CIBER UK is the exclusive partner for BizTalk 2006 in Local Government

Hinckley, Leicestershire.—March 27,2006 -CIBER UK has been formally selected to run the only BizTalk Server 2006 Technical Adoption Programmes for Local Government in the UK.

Microsoft short listed a number of global TAP Programmes based on innovative projects using BizTalk Server 2006.

CIBER is running 3 programmes with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, DerbyCity Council and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

Charlie James,Public Sector Business Manager from CIBER UK explains, “CIBER and its customerswere selected for the Technical Adoption Programme due to the variety and scope of the projects being undertaken. CIBER is a recognised expert with BizTalk in local government and sees great advantages in the new features that BizTalk Server 2006 has to offer.”

The Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK) is the smallest of the 33 London Boroughs excluding the City of London, with a population of only 150,000. RBK has developed a national reputation for innovative use of I.T. The Borough is making substantial progress in responding to the government’s public access and e-services agenda, as well as the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. E-enablement was a key contributor to the council moving up to ‘excellent’ status during its most recent CPA review.

The RBK BizTalk Server 2006 project was devised to assist them handle and manage refuse complaints more effectively. This was previously managed via telephone submissions. As Robin Noble, IT Manager for RBK explains, “Before our BizTalk implementation the handling of complaints was mainly a manual process. This involved a lengthy process of us taking refuse complaint calls via the telephone from the public, and then sending faxed reports back and forth between Kingston and the refuse collector. The BizTalk Server 2006 solution will reduce our manual processes significantly, allowing us to resolve complaints quickly as well as delivering better and improved services to the public.”

The new solution using BizTalk Server 2006 and Microsoft Commerce Server enables citizens to submit missed bin/refuse complaints online using MyKingston. In the future, submission of further types of calls will be necessary, making it essential that the call submission form adapts to collect the correct information. The solution now provides around the clock availability for those who are unable to log calls during normal working hours.

Derby City Council introduced a LocalLand and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) to have a single and definitive source of addresses within the council. They embarked on a major project to cross reference addresses held on other systems so that they would have, for a given Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), a set of primary keys identifying the property in the other systems. This would then enable the Council to send updates from LLPG to the other systems when address changes were received from the National Property Gazetteer, the Value Office and Royal Mail. It was important that the mechanism for performing the updates was flexible, as each system had different interfaces, and expandable, allowing other systems to be included in the future.

CIBER consultants proposed BizTalk Server to integrate the LLPG with the other systems. A publisher – subscriber model was chosen in order to allow additional systems to be added in the future. This means that LLPG publishes the changed addresses once a day and each system can subscribe to the changes. Each system has a configurable SendPort enabling the data to be mapped to a different schema and to be exported through a variety of transport protocols.

CIBER used BizTalk orchestration to process the LLPG address export file and validate each address. A Microsoft Windows-based service was developed to invoke the export from LLPG and a web service was created to validate each address. Non-valid addresses are saved to a file and the system administrator is alerted by e-mail. Cross reference information is also sent back to the LLPG administrator. The second phase of the project is currently in development. It involves integrating Microsoft CRM with Flare to send service requests for abandoned vehicles and pest control. It will also allow CRM operators to search for existing service requests and update them. The solution is using BizTalk Server 2006 orchestrations exposed as web services. This includes not only submitting the service request to Flare but also storing the request in Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council had major issues in relation to addresses and personal data about citizens being stored in several local datastores, which are used by different back-end systems. When a citizen's address or personal details change, itinvolves a manual process that is prone to error. A system was required that would enable address and personal data updates to be synchronised automatically across several back end systems. The system must enable other back-end systems to be added with ease and allow implementation of business rules to determine which systems need to be updated when a particular data update message is received.

The administrators of each back-end system are the chief beneficiaries, but all citizens will benefit from the convenience and improved accuracy of a single contact for updating address and personal data, rather than the current situation where several council departments might have to be informed.

The proposed solution from CIBER was to use the orchestration and adapter facilities of BizTalk Server 2006, as the improved administrative interface will simplify development and deployment.

As Steven Martin, director of product management at Microsoft Corp. comments, “We have been very impressed with the quality of work we have seen from the CIBER team and the short time from solution conception to production. We hope that the new and improved 2006 product has had something to do with this, but we also realise that hard work at CIBER’s end has actually been the biggest factor. We appreciate CIBER’S dedicated participation and look forward to hearing good news from CIBER and its customers.”

Part of the Windows Server System, BizTalk Server 2006 has been designed to meet the needs of a service oriented world. The solution reduces complexity in the enterprise by efficiently and effectively integrating systems, employees and trading partners. The solution enables organisations to unite separate systems into a coherent whole. Built on the foundation of its predecessor, BizTalk Server 2004, this new release will look familiar to anyone who’s used this earlier version. The most important new additions in BizTalk Server 2006 are:

  • Better support for deploying, monitoring, and managing applications.
  • Significantly simpler installation.
  • Improved capabilities for Business Activity Monitoring (BAM).

BizTalk Server 2006 also uses the latest releases of other Microsoft technologies. It’s built on version 2.0 of the .NET Framework, for example, and its developer tools are hosted in Visual Studio 2005. For storage, the product can use SQL Server 2005, the latest version of Microsoft’s flagship database product, or SQL Server 2000, the previous release. BizTalk Server 2006 can also run on 64-bit versions of Windows, taking advantage of the larger memory and other benefits this new generation of hardware offers.

Whether you are a current BizTalk Server 2004 user, currently considering upgrading to BizTalk Server 2006 or investigating the possibilities surrounding improved enterprise application integration, CIBER UK can help. BizTalk Server 2006 can work with any technology. It has all the functionality of BizTalk Server 2004 but has a streamlined interface and additional tools to help develop and run integration workflows. For local authorities wanting to get a heads up on the new features and how they can benefit their integration programmes then please contact:

Garry Stewart
Marketing
CIBER UK
0870 0000 204

Charlie James
Public Sector Business Manager
CIBER UK
Tel: ++44(0) 207 3551101
Fax: ++44(0) 207 355 9000
Mob: ++44(0)7968 554700

About CIBER UK

CIBER UK is an industry expert in the design and development of innovative systems using Microsoft’s Technology encompassing, operating systems, server technologies, tools and languages. CIBER UK is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner who delivers business solutions for range of enterprises.

CIBER has worked with many local authorities and government departments to deliver a range of solutions from e-Pay solutions using Microsoft Commerce Server and Freedom of Information solutions utilising Microsoft SharePoint Server at Royal Borough of Kingston, to system integration solutions with Microsoft BizTalk Server at Derby City Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

CIBER UK has the experience and expertise to help make best use of these functional technologies to deliver business benefits with a rapid return on investment.

CIBER UK .NET Practice

The ethos of CIBER UK is based on delivering the best value to customers by using the latest products from Microsoft. CIBER UK has been engaged with its clients for early adopter programmes for the majority of the products listed above.

CIBER UK .NET Practice is a consultancy of experts who are skilled in a range of Microsoft technology platforms and a market leader in the application of the very latest Microsoft technologies. As a result of a successful and long history of deploying leading edge developments for blue chips companies in the UK, CIBER is one of the few Microsoft Gold Certified Partners accredited in two categories Commerce and Collaboration, CIBER is also ISO9001:2000 accredited.

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