|
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young chooses Novell® iChain and NDS® eDirectory as the foundation for a business-to-business eCommerce exchange for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.
In 2000, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young* entered into a ten-year Public Private Partnership to develop the MoD's new eCommerce system. The Defence Electronic Commerce System (DECS) will handle logistics transactions, such as the procurement of spares, services and consumables, for the Armed Forces. The primary user of DECS, the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), is Europe's largest logistic organisation and is the sole authority for providing logistic support to the Armed Forces in the UK. The DLO currently spends approximately £2.5 bn with suppliers on everything from accommodation stores to vehicle spares. By introducing electronic catalogues and paperless trading via a single, Web-based interface, DECS is considered to be essential to the DLO in meeting savings targets of 20% over the next 5 years.
Challenge
With multiple purchasing groups within the Armed Services, all generating transactions with close to 40,000 suppliers, DECS needed to provide a trusted environment where security and verifiable identities can be managed. The abilty to provide a high level of security and graded access to DECS required a directory-enabled solution that was also highly scalable and flexible. The technology had to support open standards and multiple platforms to make it easy to bring the legacy systems within the MoD and its trading partners online quickly.
"We chose Novell's iChain architecture because they offer the most flexible and scalable LDAP directory in the marketplace today. It is a secure, flexible platform that can empower a number of eBusiness applications such as procurement, order fulfilment, human resources, asset tracking, and eCommerce," said Andy Mulholland, Chief Technical Officer at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young United Kingdom. "In the case of the Ministry of Defence, iChain provides the foundation for us to develop a flexible, standards-based solution for addressing their unique business needs across and beyond the enterprise."
"Businesses wanting to deploy eBusiness solutions will benefit from the iChain architecture which includes industry strength security, simplified administration, unparalleled identity management and improved content acceleration and management," said Paul Smart, vice president and general manager of Net Directory Services, Novell. "As we continue to market our directory services as critical components of new Internet and eBusiness solutions, alliances with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and other Consulting Systems Integrators will help bring solutions to market faster. The adoption of iChain for the eCommerce Exchange at the Ministry of Defence underscores the important role these products play in an eBusiness infrastructure."
Novell Solution
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young chose Novell's iChain architecture for the powerful identity management and authentication services inherent in NDS eDirectory and its fine-grained security services.
Novell iChain provides the security infrastructure that allows connections with trading partners and eBusiness transactions to take place. In combination with NDS eDirectory, iChain provides the ability to securely verify user identity and clearance through use of multi-factor authentication. Together they offer a robust, scalable, standards-based authentication layer seamlessly integrated with the industry's leading directory.
The Result
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young designed DECS to provide a single electronic interface for the MoD with its trading community. In creating visibility and transparency for the complete supply chain, the system will improve inventory management, common procurement practices and enhance trading relationships. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young sees Novell as a key technology partner in the development of the DECS project. Technical architects at CGE&Y have worked closely with Novell Consulting, building a highly skilled development team to fully exploit the power of Novell Directory Services®. In the opinion of Andy Mulholland, NDSl eDirectory is the only LDAP directory to scale to the required number of users. Simply put, "It's the only one that works," concluded Mulholland.
Novell, Novell Directory Services and NDS are registered trademarks and eDirectory and iChain are trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the USA and other countries. *All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
|
