A Famous Travel Management Company Rail Distribution System Architecture Case Study The Company This company is a global Distributor of European Rail Products serving more than 80,000 Travel Agencies and millions of customers in over 100 countries with approximately 2,000 employees and nearly $700 million in annual revenue. The Challenge Rearchitect system to use J2EE technologies, enhance user experiences and improve performance. Redesign functional implementation to create new revenue opportunities through the deployment of additional services such as web services and improve existing web sites. The Solution Data-Core Services worked with this company to design and implement a delivery platform based on Java technology powered by Borland Enterprise Servers and deployed on Sun hardware. Why Data-Core ? Data-Core's staffing and project execution services offer a combined value to help to speed time to market. Dual shoring approach offered by Data-Core gave the company a means for developing applications much faster over the long term. Data-Core Key Benefits Low Cost and Quick Turn Around Mature software management and development processes Large pool of technically qualified staff Low cost development Services customized to cater to small to medium size businesses Specific focus areas such as Testing, Backoffice Support Executive Summary The company, a global leader in distribution of European rail products, sought to build a high performance next generation distribution system. As part of this process, the company wanted to leverage its global presence to boost sales by improving user experience, reducing booking time of its call center agents, offering core technological services to its customers around the world. This requirement called for building a J2EE application that delivers the throughput to meet with these expectations. Data-Core was in a key position to offer wide range of services to implement the project because of its long-term relationship with the company. Data-Core had built significant domain expertise in the rail distribution business. Data-Core began by building a strong team of technically qualified staff led by a Technical Architect and Project Manager. To offer lower cost and efficient project governance, Data-Core set up a dual shoring approach.   The Solution at a glance Core Functionality Reservation System to distribute European rail products. System capable of handling thousands of users connecting to the system in several channels such as desktop application, web, web services. Services Delivery Infrastructure Applications are delivered over Java 2 Platform, J2EE technology platform using EJB, JMS. Application Services Infrastructure Sun Enterprise 450, 3500, Sun Fire v880 running the Solaris 9 Operating System. Dell Power Edge servers running windows 2003 enterprise servers. Oracle 9i Database running on Solaris environments. Java technology powers application and integration logic. Solution Approach and Architecture Data-Core Services helped design a services-oriented architecture for both client and application services platforms and then worked with the customer to implement the solution. Long term support services Data-Core has an agreement for maintaining the application to ensure proper production support is provided and production defects are resolved in time. Business Environment Rail Europe (RE) is a global distributor of European Rail Products. RE serves more than 80,000 travel agencies and millions of consumers in over 80 countries. Company has office in New York, Chicago, Portland, Paris, Australia, Tokyo, Mumbai, Seoul and few other major cities. With approximately 2,000 employees worldwide and nearly $700 million in annual revenue, RE is widely recognized for efficient and cost effective distribution of rail products. The Need: Next Generation Distribution System RE is the pioneer of Rail product distribution around the world. Late 90s, RE built a Java –CORBA based distribution system to meet with its global customer needs. Within few years of system deployment, RE’s customer base expanded and rail business became very competitive and market driven. To meet with the challenges, RE initiated project REDS (Renovation of Euronet Distribution System), to re-architect the application. REDS was an ambitious project for RE to position itself as leading distributor amongst the competition. REDS project had very high expectations such as higher performance, scalability, and ease of use to mention a few. Some key business drivers behind RE’s decision to deploy a next-generation services delivery platform and an application services platform included: New revenue opportunities. RE wanted to expand revenue opportunities by deploying the application to new markets such as England and Europe. Better user experience. Enable users to buy products more efficiently without having to know the geography of Europe. Ability to select travel products in various cities within Europe in the most cost effective manner. Reduce booking time of call center agents. Build features in the system to reduce the training and induction time for the travel agents. Also, build features that enable travel agents offer products and related services more efficiently. With these business objectives in mind, technology department at Rail Europe IT began conceptualizing a new type of distribution system. This next-generation would have to meet with a number of key technical challenges, including: Open standards. One of RE’s main goals was to build a distribution system using open standards. An open-standards platform would enable RE to speed integration of third-party systems and facilitate the development of applications around the application. Scalability. RE expected that, its next-generation distribution system would eventually serve most of its customers through web channel along with other channels of distribution. To handle additional web traffic, system has to scale to provide consistent user experience in a varying load conditions. Flexibility and extensibility. RE wanted to allow developers to easily and quickly make changes to applications and services. Security. As with any ebusiness project involving world wide distributuion, security was an important issue. RE wanted to help ensure that its application would offer both subscribers and developers a security-rich environment, one in which personal and corporate data would be secure. Functionality. In this applications RE wanted to deliver robust and rich functionality to its customers. Action Plan And Decision Process Initial Step: Selecting JAVA Technology In the Spring of 2005, RE began evaluating technologies for the services delivery and application services platforms. After examining few application servers, RE decided on Borland Enterprise Server. RE had license for BES and Jbuilder and was using these products from the inception of the original distribution system. RE decided to use EJB and JMS technologies to build a scalable application. Selecting Data-Core Once RE decided to standardize on J2EE platform on Borland Enterprise Server, Data-Core was decided to be the best suited primary services vendor. Data-Core has been working with RE for several years and therefore it has gained significant expertise in Rail Distribution business. RE