U.S. DOD EMALL Launches Secure, Reliable Messaging Solution

U.S. Department of Defense Launches Secure, Reliable Messaging for DOD EMALL Using BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1

ICF Consulting Incorporates ebXML to Strengthen Trading Partner Collaboration with Defense Department's Worldwide Procurement Application

San Jose, California and Fairfax, VA, USA. November 08, 2004.

BEA Systems, Inc., a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, and ICF Consulting today announced that development has been completed on the newest version of DOD EMALL, one of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) most successful online applications. DOD EMALL, which is built on BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 is the Defense Department's worldwide commerce portal, processing more than $188 million in transactions annually.

Among the key enhancements in the new DOD EMALL is the use of the Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) standard for secure, reliable messaging between trading partners. DOD EMALL is one of the largest online operations ever to adopt ebXML, which is designed to allow the Web site to retry actions that are aborted or fail and confirm message receipt to ensure non-repudiation while helping to complete transactions faster. ebXML also helps facilitate the use of digital signatures to verify message authenticity and help to ensure message integrity. In addition, ebXML is protocol independent so that it can be used regardless of the means by which an interaction is taking place (e.g., email, FTP, http, Web services).

"It is imperative that DOD EMALL users are able to send and receive mission-critical order information among heterogeneous systems securely and reliably," said Gabrielle Zimmerman, systems integration manager for DOD EMALL. Reliability of messaging became a significant concern as DOD EMALL's transaction volume grew from $13.7 million in 2002 to $188 million in 2003. Orders are expected to approach $300 million in 2005.

DOD EMALL has evolved into much more than the standard "shopping cart" idiom for electronic commerce. ICF Consulting and BEA Systems worked with the DOD to build a customized, service-oriented architecture (SOA). The SOA is designed to brings a high degree of adaptability to DOD EMALL, helping to enable the DOD to implement change rapidly as the department's needs evolve, and it presents a highly personalized screen to users based on their specific job responsibilities, security clearances, and other variables.

The new DOD EMALL makes extensive use of modeled procurement processes and workflows developed using BEA WebLogic Workshop, a full-featured Java development environment optimized for SOA and it also leverages the business process management (BPM) capability of BEA WebLogic Integration to help orchestrate and streamline the flow of messages and application interactions. BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 also provides an integration layer within the DOD EMALL infrastructure, designed to enable the DOD to integrate DOD EMALL in hub-and-spoke fashion with finance and accounting applications, vendor catalogs, sales and fulfillment systems, and security services.

About BEA

BEA Systems, Inc. is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, helping enable companies to improve business responsiveness through service-oriented architecture (SOA), a software design approach that more closely aligns IT with business objectives. With 15,000 customers worldwide including the majority of the Fortune Global 500, BEA and its WebLogic and Tuxedo brands are among the most trusted names in business technology. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA is a billion-dollar company with 71 offices in 34 countries. More information on BEA products and services is available at www.bea.com.

About ICF Consulting

ICF Consulting (www.icfconsulting.com) is a leading management, technology, and policy consulting firm. Drawing upon extensive industry knowledge, distinguished professionals, and innovative analytics, the firm develops solutions to complex energy, environment, emergency management and homeland security, community development, and transportation issues. ICF Consulting's approach to these issues is strengthened by its expertise in information technology, organizational improvement, program management, and communications. Since 1969, ICF Consulting has been serving major corporations, government at all levels, and multinational institutions. More than 1,000 employees serve these clients in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Additional References

DoD EMALL. "The DoD EMALL is the single entry point for DoD and other federal customers to find and acquire off-the-shelf, finished good items from commercial marketplace. The DoD EMALL offers cross-store shopping for the purpose of comparison pricing and best value decision-making. All vendors meet Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFAR) requirements and statutory requirements. The DoD EMALL is primarily composed of three corridors: parts and supplies, information technology and training. It also provides a one-stop visibility of order status. The DoD EMALL runs on a distributed architecture that allows the vendor to maintain the data, ensuring that it is current and accurate. This allows it to support a large number of products from multiple vendors and eliminates the need for the government to replicate data already maintained by the vendor. The EMALL provides the benefits of reduced logistics response time and improved visibility of both Government and commercial sources of supply, as well as facilitates the use of the Government purchase card. The DoD EMALL strives to be the DoD customer's first choice to search, find, compare and buy commercial and military products and services. The DoD EMALL customer views the catalog product information as if it were coming from a single unified source. The customer can use their Government Purchase Card or a Military Fund Code to buy any of the over 10 million items from Government Stock or vendor catalogs..."
BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 Product Reference. "BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 delivers the ability to converge two otherwise disparate activities — application integration and application development — into one unified business integration solution. This lets you build an adaptable, service-oriented environment that extends existing skill sets and allows IT to rapidly integrate and assemble business functionality to speed up project completions. It features Business Process Management, Enterprise Resource Access, Dynamic Integration Services, Integrated Design Environment, and Administration & Management"
BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 Datasheet

