Most major insurers have already taken tentative steps in using Web services to deliver business functionality via the Internet. However, the benefits from these early implementations pale in comparison to the true potential of Web services when they are used in combination to deliver complete business processes.

Web services can best be described as small pieces of reusable and easily called business functionality which are exposed to users internally or through the Internet. When these Web services components are used as building blocks, arranged in various configurations, they have the potential to deliver on the long-held goal of using technology to flexibly mirror complete business processes.

The method of tying Web services together and defining the rules of the business process is commonly referred to as "orchestration," which represents the next step in the maturing process and broader use of Web services.

Just as a lone musician produces a pleasant melody, a single Web service delivers some small piece of business functionality and value. However, when a single musician is joined by complementary artists, with well-tuned instruments, and coordinated through an overarching score, the resulting orchestra can produce a beautiful symphony. Similarly, a group of discrete Web services, when well orchestrated, can deliver a business process symphony.

As more and more business functionality is being made available through Web services, the need for orchestration tools and techniques is becoming more obvious to insurers. A good place to begin to understand the concept of orchestrating Web services is with an overview of some emerging orchestration technologies:

o Web services--the musicians and instruments.

o Enterprise Service Bus--the concert hall that houses the Web services and the supporting infrastructure, while also providing a common set of ground rules for interaction.

o Business Process Execution Language--the conductor and sheet music that manage the arrangement and collaboration of the Web services to deliver the complete business process (the symphony).

Whether insurers are implementing Web services by wrapping and exposing the functionality of a legacy system or developing new functionality with modern-day development languages, Web services have a common facade that provides a standard method of interaction.

This standardization allows a business function to be offered up as a Web service that is reusable and callable by any program that requires the functionality provided by the service. These Web services can then be combined to create increasingly more complex services until they mimic a complete business process.

For example, a carrier's request to obtain a CLUE report for an insurance applicant can be implemented as a Web service to be called and executed as needed. The Web service behaves as if it were a support representative from the CLUE reporting company who is always sitting by the phone waiting for the next call requesting a report.

Not only is the Web service always available, it can be easily scaled to represent not just one, but 100 or even thousands of representatives patiently sitting by the phone ready to pull up the next CLUE report as soon as the phone rings.

When these powerful Web services are made available and combined with a series of similarly discrete services--such as driver and vehicle data collection services, a credit report service, and a premium rating service--the process quickly evolves into a more complex quote generation business process.

The other beauty of Web services is that they can be reused and incorporated into other business processes as required.

The greatest potential for Web services is found in assembling the "instruments" and "musicians" to form a complete business process (the symphony). To provide for this bigger picture, the concept of an Enterprise Service Bus has been adopted.

Just as all musicians in an orchestra have a common understanding of a conductor's gestures, all Web services have an agreed-upon set of rules that dictate how they will interact to deliver the business process.

The ESB can be thought of as the concert hall that houses all the Web-based tools and services, while also defining the order of services and enforcement of the rules under which Web services interact.

In the Web services orchestra, the task of arranging and directing services is accomplished via a syntax under the ESB umbrella called Business Process Execution Language, a scripting language that serves to connect Web services and define the business process road map. Essentially, BPEL provides the musical score for the Web services orchestra.

To illustrate the concept of a series of orchestrated Web services, in an auto insurance new business process, each of these functions may be delivered via a reusable, easily-callable Web service.

o The prospect completes an online application and submits it to the carrier.

o The carrier receives the application, reviews the information and issues additional Web service requests--to the submitter for missing information, to the credit agency for a CLUE report, and to the rating engine to calculate/return a premium.

o Once complete information is gathered, the system might automatically issue an approval or denial of the coverage with appropriate notification to the applicant.

o With the coverage approved, a logical series of steps concludes the process by binding and issuing the policy, billing the policyholder, and accepting premium payment, etc.

BPEL not only arranges and connects all the various process components (the Web services) into a composite process, but it also provides the appropriate exception rules to the workflow.

For example, if a required piece of information is not available, business rules--stored as BPEL statements--will dictate what action should be taken to remedy the situation. This may even include forwarding the request for manual intervention and integrating the business worker into the process as needed.

Although it has taken some time, orchestration technologies such as Web Services, ESB and BPEL are now readily available to provide all the supporting pieces to allow technology to deliver on the goal of emulating complete business processes with software. As complete and complex services become easier to construct with orchestration technologies, the ability to align information technology with the company's business goals also becomes much more easily attainable.

With these enabling technologies, everyone in the insurer organization is now able to focus on defining and implementing business processes as they should be rather than being limited by technology.

Rapid response, reusability and flexibility are the underlying rationalizations for migrating to Web services. As insurer expertise with these technologies continues to increase and as standards pioneers and integration vendors mature their offerings, Web services orchestration will soon become commonplace in the industry.

The broader use of Web services for complete business processes is a major paradigm shift in the way software is designed and developed--but in this case, it is a long awaited and welcome shift.

Special Reports /

Web Services Help Keep Insurers In Tune

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