LMS Application Implementation and Consulting

Customer

National computer center. Project was implemented for the Ministry of Finance of an EU country.

Project description

IBA CZ outsourced its consultants and IT specialists for implementation and integration of third-party J2EE e-learning application. The project also included the installation and configuration of infrastructure in the customer data center. Project management was shared among the customer and participating suppliers. The number of users of the application was estimated to be in the thousands across each time zone.

Project implementation

Within the project implementation IBA CZ ensured installation and configuration of a runtime environment, hosting middleware components, implementation of J2EE e-learning application, technical analysis and development of required integration components including delivery of supporting documentation. The project was realized in mixed delivery model, including both near-shore and on-site teams in the customer data center, closely cooperating with the client in their local language.

The mentioned application was developed by a third party and designed for running in IBM WebSphere Application Server. It has been decided to use an existing server and communication infrastructure based on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. IBA CZ specialists utilized their previous experience both in this application and in IBM WebSphere products and installed IBM WebSphere Application Server into the desired environment. To achieve a robust and reliable setup, the client required a cluster configuration, so the servers were configured for high-availability using IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.

It was also necessary to integrate the application with surrounding systems. In this case there was a need for periodic migration of user profiles, administered by a SAP system. Here IBA CZ took advantage of its previous experience in application interface design using web services technology. After consultation of business requirements for the migration, IBA CZ ensured the analysis, testing procedures and implementation of the migration components in Java language.

An important part of the project was to ensure a user friendly access to the new application. The client already had SiteMinder Web Access Manager services from CA company which was used for other applications. After consultation with the client IBA CZ proposed and developed a security module, which enabled the usage of Single Sign-On features for the new application.

Project Results

IBA CZ offered and delivered professional services allowing the client to realize an integrated e-learning environment. In designed project time IBA CZ afforded its organizational, technical and communication experience, sent its specialists to the client location as necessary, fixed technical issues in a creative way and successfully finished the project within six months.