TGSL First With Service Oriented Architecture
Winchester, June 2005. Transactor Global Solutions Limited (‘TGSL’) completed development of its new Internet and call-centre architecture in late 2004, and has since very rapidly put six call-centres and five websites live using the new technology. Transactor now has a unique place in UK insurance technology, being the only application in the market based on true ‘Service Oriented Architecture’ (‘SOA’), which will give Transactor clients a massive technical advantage when leveraging their internal and external relationships. It is now generally accepted that the technology of Web Services is the most likely connection technology of service-oriented architectures, using XML to create a robust connection.
‘For business people, the early signs of what SOA can mean for them is evidenced by the speed to market TGSL can provide for new contact centres and websites. We have been turning websites around in development in under four weeks since we introduced the new architecture, and I am not about talking about ‘me too’ white label sites, I am talking bespoke and fully functional applications for nationally recognised brands,” explains David Neate, General Manager TGSL. “That is simply the first step. We are now implementing XML based service consumption by TGSL websites whereby external relationships such as trading partners websites can pull in insurance quotes from a Transactor website virtually instantly, and it is the first quotes back that enjoy the highest conversion rates. This will have a massive impact on Transactor users revenues going forward, and there is more to come.”
The world is basically divided between service providers and consumers. The steps involved in providing and consuming a service are straightforward under SOA. The Web Services Description Language (‘WSDL’) forms the basis for Web Services, and the provider describes its service using WSDL. This definition is published to a directory of services. A consumer issues one or more queries to the directory to locate a service and determine how to communicate with it, and part of the WSDL is returned to the consumer telling them what the requests and responses are for the provider. Using the WSDL the consumer sends a request to the provider, and the provider returns the expected response to the consumer.
“Web Services make up a connection technology,” comments Mark Rogers, Associate Director, Applications. “It is a way to connect services together into a service-oriented architecture. TGSL has re-engineered the Transactor application over the past 24 months so that all the transactional processes are now Web Services. Since SOA is essentially a collection of services that communicate with each other, there is no end to the business applications that this technology can lend itself too.”