business processes in the cloud

The AFG Case

Lykle Thijssen, 01-06-2016

Business Processes in the Cloud

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About me

• Lykle Thijssen• Working at AMIS since 2015• SOA/BPM Specialist• International Experience: Netherlands & Turkey• Went to Australia for PCS/ICS project this year

About AFG

Australian Finance Group (AFG)

• Established in 1994• Australia’s largest mortgage broker• Processing more than $4 billion of mortgage finance monthly• Substantial investments in technology required

IT Challenges

Challenges:

• Difficulty to implement business demands• High maintenance costs

• Difficulty finding qualified IT staff

Solution:

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AFG Cloud

IT Strategy: “cloud only”• More pro-active to industry, customers and business demands• Focus on continuous improvement• Modern application backbone• Removed 3 out of the top 5 business risks (classified)• Innovation/maintenance ratio up to 60% (was 24%)

Core process

AFG’s core process, the Home Loan Application process, is purchased from a third party and the contract is expiring. AFG wants to develop a more specific process and has selected Oracle products to do so:• Oracle Process Cloud Service• Oracle Document Cloud Service• Oracle Integration Cloud Service• Oracle Policy Automation Cloud Service

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Solutions A & B

Plan A: Integrate PCS directly with OPA and other services• Cheap & easy• Questionable, according to on-premise best practices• Impossible, because of OPA interface (entities & attributes)

Plan B: Integrate PCS with OPA and other services through ICS• Still cheap & easy• Point-to-point connections: smart architecture for a growing enterprise?• Impossible, because of WS-Addressing requirement• Other issues:

– SOAP Fault handling questionable in ICS– HTTP Header broken by ICS– Lack of orchestration

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Solution C

Only one option left: replace ICS by SOA CS:• Supports best practices (service layering)• Supports reusability (business services)• Supports WS-Addressing etc...• More complex than ICS• More expensive than ICS• More maintenance required than ICS

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SOA & PCS Architecture

Service layering:• Requester Service (Service Bus)• Business Service (BPEL)• Provider Service (Service Bus)

CDM (MDS):• For SOA layer only• Requester Service

and PCS separated

User interface:• WebForms

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SOA & PCS Architecture

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SOA & PCS Architecture

Differences with on-premise architecture:• Types directly in Requester Service wsdl• Multiple operations in Requester Service• Process & UI tightly coupled• Process & Documents tightly coupled• Service Bus with JMS needed to provide high availability for PCS

Best practices? Not for BPM Suite, but PCS requires this.

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PCS vs BPM

Process Cloud Service is BPM, but it’s not BPM Suite:• Containered BPM vs Enterprise BPM on top of SOA• Tightly coupled UI vs Loosely Coupled UI• Citizen developer vs Technical specialist• Easy-to-use Admin console vs Enterprise Manager• Pay per named user vs License payment• Low maintenance vs High maintenance

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Lessons learned

• Process Cloud Service must mature, but can be used• Integration Cloud Service recommended for “adapters only”• Web service integration still for “techies”• Traditional on-premise architecture doesn’t always fit

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What’s next?

• Finish the Home Loan Application Process• Possibly add other processes and re-use SOA Business Services• Consider moving other applications to SOA• The Cloud is The Future

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Thank you for your attention!