Another Use of Web Services to Reduce Development Time and Costs

Another firm that used Web services to reduce development costs and ensure the timely delivery of software is the Allegis Corporation. Two important notes about this study: (1) it actually quantifies the amount of time saved using a Web services approach (your mileage may vary); and (2) it was done by a third-party Gartner Measurement (a division of Gartner Group) and hence is impartial.

Sidebar 6-3
Allegis Corporation Executive Summary

Superior cost-performance along with a powerful development environment and robust toolset were key requirements for Allegis Corporation as they chose to develop their Partner Relationship Management (PRM) applications on a 100% Microsoft and Intel® Architecture-based platform that included Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and the .NET platform running on Intel® two-way PIII and four-way PIII Xeon processors.

Projected Business and IT Benefit

  • Faster time-to-market Up 28%

  • Customer solutions development time Down 28%

  • New customers from improved integration Up 20%

  • Configuration of customer solutions Up 27%

  • Maintain SLAs of 99.5% uptime 100%

The REJ business value analysis validated Allegis' assertion that the .NET platform operating on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server is the most efficient use of corporate financial and human resources. This solution provides a 28% faster development cycle to get the Allegis eBusiness Suite to market and 27% faster configuration of customer solutions than that achieved in a UNIX-based environment. Using .NET technologies, Allegis is able to increase revenue growth by responding more quickly to changing market conditions and to the ever-increasing demands of their rapidly expanding PRM customer base. One immediate result of a quicker development cycle is that Allegis can implement two product updates a year a very rapid development cycle for enterprise software for its Global 2000 customers. The scalability and reliability of Windows 2000 Server directly support Allegis' ability to quickly develop new application modules, guarantee 99.5% uptime in their Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and build seamless interoperability and integration with legacy databases and IT systems, thereby closing an anticipated 20% more business.

"Choosing Microsoft's .NET platform was a key strategic decision for Allegis," said David Story, Vice President of Engineering at Allegis Corporation. "Allegis took advantage of the .NET platform to pioneer the delivery of enterprise-level PRM solutions in both installed and hosted options. Using .NET Enterprise Servers in [calendar year] 2000, we delivered 99.97% software availability for our hosted Global 2000 customers, and we developed the software faster than on a UNIX-based alternative. Our use of open standards, such as Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Simple Open Access Protocol (SOAP), promotes easy integration with other companies and programs, improves our enterprise software design and ultimately is a reason why we lead our market."

"Our choice of the .NET platform has allowed us to achieve impressive results in less than two years due to rapid development and deployment cycles and lower operational costs," noted Greg Price, Director of Business Development for Allegis. "Getting to market faster presents greater opportunities for increasing revenue."

The REJ business value analysis, assessed by Gartner Measurement, a business unit of the GartnerGroup, confirmed that using the .NET platform and Microsoft SQL Server™ 7.0 and Internet Information Server running on Intel Architecture-based Windows 2000 Advanced Servers enables Allegis to simultaneously maintain 99.97% uptime, a low-cost hardware infrastructure and very low overhead hosting expenses. Allegis implemented a 100% Windows and Intel development and hosted application infrastructure at their inception in 1998, deployed it in 1999 and used Windows 2000 Server and the .NET platform since the summer of 2000.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/BUSINESS/casestudies/microsoft_allegis.asp.

Used by Permission.



Web Services Explained. Solutions and Applications for the Real World
Web Services Explained, Solutions and Applications for the Real World
ISBN: 0130479632
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 115
Authors: Joe Clabby

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