Customer Support
Constructing an accurate picture of a customer's status within a company's IT systems can be complex. Often transactional information from a legacy system must be combined with relational data stored in a database or data mart. Connecting these systems and combining the data that they provide has traditionally been very difficult. XML-based protocols such as SOAP promise to simplify the acquisition and presentation of real-time customer information. Figure 7.3 shows a typical IT back-office system, including the protocols used to communicate between systems.
Figure 7.3. Typical tightly coupled IT system.
Proprietary binary protocols such as CORBA, DCOM, and RPC are difficult to access from foreign platforms, such as Web servers. Frequently, they require reliable network connections, tight integration between the host systems, and large amounts of custom development.
Standardizing on XML for intrasystem messaging makes it easier to provide real-time Web-based access to customer information. Geographically distributed applications become simpler because HTTP/SOAP solutions can pass directly through corporate firewalls. Also, when data can be submitted and retrieved in XML, new access methods can be developed rapidly. When standards such as XForms become more mature, it should be possible to build an application that reads and updates mainframe information directly from a client's browser. Figure 7.4 shows a more open system that relies heavily on SOAP and HTTP for communications.
Figure 7.4. Loosely coupled IT system using HTTP and SOAP.
Simpler protocols and XML message formats reduce the amount of effort required to present information to end users. Frequently, data from the mainframe or database server can be reformulated as HTML directly using XSLT, without the need for custom coding. The network connectivity requirements for HTTP also are much less demanding than those for more sophisticated protocols such as RPC or DCOM.