SOA in Government - Sapporo City integrates city systems with SOA to deliver long-term value

SOA in Government - Sapporo City integrates city systems with SOA to deliver long-term value - IBM SOA Customer

“High-quality, value-added project delivery from the IBM teams enhanced the business process transformation and integration of our IT systems. The service oriented architecture SOA approach means this project will deliver value for years to come.” - Toshiaki Kani, IT Promotion Manager

IBM SOA Customer : SOA in Government

Customer: Sapporo City - SOA Company
Deployment Country: Japan
Industry: Government
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, SOA Service Oriented Architecture

Overview : SOA Service Oriented Architecture
Former Winter Olympics host, Sapporo City, Japan, engages IBM Global Business Services to design a plan to significantly reduce its IT maintenance costs, staffing costs and paper consumption. The IBM infrastructure will transform the city's paper-based operating processes and greatly improve its business efficiency, decreasing the amount of administrative work faced by its personnel.


Business need: Thirty years after being selected as the host city for the 1972 Winter Olympics, Sapporo needed to overhaul many of its public services. Sapporo City's main administrative office still relied on manual, paper-based processes to perform a great deal of its business, resulting in a hefty administrative burden for its staff. The information technology (IT) that Sapporo did have comprised numerous systems that were expensive to maintain and lacked integrative capabilities.

Solution: IBM Global Business Services worked with the city to learn its current processes and critical needs, and developed a detailed project plan and IT solution to address them. Using that plan, IBM Global Services—Integrated Technology Services deployed a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to help the city become more flexible and efficient. The SOA provides Sapporo with a set of discrete business processes, or components, that are easy to use, reuse and combine seamlessly across the enterprise.

Benefits: As a result of the IBM consulting engagement, Sapporo City expects the following benefits:
The city will realize a significant reduction of IT maintenance costs, staffing costs and paper consumption
Increased efficiency, flexibility and integrated business processes

Case Study : SOA Service Oriented Architecture
Sapporo City

Integrating city systems with SOA delivers long-term value

On demand solution: SOA Service Oriented Architecture
Sapporo is the fifth-largest city in Japan and the capital of Hokkaido Prefecture. In 1972, the city became the first Asian host of the Winter Olympics. Sapporo is also known for its annual Sapporo Snow Festival, famed for its snow statue competition, its eponymous beer and miso-flavored ramen, and the Susukino entertainment district, one of the largest and best known in Japan.

Why become on demand?
When selected as the host city for the 1972 Winter Olympics, Sapporo strengthened its governmental infrastructure and added new public facilities, including subways, underground shopping areas and a new main government building. But after more than 30 years, the city needed to overhaul many of its public services. Sapporo began by examining its administrative processes.

Sapporo City’s main administrative office still relied on manual, paper-based processes to perform a great deal of its business, resulting in a hefty administrative burden for its staff. The information technology (IT) that Sapporo did have comprised numerous unrelated systems that were expensive to maintain and lacked integrative capabilities. The city sought to transform its business processes and become more efficient by implementing an integrated IT platform.

How and where did they start?
Sapporo engaged IBM to design and implement an IT solution customized to meet its business needs. First, IBM Global Business Services worked with the city to learn its current processes and critical needs. After determining Sapporo's key business issues, the IBM team developed a detailed project plan and IT solution to address them.

Based on the project plan developed by the Global Business Services team, IBM Global Services - Integrated Technology Services deployed a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to help the city become more flexible and efficient. The SOA Service Oriented Architecture provides Sapporo with a set of discrete business processes, or components, that are easy to use, reuse and combine seamlessly across the enterprise. A Web services interface enables city employees to access and fully leverage the business functions, and IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V6.0 software provides the client with a secure, dynamic platform for the SOA.

What benefits did they achieve?
Although Sapporo's new IBM solution is not in production yet, the city expects to significantly reduce its IT maintenance costs, staffing costs and paper consumption. The IBM infrastructure will transform the city's paper-based operating processes and greatly improve its business efficiency, decreasing the amount of administrative work faced by its personnel.

Other benefits of the IBM solution cited by Sapporo include:

Increased flexibility and integrated business processes as a result of the new SOA
Enhanced performance and availability provided by the robust IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment platform
The competitive pricing of the IBM eServer xSeries servers
High-quality, value-added project delivery from the IBM Global Business Services and IBM Global Services - Integrated Technology Services teams
Enhanced security as a result of integrating IT systems within a common infrastructure.

Products and Services Used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Services: IBM Global Business Services, IBM Global Services, IBM Integrated Technology Services