Developer

ING Insurance Central Europe “ICE project”


The “Vision for Growth” program includes developing and deploying an integrated solution for ING Insurance for all of Europe and Russia. The ILIS/ESB project is part of this program and delivers a TIBCO software-based service layer.

A small team of two was assigned to develop integrations and configure the Enterprise Service Bus. The TIBCO software had to be installed on three separate Linux servers in a DEV/TEST/ACC/PROD environment. The project team decided that installation and configuration  of every environment by hand would take too much time and an automated installation procedure was needed. Another challenge was that the required server hardware was not available on time.

VirtualBox

Mr Ritter came up with the following solution:

  • use RPM as a fully automated  installation solution.
  • using a virtual server environment as a temporary replacement for the missing hardware

Mr Ritter  installed a virtualization product called VirtualBox on his laptop that allows to run a virtual Linux server. This product allows him to simulate the deployment environment and  saved the project lot of time.

Mr Ritter was responsible for installation, configuration and testing:

  • Installation and configuration
    • Configuration of TIBCO BusinessWorks software
    • Designing and developing an automatic installation method based on Redhat Package Manager (RPM) on Linux servers
    • Designing and developing a scripted service deployment method
    • Organizing security (role-based, PKI Certificates)
    • Implemented SELinux security policies
    • Setting up a logging framework for functional errors
  • Testing
    • Generate test data with Benerator this excelent free and open source tool enabled us to generate test data with real Polisch names

      Benerator

      Testdata generator

    • Functional and performance testing of web services  (SoapUI), developed java scripts
  • Documentation of installation, configuration and deployment procedures

Fortis Bank Nederland “Enterprise Service Bus”


ESBDue to the expected integration of Fortis with ABN-AMRO the need arose to be prepared for integration. The ESBM project was setup to deliver an Enterprise Service Bus based on WebServices with Soap over http, WS-Security and MQSeries.

Mr Ritter was asked to design and develop an ESB implementation with the following requirements:

  • Based on the IBM Websphere Messagebroker platform
  • Define modulair building blocks which can be easily replaced and changed
  • Support for webservices (WS-Security)
  • Http and MQ transport
  • Support for error tracking and tracing

In two months he delivered a proof of concept version showing its ability to integrate an Oracle application with a mainframe application. During the demonstration performance test where executed using the SoapUI WebService test tool.

Fortis Bank Nederland “Rates list”


Koerslijst

Koerslijst

The “Koerslijst” (Rates list) is an important system for the daily publication of the Fortis exchange rates, Euribor, Libor, financial market prices and prices of precious metals to all offices and external clients. This data is collected daily from several sources such as Reuters and processed by hand using spreadsheets. Due to new regulations the procedure needed to be upgraded to be more secure and better auditable.

A new system has been setup based on a JBoss Application Server together with Open Source software like the Spring framework, Maven, and JasperReport

  • Mr Ritter designed the new system using with special awareness of security, data quality and traceability aspects.
  • Mr Ritter also developed parts of the program code for the production of reports with JasperReports.

The system is now in daily use for Fortis and GWK-Travelex.

Fortis Bank Nederland Global Markets “Equity Brokerage”


fidessa_large

Fidessa Trading

Because of the separation of Fortis new computer systems had to be developed in a short period of time. The Equity Brokerage project involved integrating a new trading system front-end hosted by Fidessa in England with the back office of Fortis in the Netherlands.

Mr Ritter designed and implementated the middleware based on an IBM WebSphere MessageBroker processing  SWIFT FIN messages. He also designed and build a Java based Fidessa Gateway application to communicate with the Fidessa host using a propriertary Fidessa protocol. All incoming trades had to be transformed into MQSeries XML messages. This gateway was designed and build in two weeks, the project was completed within the expected time period.

Fortis Bank Nederland “Martini Trading System”


A new trading system

A new securities trading system is implemented that provides the trader with a better view on his position. The SunGard Martini front-end is hosted in England and connects to the Fortis backend systems in Belgium. Mr Ritter was asked to design and develop all interfaces based on WebSphere MessageBroker and MQSeries SWIFT messages.

Application monitoring

Soon after a first deployment trial a new requirement for application monitoring on technical and application errors was discovered. The existing tooling for application monitoring (Tivoli)  proved not to be sufficient. Brainstorm sessions where held and together with the technical support department a new approach for error handling and transaction monitoring was developed.

Mr Ritter designed a system for collecting, recording and reporting on errors from various online and batch processes based on open source software. This system is able to monitor transactions within the system, collect and analyze the errors, and forward this information by email to the appropriate problem solving group  (technical or application support). The current status of transactions and errors can be followed with a webbrowser on a Tomcat web application and transactions restarted. This setup turned out to be a great advantage because during first deployment trials several errors were found and could now be solved before entering production.

