Now I will discuss the specific profiles of the potential clients for the online collaboration service. In addition, I will detail the main technical requirements for the provision of the proposed service.
The target SME company profile includes revenues of between $ 5 million and $ 500 million annually. The company usually has between 50 and 250 employees. Many of these companies still do business through manual processes, costing thousands of dollars a year. This does not include the opportunity cost due to lost business due to not being able to maintain enough staff to support more customers or not being able to meet customer automation demands. Meanwhile, your competitors are rolling out newer systems that support B2B automation and back office integrations that drive long-term growth. The BizTalk Collaboration Service positions the target SMB market to be better prepared to support the needs of its customers.
Businesses, like consumers, must be able to feel that their information is protected. As a service company, we must ensure that we address how to limit our liability while at the same time providing the level of security to keep our customers’ data safe. Since we plan to provide data transformation services connecting vital business information between two parties, we must ensure that both parties sign the business relationship establishment. This can be a very complex issue as existing companies in our network try to establish new connections through our B2B network.
If the company decides to target healthcare providers, the HIPPA regulations regarding handling of personal data should be closely followed. Due to the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, there are requirements that require specific audits, control and management of financial data, although these would only affect listed companies. Since the SMB market can be difficult to reach, we must ensure that marketing efforts do not violate any anti-spam laws. This includes giving the customer the option to opt out of receiving unsolicited emails. We prefer to use the opt-in strategy, as this allows the customer to manage their email preferences without making assumptions about their wishes.
Critical technical requirements are divided into 3 main categories; the technical infrastructure including hardware, software and networks, data communications infrastructure and the user interface. The main focus of the technical infrastructure is to ensure that the overall computing environment is robust enough to ensure that a highly available solution is delivered while maintaining the lowest possible operating cost. This will include having multiple sites that will provide disaster recovery capabilities. The network in each of the data centers will be divided into functional virtual LANs (V-LANs) that will provide backup capabilities, end-user access, database connectivity, and operating interfaces with multiple logical paths for each of the V-LAN. This ensures that there is not a single point of failure in the architecture. The data centers will be connected through a wide area network using MPLS VPN through multiple service providers. Internet connections will be provided by a Tier 1 ISP within the local data center market. All software components will be configured to ensure that high availability is maintained through the use of database replication systems and the load balancing functionality available in the BizTalk server product.
The data communications infrastructure will include an extranet component that logically prevents all Internet traffic from connecting directly to data centers. All inbound and outbound traffic will be routed through the extranet through proxy servers that will act as traffic police to prevent unauthorized visitors from accessing customer data. All information will be encrypted when transported over the Internet using PKI encryption or SSL authentication, depending on the type of traffic being routed. Open connectivity protocols will be used to connect with customers and their business partners, including AS2, AS3, Secure FTP, and ebXML.
The user interface requirements are what differentiate BizTalk’s collaboration service offering from regional players and other value-added networks. Many of today’s offerings are a heterogeneous set of tools that don’t integrate well with each other to give the customer easy navigation from one feature to another while maintaining a professional appearance. BizTalk will use a set of tools built on the same platform to ensure that all functions work together in harmony. A single sign-on will allow the customer to access all the information available in their account. Customizing all of the site’s features will allow the customer to control the overall look and feel to their specific taste. This feature will also apply to the brand offering that is made available to larger clients looking to build communities to reach the SMB market. Site content will include specific data that enables BizTalk to provide up-to-date information to the community. This information will be searchable on the site and published for specific customers based on their profile. Partners will be able to communicate with each other regarding specific data integrity issues through the site, while also being able to reference the specific data in question within the communication without having to create an external copy. This will help build a true collaborative network where typical workflow features would be available between external partners, either at a very high level. Additional features include searching for existing business partners by name and location, searching for data that has already been processed and reprocessed as needed. The system will be able to generate customized and preconfigured reports, including the export of information to MS Excel and Word, as well as the creation of complex tables, graphs and charts. Finally, the customer service interface will be available to check the account status and current balance, which also includes IM, email and VOIP connection to customer service.
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