Jersey Post showed how it expects to reduce document
management costs by 75% at this week's UK launch of the latest
version of Biztalk, Microsoft's XML integration
tool.
Biztalk Server 2004 promises to simplify the linking of business
processes that unite separate applications. Microsoft said the
software would allow users to connect diverse applications and then
to construct and modify business processes graphically.
New features include a mechanism for specifying business rules,
improved application management and monitoring, and single
sign-on.
Jersey Post is one of the first public users of Biztalk 2004 and is
implementing the software along with Microsoft's .net framework
within an XML-based data hub. When complete, the hub will translate
financial data from a Great Plains ERP system, customer data and
transactional data from the post office point of sales system into
XML. Once in XML the data can be printed, sent as SMS or presented
as an electronic bill.
The system being implemented using Biztalk will allow printed
documents such as statements and billing information to be shared
with customers electronically. Once complete, Jersey Post estimates
that it will save 75% on document management.
Michael Boarer, head of business at Jersey Post, said, "Our first
step is to present bills automatically and send them out to
customers."
Before the end of the month Boarer hopes to upgrade the retail
system to connect into the data hub. The roll-out has so far taken
two and a half months. The implementation is being carried out by
IT services company Unilog. Boarer expects the majority of services
based on Biztalk to be up and running this week.
Prior to implementing Biztalk, data integration between the various
IT systems was achieved using bespoke middleware, which was
difficult to scale. To tackle the inefficiency in the middleware,
Unilog recommended that Jersey Post adopt a data hub to manage
integration.
Michael Prager principal consultant at Unilog, said, "Jersey Post
had a large number of business processes that would benefit from a
hub approach."
With the hub, data is gathered in a single place, which provides a
single point of integration. This is more efficient than creating
custom data integration links between applications.
Biztalk software adapters convert application data into XML so it
can be read by any application that understands XML. As part of its
Biztalk implementation Jersey Post has installed an off-the-shelf
adapter to convert XML into PDF files or postscript in order to
display data in Acrobat or print it.