Helping
your business department untangle the IT spaghetti
This is a blog I wrote for the monitoring tool that I am writing for Coliance - called "Opsis".
Your Purchasing system may run using security gateways, messaging systems, an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), an API Manager etc. Overlaying each individual piece of software is a layer of configuration that makes up the runtime for each specific business solution. i.e., security gateway policies, messaging systems queues, Enterprise Service Bus Flows, etc.
When viewed like this, we can see that business solutions take ‘paths’ through ‘systems’. These paths are complex and vary depending on the business problem being solved.
Sometimes, however, this is unattainable with your IT team kept busy monitoring whether machines are running, or if the software is generally operational. They spend much of their time examining individual artifacts on these systems such as queues and flows. Chances are, they will not have an unobstructed view of those complex paths that the business solution uses through the individual systems.
Our business monitoring solution OPSIS was written from the ground up to tackle this problem from the perspective of putting your business first.
OPSIS provides a
business view primarily, allowing decisions to be based on the business first,
not the infrastructure that runs it. We map out your company’s problem areas
and examine your workflow to ensure that the software meets your individual
requirements.
The above figure,
for example, shows a typical ordering process. OPSIS reaches into the spaghetti
that is the running solution and extracts the vital strands that are necessary
to clearly show the business at hand and not the tangled maze underlying it.
Further analysis
and deeper insight will provide the USER with the capability to fix ‘message
specific issues.’
The above view
shows the USER a particular order that has not been invoiced. The USER can
therefore correct errors that are caused by corrupted or inaccurate orders
without taking valuable time away from the IT team. Even if they have spare
time, IT teams might not understand the complexity of the problem and will
therefore not offer a viable solution for the subtle fixes required.
“Where is my customer’s order?” for example, is easily answered. It
allows your organisation to engage and produce a solution in real time. In
addition, OPSIS offers a secure business partner portal which allows your
partners to ask the same or more detailed questions such as “What stage is my
order at?” or “Has my order been dispatched?”
This portal enables business partners to get real-time information on their orders without taking up the time of the business agents at all.
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