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WGI Engineers Application Integration Strategy with SOA

Posted by Kelly Jackson Higgins on June 13, 2006

Tags: management services,  service-oriented architecture,  SOA,  WGI,  Washington Group International,  Web services,  application integration,  business processes,  global engineering,  infrastructure,  integration,  Kelly Jackson Higgins,  Other,  Web Services

Channel: Other

The concept of a service-oriented architecture was designed with companies like Washington Group International in mind. What else could possibly integrate applications for a company whose business ranges from homeland security to building the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, power plants and manufacturing facilities?

The $3.2 billion global engineering, construction and management services firm's ongoing SOA project is part of a wider corporate initiative for sharing common business processes across its vast lines of business (See "The Hard Sell"). "This is where SOA fits in nicely," says Rich Colton, application integration manager for WGI, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. So far, WGI is focusing on integrating applications across its industrial process, mining and power groups, where there's the most potential synergy among business processes, Colton says.

WGI is using its SOA to build new Web services (functions and processes), as well as reuse existing Web services across multiple applications. That simplifies software development for WGI, and also provides its users with more features for their favorite apps.

Washington Group International Click to enlarge in another window