Going Liferay
Liferay European Symposium 23.-24.09.2008:
Going Liferay
Portals in an Insurance Company
Dr. Horst Karaschewski, HanseMerkur Versicherungsgruppe
23.September 2008
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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)
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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.
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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
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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
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Going LiferayStairway to Heaven
Infrastructure
AccessManagement,
ServiceManagement, ...
Technical Portal
CMS
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Po
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Workflow, EAI
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Steps to
success byinterations
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Going Liferay
Thanks!
Any questions?