The future of software is star-studded with web services. We discuss them frequently here, whether in the context of on-demand or on-premise deployments.
The principles of a service oriented architecture, which include looser
coupling between services that are reusable at will by numerous
applications across the system, open up the experiences and
capabilities of workers throughout the enterprise.
Dovetail Software’s own products in the CRM and support fields include Dovetail Web Services. These are an evolution from the APIs that made us famous for extending the capacity of the Amdocs Clarify database.
Dovetail
web services and APIs allow the Clarify owner to add Clarify functions
to any program or web page in any environment. This delivers savings in
costs as well as the obvious increased capabilities.
Web
services enable integration between different applications, such as by
embedding Clarify workflow functions (retrieving data, updating or
closing cases, etc) into the standard Outlook email application, for
example. New workflows and new solutions developed in-house by IT, or
customized specifically by third parties, can be implemented rapidly
and simply, creating custom portals, and collaborative utilities and
applications.
One model of service oriented architecture
proposes the three main elements of exposing, composing, and consuming.
This refers to, first exposing the business processes of software to
external calls by creating them as services open to standard methods of
communication. Secondly, these services are then composed with others
to build a set of processes that can be grouped into a particular job
function or requirement. Third, each service, from being created as a
separate entity, can be consumed at will by recombination into
different compositions, amid a variety of disparate needs and consumer
calls.
“While the architectures described within Expose /
Compose / Consume may be interdependent, they are designed to be
loosely coupled. This enables services to be managed, versioned and
configured independently of how they are exposed” See An Abstract SOA Reference Model
Services intended to be consumed within
proprietary systems may not have the loose coupling that the model
calls for. Dovetail products are created for a very specific end –
working with a Clarify database, and replacing the Amdocs applications
with the more nimble and powerful Dovetail clients – but our open
design philosophy ensures the maximum interoperability with the rest of
the company’s computing environment. This is not the case with other CRM vendors necessarily.
“Even Oracle and SAP are creating Web services environments—just very tightly coupled ones that it’s hard to get other [non-Oracle or SAP] applications and services to integrate with.” From Time for a Web Services Reality Check?
On the Web, in software development circles,
and in IT thinking, and within the realm also of customer service
(which matters to everyone), today’s evolution of architecture and code
raises enormous questions to be answered correctly. It’s easy to get
carried away by buzzwords, and squalling waves of adoption that don’t
reflect the longer, tidal action of the sea change.
The
Clarify owner enjoys an advantage that is not apparent without Dovetail
to extend and enhance the Clarify install. Clarify in itself is not
designed to interoperate with the new software developments. Dovetail,
on the other hand, has been created according to the same principles
that drive today’s software, namely exposure, extensibility, and user
empowerment.
