that this print immediate functionality will only be available in the next release of JDE.

Solution
Our client selected Oracle Fusion Middleware for the versatility and rich features that XML Publisher provides to address their printing/publishing needs. The Innowave Print Immediate solution is a combination of processes that take the place of JDE Print Immediate when the XML Publisher is used to create the Print Automatic Payments checks (R04572). After the checks get rendered in JDE by the built-in functionality provided, this solution directs the output to a designated printer so that the checks get printed immediately without any manual intervention. This initiative involved seven person weeks of effort and took three months to develop and implement. The biggest challenge was to ensure that checks that were already processed by this solution were not processed multiple times.

Results
This initiative has saved our client several hours of effort during each check run by eliminating the manual effort required to process and print their checks. Based on the success of this initiative, Frontier Homes has already leveraged BI Publisher to render their contracts which were originally manually created and printed using MS-Word.

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In less than a month, Innowave Technology and VCA/Antech Diagnostics implemented Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) to satisfy an ever-growing list of requirements and challenges facing the analysis of data resulting in higher levels of productivity and efficiency in daily tasks. The features of OBIEE removed the dependency on IT and empowered users to do their jobs quicker, with more intelligence at their fingertips and overcame the inability to access adequate reports quickly.
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Business Challenge VCA/Antech Diagnostics is the leading provider of pet health care services in the country with a nationwide clinical laboratory system and over 435 free-standing animal hospitals. In 2006, VCA/Antech Diagnostics had more than 4.9 million pet visits at VCA Animal Hospitals and provided clinical laboratory services to over 14,000 small animal hospitals nationwide. Together VCA Animal Hospitals and Antech Diagnostics provide excellence in veterinary medicine and diagnostics to a majority of our nation's pets. Their knowledge and service have earned them the trust and loyalty of a continually growing number of satisfied pet owners. Given the large volume of data being captured across the country by Antech Diagnostics’s labs and hospitals, the ability to organize, consolidate, and manipulate that data quickly and accurately is crucial to achieve the highest levels of diagnostic excellence. Slow and static reports, which were previously put in place using Oracle Reports to help provide information to lab technicians, have proven inadequate and slow. Users still have to perform manual calculations and steps to organize the static data produced in the reports. Updating the data in the data warehouse from the transaction system is tedious and time-consuming. In addition, users are dependent on IT for creation of new reports and variations of the ways data can be viewed. All of these challenges led Antech Diagnostics to investigate a more robust and powerful analysis tool.


Solution
Innowave Technology was interviewed in addition to other competing firms but ultimately Antech Diagnostics chose Innowave Technology for its creative solutions and innovative experience in the Southern California region. In less than a month, Innowave Technology and Antech Diagnostics implemented Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBI EE) in order to satisfy the ever-growing list of requirements and challenges facing the analysis of data. Antech Diagnostics purchased the OBIEE solution to help achieve higher levels of productivity and efficiency in daily tasks and address the inability to access adequate reports quickly. The features of OBIEE have removed the dependency on IT and empowered users to do their jobs quicker and with more intelligence at their fingertips. Antech Diagnostics had a business need to provide daily performance reports of all tests completed within its labs across the country to its lab managers. Previously, there was a traditional Oracle Reports solution in place for the development and presentation of this data. However, the sheer volume of data that needed to be analyzed (2 million records per day), the number of query parameters that needed to be supported, and the static nature of the output were all making the Oracle Reports solution ineffective. Innowave Technology’s strategy was to work with Antech Diagnostics to design a simplified data warehouse model solution based on the Snowflake schema already in place in order to leverage their existing investment. All query parameters were modeled as dimensions on the fact tables. A simplified ETL methodology was developed to load transactional data from the OLTP systems, allowing for efficient data loads in mere seconds that could be run each half-hour. Oracle’s OBIEE dashboards provided a flexible, parameter-driven dashboard to present the information in an organized, insightful manner.

Results
Innowave Technology achieved its goal of providing Antech Diagnostics a solution that satisfies their need to obtain the highest level of diagnostic excellence under the agreed upon timeline and budget. Innowave Technology’s OBI EE solution enabled the Antech Diagnostics users to achieve the following results:

• Save commonly-used parameters to streamline future analysis of data
• Drill-down within intuitive chart views of data and derive intelligence-at-a-glance which improved productivity by eliminating the need for any number crunching
• Create ad-hoc dashboard reports without a dependency on IT by selecting any of the pre-configured data elements provided in the dashboards and dragging them into the report
• Take advantage of caching and pre-aggregation features of Oracle BI Server to display complex reports in seconds instead of waiting for minutes with Oracle Reports
• Exceed the expectations for system performance by achieving just a thirty-minute lag time between the transaction system and the dashboard data!

Antech Diagnostics intends to further expand its use of OBIEE to expand its technical edge over competitors and provide its team with accurate and up-to-date information to achieve its corporate endeavors.

“Innowave’s ability to not only architect a robust data model based on the complex requirements at Antech, but also to transition the skills needed to manage and maintain the solution made this project a resounding success. Any initial skepticism about this intelligence solution was quickly dismissed once we saw how the dashboards could give us the ability to see our data in many new ways. The possibilities with OBIEE are endless, and we thank Innowave for helping us see how OBIEE can take our business to the next level.” , said David Decker, Director of Information Systems of VCA/Antech Dianostics.