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. General references in "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

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BEA Systems, Inc., a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, and ICF Consulting today announced that development has been completed on the newest version of DOD EMALL, one of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) most successful online applications. DOD EMALL, which is built on BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 is the Defense Department's worldwide commerce portal, processing more than $188 million in transactions annually. Among the key enhancements in the new DOD EMALL is the use of the Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) standard for secure, reliable messaging between trading partners. DOD EMALL is one of the largest online operations ever to adopt ebXML, which is designed to allow the Web site to retry actions that are aborted or fail and confirm message receipt to ensure non-repudiation while helping to complete transactions faster. ebXML also helps facilitate the use of digital signatures to verify message authenticity and help to ensure message integrity. In addition, ebXML is protocol independent so that it can be used regardless of the means by which an interaction is taking place (e.g., email, FTP, http, Web services). "It is imperative that DOD EMALL users are able to send and receive mission-critical order information among heterogeneous systems securely and reliably," said Gabrielle Zimmerman, systems integration manager for DOD EMALL. Reliability of messaging became a significant concern as DOD EMALL's transaction volume grew from $13.7 million in 2002 to $188 million in 2003. Orders are expected to approach $300 million in 2005. DOD EMALL has evolved into much more than the standard "shopping cart" idiom for electronic commerce. ICF Consulting and BEA Systems worked with the DOD to build a customized, service-oriented architecture (SOA). The SOA is designed to brings a high degree of adaptability to DOD EMALL, helping to enable the DOD to implement change rapidly as the department's needs evolve, and it presents a highly personalized screen to users based on their specific job responsibilities, security clearances, and other variables. The new DOD EMALL makes extensive use of modeled procurement processes and workflows developed using BEA WebLogic Workshop, a full-featured Java development environment optimized for SOA and it also leverages the business process management (BPM) capability of BEA WebLogic Integration to help orchestrate and streamline the flow of messages and application interactions. BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 also provides an integration layer within the DOD EMALL infrastructure, designed to enable the DOD to integrate DOD EMALL in hub-and-spoke fashion with finance and accounting applications, vendor catalogs, sales and fulfillment systems, and security services. About BEA BEA Systems, Inc. is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, helping enable companies to improve business responsiveness through service-oriented architecture (SOA), a software design approach that more closely aligns IT with business objectives. With 15,000 customers worldwide including the majority of the Fortune Global 500, BEA and its WebLogic and Tuxedo brands are among the most trusted names in business technology. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA is a billion-dollar company with 71 offices in 34 countries. More information on BEA products and services is available at www.bea.com. About ICF Consulting ICF Consulting (www.icfconsulting.com) is a leading management, technology, and policy consulting firm. Drawing upon extensive industry knowledge, distinguished professionals, and innovative analytics, the firm develops solutions to complex energy, environment, emergency management and homeland security, community development, and transportation issues. ICF Consulting's approach to these issues is strengthened by its expertise in information technology, organizational improvement, program management, and communications. Since 1969, ICF Consulting has been serving major corporations, government at all levels, and multinational institutions. More than 1,000 employees serve these clients in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. Additional References DoD EMALL. "The DoD EMALL is the single entry point for DoD and other federal customers to find and acquire off-the-shelf, finished good items from commercial marketplace. The DoD EMALL offers cross-store shopping for the purpose of comparison pricing and best value decision-making. All vendors meet Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFAR) requirements and statutory requirements. The DoD EMALL is primarily composed of three corridors: parts and supplies, information technology and training. It also provides a one-stop visibility of order status. The DoD EMALL runs on a distributed architecture that allows the vendor to maintain the data, ensuring that it is current and accurate. This allows it to support a large number of products from multiple vendors and eliminates the need for the government to replicate data already maintained by the vendor. The EMALL provides the benefits of reduced logistics response time and improved visibility of both Government and commercial sources of supply, as well as facilitates the use of the Government purchase card. The DoD EMALL strives to be the DoD customer's first choice to search, find, compare and buy commercial and military products and services. The DoD EMALL customer views the catalog product information as if it were coming from a single unified source. The customer can use their Government Purchase Card or a Military Fund Code to buy any of the over 10 million items from Government Stock or vendor catalogs..." BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 Product Reference. "BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 delivers the ability to converge two otherwise disparate activities — application integration and application development — into one unified business integration solution. This lets you build an adaptable, service-oriented environment that extends existing skill sets and allows IT to rapidly integrate and assemble business functionality to speed up project completions. It features Business Process Management, Enterprise Resource Access, Dynamic Integration Services, Integrated Design Environment, and Administration & Management" BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 Datasheet Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. General references in "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."