Large-scale Integration with Kerberos Authentication for Fortune 100 Insurance Company

Moving full speed with the digital world of today requires IT integration to achieve accelerated, lean business approach. So, when our client asked for modernizing their integration platform so that they can address the needs of today and tomorrow, seize the opportunities of a fluid marketplace, and monetize value through step-changes in agility and efficiency, we knew that our proprietary webMethods upgrade and modernization methodology will help them deliver the desired future state.

Snapshots

Challenge:

Obsolete webMethods integration solution choked IT efficiency and productivity; lack of Kerberos compliance proved a grave security threat that made IT systems an easy target

Solutions:

Implemented an integration platform upgrade of Software AG’s webMethods integration suite from 9.7 to 9.12; provided complete support for company-wide Kerberos compliance; deployed command central for enhanced scalability and easy enablement of new integrations

Benefits:

Seamless IT topology; enhanced efficiency; faster go-to-market; increased agility and scalability; improved customer experience and growth

Key Challenges

The essential feature of today’s integration platforms is to provide agility in implementing integrations across the ever-changing IT landscape in the organization. However, our client’s 9.7 webMethods environment was obsolescing, making the IT ecosystem weak, latent, risky, and expensive to maintain in the face of current market dynamics and growth indicators.
Existing webMethods integration solution lacked support for Kerberos Authentication. Lack of company-wide compliance with Kerberos made IT systems and services prone to security threats. For a typical enterprise with large-scale operations, the implications of a security breach were unmatched.
Since the integration layer connecting the core systems was ineffective, the project timelines were hit. Factors, such as process efficiency, time-to-market, customer experience, and ROI, took a nosedive, which was a growth-threatening situation.

Our client is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the US. The company provides a wide portfolio of insurance and financial services, including auto, commercial, homeowners; farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans; pet, motorcycle, and boat insurance among more.

Our Solutions

We began with defining the scope of work using future/end-state business cases, which helped us outline a fit-to-purpose upgrade strategy. The business process maps were designed and an effective client engagement model was built to enable seamless upgrade of webMethods 9.7 integration version to its latest version. Our meticulous approach of planning was instrumental in cementing the functional gaps across our client’s IT topology, enhancing process efficiency and agility across value chains and achieving service excellence.

The upgraded webMethods integration solution provided out-of-the-box support for Kerberos authentication. As a result, our client was able to meet the mandatory company-wide compliance, which was a critical imperative to keep IT systems and services immune to burgeoning security threats and build stronger operational resilience.

We also established a command central to streamline management and monitoring of webMethods instances, improve efficiency levels, and ensure greater stability of environments. One of the major goals behind implementing command central was to improve customer service and business scalability for effective handling of future upgrades/updates.