wanted to utilize Data-Core’s domain expertise and proven delivery model of its technology services department. Some of the key factors in RE’s decision included: Expertise in the J2EE services delivery space Time to m arket. By leveraging Data-Core's expertise in J2EE and XML technologies, RE thought it could achieve a faster time to market than if it developed the solution with internal resources. As part of the initial phases of the project, Data-Core Services helped develop an implementation plan that met RE's aggressive time-to-market objectives. Dual Shoring approach. Data-Core’s dual shoring approach was the most suitable solution to RE’s project execution requirements. Project management and co-ordination was done from Data-Core’s Philadelphia office, which gave RE a better control on project execution and schedule. Solution Profile And Implementation Strategy Solution Overview The Rail Europe distribution system allows its subscribers and public customers buy European Rail Products. Travel Agencies can subscribe to distribution system. Rail Europe installs a Java based thick client on the PCs in agency’s offices. Booking agents in call centers in Chicago and Portland use similar thick clients. Majority of RE’s business comes from web channel. Rail Europe uses services from European Train Reservation providers to get train fares and schedules in real time. Payment settlement is done using Citibank’s FDMS. All the data transmission between RE’s system and external systems occur in XML format. Most of the agencies avail RE’s system services on a commission basis. RE also has deployed web services for customers to integrate into their system. All the clients such as thick client, web and web services use same application server.: Development Approach And Timetable In early 2005, Data-Core began work with RE on designing and implementing the services delivery platform and portions of the application services platform for the new next-generation distribution solution. Both Data-Core and RE set an aggressive goal of launching the next-generation distribution system in March 2006. RE and Data-Core, working together on the project, established an aggressive project implementation plan. The project was kicked off in April 2005, when Data-Core Services began work with Rail EUrope to develop a proof of concept for a dual shore project delivery method. In May 2005, as a first step in the architecture and design of the next-generaion distribution began. Consultants from Data-Core performed an architecture assessment to identify quality-of-service requirements mapped against user requirements, such as business rules and service-level requirements. Completed in a total of eight weeks, the architecture assessment included the identification of scalability, functionality, availability, security, reliability, and manageability requirements. As part of this process, Data-Core submitted a detailed set of architecture design documents covering recommendations for both the application services and infrastructure platforms. Team members of Data-Core and Rail Europe jointly did the design and implementation work. Overall project management and schedule management was done by Data-Core architecture and project management teams. Architecture And Core Quality-Of-Service Requirements The platform infrastructure for RE Distribution System is powered by several Sun Fire, Sun Enterprise servers, including Sun Fire 450, 3500, and V880 servers, all of which run on the Solaris 9 Operating System. The services-oriented architecture is designed to meet security and load balancing requirements. The services-oriented architecture breaks various services into separate layers for enhanced quality-of-service requirements, reduced development risks, and faster time to deployment for the integration of changes to existing or new services. Application Services Platform Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology components are at the heart of the application services layer. Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) technologies serve as the basis for processing end-user requests. Once a service has been selected by an end user on the web, a Java servlet from the presentation tier activates the appropriate EJB component to trigger the appropriate application service as well as back-end services, such as schedule search, price quote, confirm reservation, payment, ticket printing. All requests from thick java client pass through over the network to connect façade before reaching the EJB that provide application services. The EJB components enable a highly personalized experience for the subscriber by facilitating the appropriate business rules. JDBC technology provides load balancing, storing the more frequent requests for information for faster responses to common queries, and serving as the communication protocol between the application and data services. Data And Resources Platform Data services include Oracle9i database residing on Sun Fire servers running the Solaris 9 Operating Environment. The various back-end business services reside within what is delineated as the resources layer, which includes legacy, account management, customer care, and billing systems. Data-Core and RE teams implemented dertain enhancements to these different systems and oversaw the integration of application and resource services. Business Results With the help of Data-Core Services, which included development of a proof-of-concept for the distribution system, RE estimates that it shaved significant cycles from time to market. The open standards–based architecture allows for the virtual, seamless provisioning of new services and integrate applications from third-parties for future growth. Because of the services-oriented architecture design, changes to one segment of the applications services platform do not require coding modifications to other segments. REDS, the next generation distribution and reservation system is in production since March 2006. Better system performance has helped RE to attain higher sales targets by cutting down on time taken to make a reservation. RE business has strongly established itself as a global leader in the Rail Distribution market. With the emergence of this next generation distribution system, Rail Europe has taken on board, two more new sales regions – UK and Europe. These two sales regions are scheduled to be on RE’s distribution system in the year 2007. Data-Core continues to be the primary vendor for these engagements and provides architecture and implementation services. Case Epilogue Through the next-generation Distribution and reservation system, Rail Europe established a solid foundation from which it can drive revenue by attracting new customers and providing better user experience to current customers. Its competitive edge is strengthened through its leverage of services from Data-Core and its rich domain expertise. In addition, by coordinating the activities of numerous technology vendors, the joint team of Rail Europe and Data-Core has demonstrated optimal direction for future engagements. Data-Core, as the primary technology vendor, provided strategic assistance in the areas in which it typically excels: architecture design and development best practices involving emerging technologies.