Going Liferay

Liferay European Symposium 23.-24.09.2008:

Going Liferay

Portals in an Insurance Company

Dr. Horst Karaschewski, HanseMerkur Versicherungsgruppe

23.September 2008

2

Going LiferayHanseMerkur

About HanseMerkur Insurance Group

Corporate group independent and autonomous mutual insurance company with focus on personal insuranceAnnual turnover 837 Mio. Euro, capital assets more than 3.3 Bio.Euro (2007)Germany‘s second oldest health insurance company (established 1875)Private health insurance is main branch until today having an annual turnover of about 575 Mio. Euro (2007)

Specialist for protection amendments and third largest provider of supplementary insurances for the statutory health insured. Product provider in cooperation with compulsory health insurance funds DAK, Hamburg Münchener and HEK as well as with opticians group Fielmann and Hamburg savings bank (HASPA)HanseMerkur Krankenversicherung AG provides market leading tariffs with reimbursements for complementary medicine and is founder of the first German chair for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)Third largest travel insurance and market leader in bus, musical and ferry tourism. Its customers are for instance AIDA, Air Berlin, FTI, Öger Tours, Olimar, OTTO Reisen and STAGE EntertainmentMore than 25 years of commitment for children and adolescents. The HanseMerkur Preis für Kinderschutz, endowed with 50,000 Euro, is awarded annually by a competent jury, comprised amongst others of the chairman of the Deutschen Kinderschutzbund, the Deutsche Liga für das Kind and UNICEFInternet presence: www.hansemerkur.de (Corporate portal); www.riestermeister.de (Riester insurance); www.hmrv.de (Travel insurance); www.diegesundheitsprofis.de (medical advisory portal of the HanseMerkur health management)

3

Going LiferayAgenda

The path

This presentation describes the path to portals taken by HanseMerkur – beginning with first references and decisions about the architecture until today’s Internet applications and portals.

Today HanseMerkur runs two portal-based internet presences targeting different audiences as well as an extranet-portal for its sales force including online integration services.

What started in March 2006 based on Liferayportal and CMS (as well as other OpenSourcecomponents) is continuously enhanced by new portals like Intranet.

4

Going LiferayIgnition

Ignition

The goal: We want to go to the Internet! But:There is no consistent or complete conceptThere is no know-how regarding the required technologiesFinancial risk should be kept at a minimum

3 basic decisions:We are doing it iterativelyWe allow refactoringWe focus on OpenSource

5

Going LiferayLift-Off

Approach

IterativePhases of innovation (=extension/enhancement of technology) and validation alternate, i.e. each extension is followed by a validation step through an actual project orImprovements are realized only by a project covering the costsGoals:

No waste of effort for unnecessary functionalities. Validation of steps through prototyping. Requirements can grow during development and are allowed to do so.

RefactoringRefactoring is desired, i.e. artefacts built in one step may be replaced completely during subsequent stepsGoals:

Previous lessons provide maximum benefit for further steps. Avoid creating burdening legacies too early

Open-SourceUse OpenSource components if established ones existFocus on new developmentsGoals:

Reduce license costsMinimize cost risks due to erroneous choice of componentsOpenSource systems are usually more component based than commercial productsInfluence on and cooperation during developing enhancements

6

Going LiferayStairway to Heaven

Infrastructure

AccessManagement,

ServiceManagement, ...

Technical Portal

CMS

Fir

st

Serv

ices

On

lin

e p

resen

ce

Serv

ice c

om

po

un

d

Po

rtals

Workflow, EAI

Inte

gra

-

tio

np

ort

als

Steps to

success byinterations

7

Going LiferayInfrastructure

Infrastructure building blocks

Software architecture and development toolsDevelopment environment: MyEclipse, YoxosTest: xUnit, Cactus, JUnitPerf, The Grinder, JMeterVersioning: SubversionIssue-Tracking: JiraBuild and release management: Maven, ContinuumSoftware architecture: JSF, EJB 3.0Portal & CMS: Liferay 4.3

