Using WebSphere sMash as an agile development platform

Every organization knows a large set of unstructured situational applications. Mostly, the applications are created by the business users themselves, and provide functionality targeted at a specific department. In most cases these applications are constructed in Excel, Lotus Notes or Access and are hidden on peoples desktops. Data integration is accomplished by simply copying data to these applications. This may result in an unmanageable situation, with lack of control. Crucial business decisions can be influenced this unsecure data.

In an ideal world we could solve such integration challenges by introducing SOA and data management software to provide a set of services which provides trusted data to the end-user. Due to the credit crunch budgets are under pressure, and it is not always possible to start a 'major' implementation or convince management to invest in techniques that will not show results to the business in a short time frame. Additionally, the IT department is not in favour of expanding unstructured development and deployment. Using WebSphere sMash one could introduce a platform that provides functionality in a short time frame, on a single centralized platform.

Below we are grateful to show you a business case of Jibes, based on WebSphere sMash. The Procurement department of this was facing challenges with their stock levels. The planning for its factory is changed on a weeky basis, by the so called reschedule-in and outs of their customers. These planning changes are communicated by Excel sheets generated from their customers’ SAP portal. The normal routine would be to analyze the sheet manually, line by line to determine the effect on stock and planning. This implies switching between the sheet and its own ERP system to calculate changes. The latter has a huge impact on time consumption by the procurement department. To facilitate the procurement employees they created different 'new' Excel forms to merge their ERP data with the customer data, resulting in numerous methods (per employee) to solve this challenge, but also introduced a unstructured and unmanageable solution.

To create a structured and manageable solution, one could consider sourcing a specific ERP module. A typical example is a ‘ management by exception’ module which is widely accepted in the purchasing discipline. Alternatively, one could implement an inter-company integration platform and portal solution or even create another unstructured Excel sheet. Because of the dynamical changes from the customers an ERP solution would be costly in implementing and maintaining. The inter-company integration platform and portal solution would be the preferred choice, but where does one start? WebSphere sMash provided a jump start to let them think about company wide scenario's and still deliver in a short time frame.

Within sMash Jibes created an application that was capable of reading the customer Excel sheet and integrating this with their ERP system. Application logic and user interface were developed to simulate planning changes, and provide real-time stock information based on this simulation. All this created in an architectural design which makes it perfect for re-use. And, most important, centralized in their IT landscape for maximum manageability. By using the extremely dynamic environment of sMash it was possible to develop with close interaction of the business users.

The end-result is presented in the following demo movie