TKP Pensioen BV


TKP Pensioen BV provides services to pension funds such as administration, asset management and many others. TKP is optimising its business processes and integrating Oracle applications with its document management system (Documentum). Integration will be done by introducing a service oriented architecture supported by Oracle integration products, workflow en MQSeries messaging.

Mr Ritter was asked as an EAI consultant to help with this process and to start setting up the Oracle Interconnect and MQSeries middleware. He designed and implemented the MQSeries middleware, solved problems with the Oracle middleware and helped to set up a first working version.

When testing he quickly revealed a problem with the Oracle InterConnect middleware, it was unable to execute a proper request/reply sequence. It could not send an answer (reply) to the originator because it lost the originator address (messageId). Mr Ritter managed to fix the problem by reverse engineering of the Oracle software that was written in Java. When this fix proved to be working he informed Oracle support and asked them for a more definite fix.

Delta Lloyd-Ohra “Connect”


Delta Lloyd-Ohra is reorganizing its banking activities to cut down costs and reduce complexity. The Connect project focusses on the integration of the new Globus application ((Temenos) with existing systems and interfaces(Exact, SWIFT, Interpay, Telekurse and mainframe).

Mr Ritter is responsible for design and implementation of the MQSeries middleware with special attention for security. The integration architecture is based on message oriented middleware supplied by IBM (MQSeries). To enable secure transfer of files a custom-made fileadapter was designed and build by Mr Ritter. Data transfer security and authentication is based on a Java Cryptography implementation.

The system was delivered on time, taken into production and approved by the customer.

Mercedes Benz Customer Assistance Center “Compass Telematics”


Mercedes Benz Customer Assistance Center offers its high-value customers a 24-hour assistance service via its European Call Centre in Maastricht. Compass Telematics is a new service where a driver can set up an emergency call by pressing an alarm button. The system is based on an in-car phone system built by T-Systems and integrated with car electronics such as the diagnostic system, onboard computer, and GPS navigation. Via text messaging, the car can also send messages to the call center autonomously when an accident is detected. The Compass Telematics project includes setting up the technical infrastructure for linking the communications equipment in the car with the Avaya telephony system and the back office (Siebel Call Centre).

My role is to design and implement the  infrastructure for integrating all system components based on IBM MQSeries and MQSI Message Broker. In June this system was successfully taken into production. Management decided to use the new architecture for further integration projects within Mercedes-Benz. A new project for integration with UK trucking in England is considered.

ING Bank “SAMBO”


Design and implementation of a system for generating management reports for a Project Management System (SAMBO). The Project Managament Systems administers information on project buget and progress.  New projects will be judged by the IT Governance Board (ITGB) on a monthly basis.Data is extracted from a wide range of applications (Lotus Notes, CICS, Access en Oracle) and stored in a central Oracle database and processed by Business Objects.

Mr. Ritter helped to setup all data connections between the reporting application and the datasources.

Winterthur (Reaal)


Winterthur is looking for solutions to integrate its existing mainframe applications with the internet for building new Business to Consumer applications. The goal of the pilot project was to determine the right direction and final requirements for legacy enablement. Mr Ritter was responsible for designing and developing the complete solution based on IBM MQSeries middleware and the MQSI Message Broker. A proof of concept was delivered and demonstrated to management.

Trendsoft Omega project


InnovamOmega is a Dutch company  based in Amsterdam that specializes in software for e-learning and electronic examination applications. The ITSI/OTIS system is a advanced interactive multi-media application for electronic examination. The system is initialy developed for INNOVAM an automotive branch organisation to instruct car mechanics. In the preparation phase an exam is developed by creating examination subjects and randomly selecting questions, pictures and video fragments from a database by an expert with the help of an examination design tool. At the examination date the students have their own Windows PC and examination application.

The expert constructs exam items using a graphic editor palet containing visual elements that can be combined:

  • Information:
    • Text
    • Image
    • Video
    • Sound
  • Question type:
    • Multiple-choice (single and multiple answer)
    • Open question
    • Matching
    • True/False
    • Click on area

OnlineExamMr Ritter designed the software to support this system and created an unique generic application framework that features:

  • Object oriented
  • Object database persistence
  • Object visualisation
  • visual inheritance

The examination system was build with a three man team and implemented in Borland Delphi, the objects where stored in a Oracle database. The so called “Omega framework” proved to be very successful and is now a showcase of innovative design for the Trendsoft company.