BT.com has been redesigned for a more personalised experience.
Roisin Woolnough talks to the architect
When David Murray worked on redesigning BT's Web site
("http://www.bt.com"), his task was to create a more personalised
experience for customers. For this, he used Broadvision technology.
"The technology underpins the site," he explains. "Visitors can be
uniquely identified, content can be delivered based on profiles,
and e-commerce transactions carried out."
After doing a lot of preparatory analysis, it took Murray and 19
others a month to do the technical design of the new site. Were he
to start again, Murray says he would address integration and
installation issues earlier. "In retrospect, we should have done
more work on integration and installation planning earlier in the
project. This would have reduced last-minute working. We had delays
due to integration problems immediately prior to launch and these
had an impact on the budget."
In his role as an architect, a top priority was getting the
framework right. "A key challenge has been maintaining a
well-defined software architecture - essential for a frequently
changing site like BT.com.
"We have had to balance delivery of projects for reusable core
platform features with projects that enhance customer experience
and usability. At the same time, we have tried not to create an
unmanageable code base or to affect integrity of the platform. All
this has been managed within the context of a very busy delivery
programme," says Murray.
The programming was done in server-side Javascript using the
exposed Broadvision application programming interfaces. The server
runs on Sun Solaris, Oracle database, Broadvision 4.1 (including
commerce) and Netscape Enterprise Server. The system is distributed
across quad-processor servers allowing for flexibility in system
configuration.
Customer security is implemented at the application level on a
graded basis. "This ranges from encryption of data in transit using
hypertext transport protocols to distributing and entering
activation codes for access to personal information," explains
Murray. "Techniques such as physical network partitioning, locked
down server builds, restricted routing and firewall rule sets
protect the service and BT networks."
For the future, there are plans to expand the
business-to-consumer, business-to-business and employee services
and improve integration with the call centre. The work will be
maintaining session and profile integrity across technologies and
service providers.
Curriculum Vitae
Name: David Murray
Age: 32
Job title: technical architect
Qualifications: BEng electronic and information
engineering
IT skills: systems/solution analysis and design,
client/server design, Unix and PC, Oracle, C, C++, Java,
scripting,HTML, XML
Hobbies: being at home, golf
Favourite pub: anywhere I can walk to
Favourite film: Better Off Dead
Favourite book: 1984 by George Orwell
Murray on Murray: battle-scarred, pragmatic,
realistic
e is for excellence