SOLUTIONS

Unique Solutions for every customer need

Customer SolutionsOur customers look to the Plexus Message Broker to solve communication problems that cannot be solved by off- the-shelf solutions.  Most customer solutions are long-term solutions that tend to functionally grow as the underlying application grows. This is the case with the Health Care and Justice/Law Enforcement solutions referenced within. Other customers, such as with the Unemployment Benefits solution, have solutions that do not change once implemented. Finally, other customers require temporary solutions that stay in place for a year or so until the underlying problem can be addressed.  Such is the case with the Legacy Terminal solution. No matter what the project is, be it simple or complex, be it short term or long term, the Plexus Message Broker is capable of providing clients a solution that is cost effective and reliable.

Six customer solutions are presented below.  Each highlights a different aspect of the Plexus Message Broker integration facilities.

Health Care

Problem Description:

A very large health care organization was preparing to migrate their back-end application services platform to an IBM mainframe.  They needed to interface an extensive network of existing Linux and WebSphere® Message Broker front-end systems to the mainframe.  This interface required not only protocol changes but also message format changes. For more information click here.

The project’s business objectives were to integrate the front-end systems with the IBM mainframe; support continuous operations 24x7x52; support burst of 500 transactions per second; provide an audit trail of all transactions that is accessible in real time; and support local and geographic redundancy.

Plexus Message Broker Integration Highlights:

WebSphere® MQ, bursts of 500 transactions per second, local and geographic redundancy, message routing, and message translation

Emergency Services

Problem Description:

Central Stations are residential and commercial alarm monitoring organizations that receive help requests for break-ins, medical emergencies, fire notifications and other emergency requests.  Public Safety Dispatch Centers are entities on the International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets) that represent emergency medical services and fire response services as well as police services.  Communication between the Central Stations and the Public Safety Dispatch Centers was only via manual phone calls. The Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) created an initiative whereby the Central Stations would connect to the Public Safety Dispatch Centers via the Nlets Network thereby replacing the manual phone calls with automated Web Services calls. For more information click here.

The project’s business objectives were to reduce costs to both the PSAPs and Central Stations and to reduce, by two minutes, the amount of time it took for an emergency responder to arrive on the scene.

Plexus Message Broker Integration Highlights:

Microsoft® MSMQ, Web Services, message flow control, message translation, external intrusion detection appliances

Justice/Law Enforcement

Problem Description:

A state criminal history organization needed the capability to route transactions to/from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the Interstate Identification Index (III), the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and The International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets).  Moreover, they needed to translate internal message formats to/from the message formats required by the above agencies. For more information click here.

The project’s business objective was to integrate the existing back-end applications to the federal and state agencies with minimal change to the back-end applications.

Plexus Message Broker Integration Highlights:

WebSphere® MQ; synchronous and asynchronous messaging; flow control; and complex routing

Unemployment Benefits

Problem Description:

By law, an out-of-work individual should only receive unemployment benefits from a single state at any given time.  The Unemployment Information Interstate Connection Network (UI-ICON) is a national organization that allows for this check.  The business need for this project was to connect a legacy mainframe application written in COBOL to UI-ICON when the legacy mainframe did not support UI-ICON’s communication technology. For more information click here.

The project’s business objectives were to translate the request/responses to/from UI-ICON without making modifications to the back-end COBOL legacy system.

Plexus Message Broker Integration Highlights:

Microsoft® MSMQ messaging, legacy system interface, message translation

Legacy Terminals

Problem Description:

A New York State Police migrated their back-end system to a complex of IBM Open Systems.  Initially, the plan called for the systems at local police agencies, as well as legacy terminals located at the State Police barracks and agencies throughout the state, to continue to use the existing protocols and message formats.  The interface between the legacy terminals and the IBM systems also needed to provide the security layer that authenticated each legacy terminal with respect to access roles and access rights. For more information click here.

The project’s business objective was to delay the migration of the existing terminal network until the application migration from the legacy system to the new IBM system was complete.

Plexus Message Broker Integration Highlights:

Legacy terminals, role-based security access, WebSphere® MQ, WebSphere® Message Broker, and message format translation

Public Safety

Problem Description:

The International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets) is an organization that is owned by all of the states and acts a routing hub whereby one state communicates with another state.  For example, when a Boston policeman submits a Californian Driver’s license query, that query get routed through Nlets. Nlets needed to upgrade its communication technology to further enhance the resilience and reliability of its network. But in many cases this would require a costly update to the State Agency’s software. The solution was for Nlets to provide the State Agencies with a stand-alone adapter that converted Nlets legacy communication technology to the new Nlets technology. For more information click here.

The project’s business objective was to provide the States with an adapter that converts a legacy TCP protocol to the new Nlets Web Services protocol without requiring any modifications to the software running at the State Agency and without sacrificing reliability.

Plexus Message Broker Integration Highlights:

Legacy protocols, message format translation, Web Services