The Client
Covering about half of the United States, this 15 million-customer telecommunications company has just under $10 billion in annual revenues. They offer both local and long-distance telephone service, wireless, internet and data services to both residential and commercial accounts. Their numerous subsidiaries provide an extensive list of communications and related products and services, and the company is within the top ten telecommunications vendors.
The Engagement
Encode was asked to provide support for both a business-to-business (B2B) portal, for conducting business with vendors and suppliers, and a business-to-consumer (B2C) portal, allowing customers to sign up for services, pay, and manage their accounts online. During Encode's Portal Readiness Assessment concerns regarding security measures were identified.
Critical Services Delivered
Encode designed the systems architecture and created the systems architecture diagram. This key deliverable was a result of in-depth analysis conducted during the requirements and technical design phases. Encode's experience in "right-sizing" helped match system capacity to meet the client's growth requirements. Encode also designed and delivered a dynamic sizing tool to help the client estimate requirements going forward.
After determining additional security was required, Encode led a task force to analyze and plan for portal security utilizing IBM Tivoli Identity Manager (ITIM) and IBM Tivoli Access Manager (TAM). Encode designed the security solution for the portal and developed a "security matrix" for use by the client's security group.
- Business Needs Analysis
- Portal Readiness Assessment
- Portal Architecture Design and Build
- Security Architecture
- Integration Services
Technology Used
Software used on this project included IBM WebSphere Portal Server, IBM Tivoli Access Manager, IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, Seibel, and CheckFree. CheckFree allows for secure online bill payments. Seibel provides a comprehensive CRM, eBilling and self-service solution. Both systems integrate well within the IBM solutions.
Project
Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) Portal
Service
Analyze business requirements, assess clients "readiness" for the development of both business and consumer facing portals
Software
IBM WebSphere Portal
IBM Tivoli Security
Siebel
CheckFree
BusinessWare
Challenges
The business and technical user communities were not aligned, security had not been adequately considered, and the client architecture was not properly sized to match future growth.
