BEA Systems has announced continued momentum in the public sector with new state and local government customers selecting the BEA AquaLogic User Interaction products for its collaborative and service-oriented platform. Recent customers include Chicago Housing Authority, City of Eugene, City of Raleigh, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, King County, State of Wisconsin and University of Pittsburgh. As the public sector strives to manage the myriad of transactions between citizens and their government to effectively serve the people, they can no longer justify unnecessary duplication of infrastructure that could otherwise be shared and can turn to BEA technology to aid in their adoption of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) selected BEA AquaLogic User Interaction as the technology platform to tackle the complex task of integrating a host of legacy and custom applications including resident tracking, ERP, procurement, relocation tracking management and asset management systems.

“In a time of budget cuts and consolidation of resources, CHA sought a technology that could help us eliminate system redundancies, improve internal management information within our organization and collaborate effectively with our employees, and with our private property management firms,” said Barbara Banks, chief information officer of Chicago Housing Authority. “With its open foundation, cross-platform integration and pre-built user interface, AquaLogic User Interaction is helping us deploy business applications quickly. The portal, named `iChange,’ is designed to assist CHA in our efforts to improve communication and increase productivity as we renew public housing by transforming communities through the redevelopment of existing properties and completion of the mixed income communities.”

In addition, Nimblus, a systems integrator, selected the BEA AquaLogic User Interaction to build the Public Safety Portal for first responders in King County, Washington. The collaborative portal platform is designed to enable police, fire and other emergency management officials to share critical information, such as evacuation routes, floor plans and hospital locations for incident planning and response. The pilot portal is focused on King County in Washington and integrates 34 separate agencies and private companies in 20 cities. The Public Safety Portal has a rich knowledge base for sharing policies, procedures and resources – both human and equipment. The portal is also designed to integrate with a geographic information system (GIS) that can allow users to visually drill-down to information on any incident site. Finally, the portal is designed to include a management dashboard to summarize and collaborate on incidents, helping to ensure better preparation and procedures for future security threats or emergency situations.

“State and local government agencies are on the front lines of providing information to citizens about health and public safety, transportation, education and other key issues. To keep the community engaged and informed with updated and accurate information, state and local agencies must utilize the most effective and efficient means to communicate with one another and with the constituents they serve,” said Mark Carges, executive vice president, BEA Systems, “As a result, these agencies can turn to BEA’s AquaLogic User Interaction for a service-oriented approach to help them enable collaboration among government, industry and the public. AquaLogic User Interaction is designed to help public agencies assemble and deploy applications in an integrated environment, helping to free time spent on implementation and maintenance, which can allow them to focus on what’s most important -- emergency preparedness, online constituency services and educational community initiatives.”

Considered the first, and often the most visible, major application in a new service-enabled enterprise, the portal platform is designed to be an important step toward the successful and practical adoption of SOA within organizations and addresses an emerging category of enterprise software that BEA is pioneering – Service Infrastructure. BEA’s portal solutions are designed to help enable employees, customers and partners to work together more efficiently by connecting existing systems with people. BEA provides a broad range of application and portal infrastructure services that are designed to simplify the development and management, and help improve the user effectiveness, of portal solutions.