MiddlewareApache, Jboss, OracleHome-made ESB

Server architecture and hardwareStages: Development, Integration, Stageing, Production, (Editorial)Windows (Development) and Solaris

User concept and –infrastructureAuthentification: LDAPAuthorisation: Internal

Security infrastructureMultiple zones conceptSecurity levels: Firewall, Reverse-Proxy, Token-Server, ...LB-Cluster

8

Going LiferayFirst Services

First Steps

Data broker information systemFocus: ExtranetFocus: 2-Factor-AuthentificationFocus: Validating the server architecture

Customer detailsFocus: IntranetFocus: Validating development tools

Online applicationFocus: InternetFocus: Connecting a service with internal processes

9

Going LiferayCMS

CMS decision

Service requirements hint at technical portalPrinciple decision for OpenSource for previously mentioned reasonsEvaluation process with 5 OpenSource portalsSelecting Liferay portal

Parallel requirements to rebuild web presence www.hansemerkur.deA new CMS is neededCMS and technical portal have to be compatibleEvaluation process (POC) of 4 OpenSource CMS (Magnolia, Alfresco, OpenCMS, Liferay Journal) and one commercial CMS (RedDot)Selecting Liferay Journal

Collaboration with external partners (Liferay, mgm, framfab) to build up missing internal knowledge

10

Going LiferayOnline presence

New window to the world

www.hansemerkur.de going live on 29.9.2006

Web presence of HanseMerkur in new design with new structureAbout 350 pagesSpecialities like „Sweeping arc“Fully implemented within CMS CMS integrated with portal, hence integration of new services is easySEO feature (Sponsoring)Online application embeddedImplemented within 2 months

11

Going LiferayPersonalisation

Focus on personalisation

RequirementsAgencies shall have a personal area, which nevertheless is embedded within the main presenceThe agency‘s context shall be preserved while navigating through the home pageCreation and deletion of agency pages shall be automated

ChallengesDevelopment of communitiesMaintenance of community-specific contentCommunity administration

ResultCentral and individual articles are possible on agency pagesUse of services is personalisedSemiautomatic maintenance of agency pages

12

Going LiferayHigh avaliability

Focus on high availability

RequirementsSales and information portalDaily changing contentOnline applicationsVideosAds on radio, TV, print and online in multiple wavesStatistics

ChallengesExpected visitor volume unknownCentral service not multi-threading capableLittle experience with HA environmentsFixed Go-Live date due to planned advertisements

ResultHA environment ready in time within 1 ½ months (8/07)So far no load failuresOne of the first to use Liferay 4.3

13

Going LiferayTechnology behind

Technology behind HA

Resilience of hardware and software

Clustered hardware load-balancing

and content inspection

Separated zones for applications,

portal, databases

Jboss and Liferay run on farms

Oracle RAC

SAN

Falback scenario in separate computer center

Video stream hosted separately

Apache

Firewall

Jboss:div.Srvs

Apache

Jboss:div.Srvs

Apache

Jboss:div.Srvs

Apache

Tomcat:Liferay

Apache

Tomcat:Liferay

Apache

Tomcat:Liferay

LB and Content-Inspection

Oracle RAC

SAN

14

Going LiferaySales force information

Focus on integration and Single SignOn

RequirementsIntegration of customer and sales dataSecured access for whole sales forceHardware independent Online accessIntegration of additional services like electronic insurance certificate (eVB)

ChallengesDevelopment of portal frame for applications2-Factor authentication and Single SignOnData from policies, claims and collection systems, as well as from the data warehousehave to be joinedPortal integration of Cognos BI

ResultHigh acceptance after go-liveEasy integration of new servicesis possible

15

Going LiferayAftermath

Where do we go from here?

InternetConsolidation of separate portalsNew online applications and transactions

Customer portal1-Factor authenticated access for customersCSS and customer overview

Business portalB2B portal for business partnersPersonalised contentServices like commissions overview etc.

IntranetDevelopment of central platform for the (back) officeIntegration of HR services and contentIntegration of e-Mail, calendar, workflow, business services

16

Going Liferay

Thanks!

Any questions?