How TrueCredit Utilizes SOA To Build Fast, Reliable Applications

TrueCredit, a national U.S. credit bureau, can only maintain its competitive advantage by quickly developing new applications to meet increasing performance requirements. Software development used to take 180 days or more per application. TrueCredit needed new applications in 90 days or less. In order to tackle this challenge, TrueCredit made some IT changes and adopted service-oriented architecture.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural concept that defines the use of services to support a variety of business needs. In SOA, existing IT assets (called services) are reused and reconnected rather than the more time consuming and costly reinvention of new systems (Turban, Leidner, McLean, and Wetherbe 2008).

(1) What were the major reasons that the company had to use SOA? Operating in a rapidly changing business environment, TrueCredit was struggling to keep up with increasing demands and processing needs. TrueCredit needed to develop new applications quickly (less than 90 days) to retain its competitive advantage. These new applications also had to be able to support 50,000 simultaneous users and cut response time to less than a second. SOA helped speed up software development so that TrueCredit could meet market needs.

(2) In what ways did they gain competitive advantage by using SOA? The major advantage to SOA is that it has the ability to quickly and easily collect and analyze data from multiple sources. By using SOA, TrueCredit was able to combine and reuse existing "services" to create new applications without having to start from scratch. Therefore, TrueCredit increased its flexibility and responsiveness to the business environment and its changing needs. Being an early adopter of SOA, TrueCredit gained first mover advantages.

(3) What specific "services" can you identify in a business like this? TrueCredit's services include: credit reporting, credit scoring, and related financial services on both its own and its partners' web sites.

(4) Why is it so important to serve 50,000 simultaneous users? As traffic on TrueCredit's sites and applications increase, the software must be able to handle user demands. In addition to providing services and information for TrueCredit customers, TrueCredit's applications also serve as the engine for its partners' products; therefore, increased processing capabilities are necessary for TrueCredit to effectively conduct business. Improving TrueCredit's processing abilities and response time ensures that all users have access to the information they need, when they need it. If TrueCredit were unable to provide quick and reliable information, it may lose credibility and some of its clients.

(5) Classify this application using the material in Section 2.2. TrueCredit's application can be classified as an interorganizational informational system (IOS) because it connects two or more organizations. TrueCredit's application shares and disseminates information via its own site and its partners' sites. The application can also be classified as an integrated support system because it incorporates two or more support systems. As an integrated support system, TrueCredit's application can provide extended functionalities and more useful information.