Pepco

Pepco Leverages Sun Java Composite Application Suite to Empower IT Operations Convergence

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) is a holding company formed as a result of the merger between Pepco (POM) and Conectiv (CIV). The effects of deregulation, mergers, and acquisitions across the utilities industry are intensifying the need to take decisive actions to dramatically reduce the cost of IT operations, while making internal operations more efficient and flexible to meet changing environmental and economic demands. Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), was faced with this issue.

Customer Challenges

Replace existing materials management system
Upgrade business-critical outage management and mobile dispatch system
Extensive integration between new packaged applications and legacy systems critical for success of new initiative

Solution

Pepco's collection of disparate corporate applications was connected primarily by point-to-point interfaces. The company's SAP HR and Payroll systems had approximately 27 interfaces within the company, as well as to external service providers. Many of these interfaces were batch-oriented in nature, and consisted of very large data files. The SAP Materials Management module went into production in mid 2003 on a very tight schedule, replacing an existing materials management system.

Business Results

Achieved scalability without purchasing separate replication system
Higher productivity, lower maintenance costs
Mobile dispatch system easily supports more than 175,000 calls per hour

Products and Services

Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS)
Sun Enterprise Service Bus
Solaris Operating System
Sun Fire 12K Server

Story Details

Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS), provided Pepco with a comprehensive and rapidly deployable integration solution, enabling faster response times, reduced costs, and greater adaptability in a quickly changing environment. It provides a scalable backbone for integrating Pepco's business-critical outage management and mobile dispatch systems. These systems must withstand extremely high call volumes, especially during storm and emergency conditions. During the testing phase for the outage management system, Java CAPS passed with flying colors, easily supporting more than 175,000 calls per hour. This capability is accomplished by using Java CAPS to replicate call records from DB2 in CIS to Oracle on the outage management system. Thus, in addition to enjoying the necessary scalability, Pepco was spared the cost of a separate replication system.

Another key benefit is seamless connectivity to information housed on the company's mainframe, where Pepco maintains customer-related legacy systems using COBOL, CICS programs, and other data sources. Pepco needed the ability to send data between different systems across multiple platforms. Java CAPS clearly proved its ability to meet Pepco's cross-platform requirements.

" Sun SeeBeyond eGate Integrator is an end-to-end solution that has proven to meet our rigorous scalability and performance requirements, ultimately providing a reliable platform that has helped to improve our interaction with customers. "

— Ken Cohn, CIO, Pepco Holdings, Inc.

In addition, Java CAPS provides interface reusability and flexibility for existing and future Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Web services integration initiatives. This enterprise connectivity played a key role in facilitating the replacement of Pepco's corporate applications with ERP modules. Also, by reusing published interfaces and interface subscriptions, the integration team was able to avoid starting from square one when beginning new projects. The result is higher productivity, lower maintenance costs, real-time data transfer and updates, and the flexibility to integrate with multiple systems.

Java CAPS clearly solved PHI's near-term integration challenges and the company expects it to be a key component in future integration and Web services-based initiatives.