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Syntax-Brillian, one of the country's fastest-growing flat screen TV manufacturers, was struggling to meet the growing demands of its flourishing television & camera product lines with its existing SAP system. Syntax-Brillian leveraged Oracle Fusion Middleware to establish a framework for transaction management & SOA-based application integration between Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Siebel CRM and legacy SAP system resulting in a drop in call abandon rates, 35% increase in call center sales and improved customer satisfaction ratings.
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Business Challenge
60% of Syntax-Brillian's business occurs in Q4 during the holiday season. Customer service call volume triples normal volume during this period. 2006 holiday call volume exceeded capacity resulting in system failures and a 55% call abandon rate. The 2007 sales forecasts were planned for 3 to 4 times call volume growth over the preceding year. Improvement of the call center's infrastructure and efficiency was required to meet committed revenue targets and improve customer satisfaction. The legacy call center system was a disparate collection of applications and business processes were highly manual. The legacy SAP Business One system was struggling under the current sales volumes and a move to Oracle E-Business Suite was planned. Unfortunately, the call center could not wait for a full-blown E-Business Suite implementation. Growth targets demanded an immediate solution that was:

• Scalable to meet cyclical demand and future growth
• Portable to allow ramp up of a third-party offshore call center
• Integration into legacy SAP system and/or future Oracle E-Business Suite
• Provide a framework for automating manual agent tasks

Solution
To support the accelerated growth of its two product lines, Syntax decided to implement a scalable, robust, and feature-rich set of applications, starting with the Oracle E-Business Suite in a hosted OnDemand model. E-Business Suite was chosen to solve the inventory shortage and warehouse controls challenges. Its customer service department selected Siebel’s CRM OnDemand and Call Center OnDemand applications to increase its productivity and efficiency in dealing with customers. Syntax’s Customer Service department faced high abandoned call rates, long wait times and a high volume, long talk time call environment. In addition, there were customer relationship needs that were not met by either system. After exploring various options, they elected to implement a custom application solution leveraging the Oracle Application Express tool. Innowave Technology assisted Syntax Brillian in implementing this comprehensive solution, including over 30 unique integrations among the various systems and the custom CRM extensions using Application Express.

Results
The system went live in September 2007 and was ready for the Q4 busy season. System scaled to take on the highest call volume in the company's history with < 10% call abandon rates. Remote call center in Malaysia was brought online allowing further cost reduction. Call center sales increased by 35% over previous year. The efficiency of call agents increased due to process automation using Oracle Application Express and Oracle BPEL Process Manager. The entire project was completed within 4 months with a standards-based, scalable, and manageable solution. In the past, projects with this level of integration and custom application development would have taken significantly longer and left an ongoing maintenance struggle. The project was very successful and offered Syntax-Brillian a platform to manage improvements in the call center. Managers could now measure call center performance (e.g. agent performance, call volume, etc.) and design specific improvement plans. The implementation of the new system resulted in improvements in customer satisfaction ratings.

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Helio, a $400 million MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), contracted Innowave to provide program management for the planning, design, development, deployment, and training phases of its Oracle E-Business Suite Financials, Distribution, and Supply Chain Management implementation. In addition, Innowave developed over 50 interfaces between Helio’s back office systems and its trading partners using a SOA-based approach, to help establish new business processes to assist Helio with its launch as a startup venture.
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Business Challenge
Helio, Los Angeles, California is a $400 million MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) joint venture between Earthlink and South Korea Telecommunications. Helio contracted Innowave to provide project and program management for the planning, design, development, deployment, and training phases of its Oracle E-Business Suite Financial, Distribution, and Supply Chain Applications implementation. In addition, Innowave developed over 50 interfaces between Helio’s back office systems and its trading partners using XML and Web Services (BPEL). Innowave also helped establish new business operations to assist Helio in its early stages as a startup venture. As a startup, Helio's business model included integration with 3rd Party Logistics company. The business requirements also involved integration with a homegrown CRM Application as well as the Oracle E-Business Suite backend application including the Order Management, Inventory and Financials modules. Helio desired to establish a scalable, extensible platform to support additional trading partners.

Solution
While a conventional approach using PL/SQL or JAVA code or traditional EAI tools to develop integration logic could have be adopted, Helio preferred using a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based integration platform that leverages Oracle Fusion Middleware stack with Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). The integration requirements involved 50 unique integration scenarios to support Helios supply chain logistics that included standard processes such as Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, Reverse Logistics as well as Inventory Transactions. Innowave worked closely with the Helio team to architect and deliver the integration solution from concept to successful completion. The design involved identifying common processes that can be leveraged as reusable components by other high level processes. One of the unique aspects of this solution involves the ability to consume and post XML documents using HTTP. The solution incorporates controls to ensure all posted documents are successfully received. The final solution included over 25 BPEL processes that handled over 50 supply chain logistics integration requirements of Helio. Where conventional approach to integration of this magnitude typically would take approximately 2 person-weeks per interface (total of 100 weeks), from planning to execution, using Fusion Middle ware and BPEL drastically reduced the timeline and all interfaces were developed in 50 person-weeks. The deployment architecture included clustered application servers for load balancing and high availability of BPEL Process Manager.

Results
Helio was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to monitor and troubleshoot the interfaces when something went wrong. The notifications feature that is included in Oracle BPEL Process Manager brings greater agility, better decision-making, as well as reduced cost and risk in dealing with trading partners.

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