Web Exclusive: The Engineering Challenge at BT Wholesale
BT Wholesale CIO, Phil Dance faced a number of business and technical challenges:
The business challenge was how to support an increasing number of diversifying product lines, all wanting
to deliver new products in less time.
The technical challenge was to do this with less cost and more agility on a portfolio of disparate
applications.
To meet these challenges, he set about agreeing to a systems strategy that incorporated the use of EAI software
to integrate third-party applications into an overall systems architecture. The EAI capability would be implemented
through the use of a suite of products from BEA.
The hub was, at this stage, already in operational service. However, BT Wholesale recognized the need to gain
assistance in realizing the hub's potential and maximizing its benefits to the business — the answer was the
C-SCaPE alliance, a combined force of CSC and BT Exact specialists.
To set about achieving the goals set by BT Wholesale, the alliance first needed to define a future-state hub
conceptual architecture. Work immediately began on defining the Hub Architecture Direction Model, illustrating the
desired end-state for the hub architecture.
Essentially skilled resources were teamed to manage and deliver hub components — the integration aspects of
end-to-end solutions designed to meet the needs of the product lines.
The alliance needed to ensure that the hub provided BT Wholesale with:
Confidence in using this type of architecture as part of the migration to commercial-off-the-shelf products
Highly skilled resources to enable delivery of hub projects within the end-to-end programs
Assurance of expert support on hub components through the life cycle
Achieving this hub architecture involved managing multiple streams of activity. BT Wholesale had established 12
end-to-end programs, or "journeys," all of which had multiple releases. To date, the hub program has delivered
business value to these end-to-end journeys, including XML Fast Repair, Local Loop Unbundling, Service Fulfillment
Journey-Private Circuits, Network Build, and Wholesale Calls. Work is at an advanced stage within the Service
Fulfillment Journey-Broadband and the Bearer Management System.
At a technical level, CSC was able to bring their experience of managing and delivering a complex set of programs.
CSC provided the technical organization to ensure that essential activities such as positioning quality gates,
specifying standards, and quality assurance processes were all in place so the hub's integration role in these
journeys would be successful.
The hub architecture greatly simplified systems integration, reduced the cost of introducing new applications for
BT, and significantly reduced the cost of ownership of the provisioning platform.
Additionally, the new architecture provided a more stable systems environment by reducing the volume of changes
to, and increasing the availability of, the platform. This enabled BT Wholesale to drive greater order volumes,
improve internet service availability and system responsiveness, and generally enhance the overall customer
experience and service delivery.
Hub architecture
The before model is a representation of the architectural complexity. Simply put, it was extremely expensive to
maintain and almost unmanageable. It was comparable to a set of old Christmas tree lights — remember how
those lights wouldn't work if just one bulb failed — where all component parts were reliant on each other to function
as a whole.
The after model represents the new system structure in a logical way, allowing applications and new business
solutions to be easily added or even withdrawn. The EAI architecture is based partly on CSC's e4 approach and on
BT policy with respect to business processes. The whole back office system is completely stable and allows BT to
evolve and improve service offerings without disrupting their business. This reliable solution allows the
maintenance cost saving to be ploughed straight back into the business for customer or shareholder value creation.
1 of 1