Hot Topics - Messmer The Brain House

Credit Check Risk Analysis
WebSphere
Process Server (WPS)
with WebSphere
Interchange Server (WIS)
Underwriting
WebSphere
HATS
comprehensive, user-friendly business
process modeling and collaboration
capabilities to graphically design processes
across people, partners, and applications. You
can translate and export the business process
into BPEL4WS, which IT can apply into a
service model using Web services through
WebSphere Integration Developer (WID).
WID can generate the code needed to deploy
a BPEL4WS process to WebSphere Process
Server (WPS).
HATS and WebSphere
Process Server
WebSphere Process Server (WPS) helps to:
40 February 2006 z/OS HOT TOPICS Newsletter, Issue 14
Insurance quote
Figure 1 - WebSphere HATS with WebSphere Process Server
J
Risk
Analysis
Java
Snippet1
Reply
Credit
Check
Assign
Assign1
Insurance
Quote
Figure 2 - Insurance Quote business
process modeled using WID
J
Receive
Java
Snippet
HATS
• Create and deploy new business
processes
• Synchronize business information in
multiple business applications on diverse
platforms
• Transform message formats en-route
between applications.
One of its components, WebSphere
Interchange Server coordinates business
process activities that span multiple
applications.
While executing the various business
activities in WPS that are part of a
business process, there is a need to set
up an interface with the host applications.
Currently WPS can provide an interface
with host applications, such as CICS through
commarea invocations. However, many host
applications do not allow for commarea
invocation because the presentation logic is
tightly mixed with the business logic, and
the only way you can interface with the
applications is by driving terminal screens.
The Web services feature in HATS
allows customers to enable terminal
based applications such as CICS and IMS.
Consequently, a business activity can be
completed by either a single Web service or a
small collection of Web services, which drives
the required number of terminal screens.
Example scenario using WPS and
HATS
Figure 1 illustrates the scenario of obtaining
a car insurance quote from an insurance
company. The IT infrastructure consists
of WPS, HATS, and other vendor specific
applications. WPS is coordinating the entire
business process and HATS interfaces with
an Insurance Quote CICS application. When
invoked, the HATS Web service will step
through the required screens on the CICS
host and send the output obtained back to
WPS.
The entire process consists of the
following steps:
1. Perform a credit check on the applicant.
2. Obtain a risk assessment of the
applicant.
3. Send the data from the first two steps
to a Web service running on WebSpere
Application Server HATS through the
Web services adapter in WPS. This
Web service interfaces with a CICS
application on the backend to obtain
the quote based on the data sent. The
results get sent back to WPS through
HATS.
4. If the applicant likes the offer, the
information from all the above steps is
sent for underwriting.
This process can also be represented in
Figure 2, which specifies the order in
which it is meaningful to call a collection
of services. Figure 2 shows how to model
a simple business process in a Business
Process Execution Language (BPEL)
compliant mode. The steps of “Assign” and
“Java Snippet” are simply the results of post
processing the output from the earlier stage
into an appropriate format for the next step.
Figure 2 also shows that if a request is from
a user whose credit information is already
available, the process skips the steps of credit
check and risk analysis. Similarly, upon
credit check, there might not be any need
for risk analysis and one could skip the risk
analysis step and go to HATS directly for the
quote.
With this infrastructure, an applicant
can now get an insurance quote “on the fly.”
Without HATS, a sales representative would
have to manually collect the data from the
first two steps, iterate though the greenscreens
on the host application to obtain the
insurance quote, and finally send all that
data for underwriting. Integration Objects
and Web services can automate this process
and help WPS communicate with the host
application.
Conclusion
As we have seen in this article, HATS
simplifies interactions with host applications
and provides a way to invoke business logic
on terminal applications through Web
services. HATS is tops when you need a
solution for your business to integrate z/OS
terminal applications with other business
activities in a SOA environment.