Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Case Two
Energy Giant Valero Turns to SOA Software
Not only were human resources wasted, but the internal
IT department was pushed past its limit. Staff members
sometimes unknowingly worked to solve the same problems.
They spent too much time coordinating applications, running
backups, and trying to keep up with new law enforcement
applications.
Recently the York police installed system management
software from Microsoft called System Center Configuration
Manager 2007. The software allows system administrators at
the main station to access notebooks remotely over the net-
work for system upgrades, patch management, software dis-
tribution, and hardware and software inventory. No longer do
officers need to spend hours waiting on their PC updates. PCs
are updated as needed over the wireless network. New soft-
ware and system changes are pushed out to all notebooks
simultaneously so all officers have the same information and
services at all times.
The new system software allows the department to come
close to its paperless ideal. An e-ticketing system allows offi-
cers to swipe a driver's license, run a background check, and
issue a ticket in minutes. Officers receive daily briefings online
and submit reports directly from their notebooks, which
allows them to stay on the road rather than at a desk. The new
system has freed up the IT staff to concentrate on delivering
new and useful services rather than just maintaining the old
services.
The York regional police are looking forward to the next
edition of System Center Configuration Manager, which
promises to support streaming media. They would like to use
it to stream video from the helicopter to cruisers on the road.
Valero Energy is North America's largest refiner. When
they recently acquired some competing refineries, Valero
tripled its annual revenue to $90 billion. While Valero's rapid
growth has been good for its shareholders, it has been a
nightmare for the company's information systems manage-
ment professionals.
By acquiring several companies that were themselves
products of multiple acquisitions, Valero found itself with
dozens of incompatible software systems that somehow had
to find a way to communicate and share data. Although one
traditional solution would have been to design or purchase
middleware to bridge the gap, Valero chose a cutting edge
software development technique called a service-oriented
architecture (SOA).
Valero software engineers began designing software ser-
vices to provide users with an interface to its disparate sys-
tems. They developed the services based on industry
standards and designed them to be flexibly reused and
recombined. By using the SOA approach, Valero planned to
pull together the various information systems, conduct busi-
ness more efficiently, and reduce operating costs. Over time,
the company has introduced over 100 services built on SAP's
NetWeaver Application Server Development Environment.
Many are composite services built by combining several
smaller services. Roughly 22,000 employees and 5,000 cus-
tomers now use Valero's SOA services.
When approaching a new service request, rather than
programming from scratch, Valero's software engineers con-
sider the services that have already been developed to find
one that can be reused or refashioned. Organizing and cata-
loging services for reuse helps Valero save time, effort, and
money. Developing services with the NetWeaver platform lets
Valero engineers develop 300 services quickly and easily.
Nayaki Nayyar, Valero's director of enterprise architecture
and technology services, stepped in to reduce the number of
services to 50, isolating the best core services before moving
forward with new development. “Unless you can catalog, find,
and use these services,” she said in a CIO Insight interview,
“you just end up with a virtual junk drawer of services.”
The result of their SOA approach has saved Valero millions
of dollars. One system designed to provide visibility into tanker
transportation schedules saved the company a half-million
dollars in penalties for ships that sit idle at the dock. Other
savings are incurred from management being able to view
corporate data from across the enterprise in real time.
Valero is working on tools that will allow managers to
design their own SOA services. If managers can access the
information they need without the usual system request pro-
cess, the business becomes more streamlined, and the infor-
mation system staff is freed to focus on bigger projects.
Discussion Questions
1.
What unique challenges did the York regional police IT
staff have to overcome?
2.
How did Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
resolve the issues for the York regional police?
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
What other types of industries would benefit from
products like Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager? Why?
2.
What general lesson regarding information system
administration can you take from this case?
SOURCES: Smith, Briony, “Cops roll out remote patch updates, e-ticketing,”
ITWorldCanada, November 29, 2007, www.itworldcanada.com/a/Enterprise-
Business-Applications/50132083-0699-401d-b7ce-d6f1c16193b5.html.
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager Web site,
www.microsoft.com/smserver, accessed February 3, 2008. York Regional
Police Web site, www.yrp.on.ca, accessed February 3, 2008.
 
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