WebSphere and MDM Experts to build an e-commerce Solution

The Client

Department of Defense

This e-commerce solution is expected to replace multiple legacy systems and provide the government with a cost effective way to address current and future e-commerce needs by utilizing industry best practices. In addition, the new solution will help enhance system performance, improve flexibility, and provide scalability.

For this solution, The Department of Defense selected the WebSphere Suite to improve the overall user experience by providing a platform that had more of a commercial look and feel. The added advantage of the WebSphere Suite is that it allows multiple workflows and is flexible enough to meet the evolving requirements of the Federal Government and the Program Office, as well as users and vendors. It also provides cost-effective scalability in the following areas: a large base of over 900,000 users, a vendor community that spans over 30,000 different entities, and over 65 million contracts, goods and services.

The Technology

  • WebSphere Commerce
  • InfoSphere Master Data Management
  • WebSphere Portal
  • IIB

The Challenge

Our prime integrator partner was struggling to find the skilled WebSphere talent needed to support building out the end-to-end application. They called on the professional staffing and talent acquisition experts at The Squires Group to assist them in delivering the right talent in the following key component areas: WebSphere Commerce to design and implement front-end user access; InfoSphere Data Management for data storage and cataloging; and WebSphere Portal for providing suppliers the interface to manage their work in the e-commerce application. Finally, IIB is the Integration Bus to connect the three components together.

The Solution

Given the limited pool of regional WebSphere and InfoSphere talent, we employed our advanced sourcing tools and expanded our search to find the right concentration of WebSphere and InfoSphere talent. As a result, we identified proven resources to support the development of key functionality in the InfoSphere Data Management and WebSphere Process Server component development areas.

Key Areas supported by The Squires Group InfoSphere Data Management team include:

  • Defined and implemented the technical architecture of the MDM solution
  • Defined the integrations necessary to enable the functional scope of MDM for Commerce
  • Led the technical discussions with the client and other team leads to define the interface touch points within the solution footprint as well as with other systems involved in the end-state solution for the Commerce data model
  • Led the implementation of the MDM solution and development of custom tables/integrations/extensions
  • Conducted technical reviews of designs and completed code reviews prior to testing. Our team also created test plans and test coverage for MDM solution areas
  • Participated in the functional test execution activities, defect triage, and resolution activities during all test phases

The team that we recruited and staffed for the project is currently supporting the production readiness evaluation to ensure that the final solution built is deployed and configured correctly in production.

Key Areas supported by The Squires Group WebSphere Commerce team include:

  • Installed, configured, and administered the WebSphere Commerce stack of products on Linux servers in development, testing, staging, and production environments
  • Installed and configured source control to integrate with WebSphere Commerce
  • Setup automatic build and deployed procedures using WebSphere Commerce Build and Deployment tool

The Success

Our team’s contribution continues to play an important role in going live with Phase I. This includes various activities around user training. Most importantly, Phase I of the project is a critical step in creating a single homogenous technology suite—with the aim of reducing the costs associated with upgrades and enhancements with a single technology roadmap for all components.

Once Phase I is fully rolled out and accepted, the team will move onto Phase II to build more complex application functionality. This three phase project is built on a modern platform with proven scalability. It offers robust Government to Government (G2G), Government to Consumer (G2C), Business to Government (B2G), Business to Consumer (B2C), Business To Business (B2B), Business To Business To Consumer (B2B2C), and digital commerce on a single platform for the Department of Defense.

If you have a similar need for high-level staffing and placement needs, contact the talent acquisition specialists at The Squires Group.


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