2011 Customer & Partner Innovation Awards

ROI Award: Alaska Department of Natural Resources

Company Overview:
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) contributes to the State of Alaska's economic health and quality of life by protecting and maintaining the state's resources and encouraging wise development of these resources by making them available for public use. DNR manages all state-owned land, water and natural resources, except for fish and game, on behalf of the people of Alaska, the largest state in the U.S.

Business Challenge:
Every year, the DNR receives hundreds of permit requests that take several weeks to process. To process requests, adjudicators had to work through a matrix of independent hard-wired systems using a variety of disparate interfaces. This resulted in manual processes, duplicate efforts (including re-keying data that led to data errors) and administrative overhead. The agency initiated the Unified Permit Project to streamline permit issuance processes, increase productivity and establish predictable response times for permit applicants.

Solution/Innovation:
DNR took a process-oriented approach to IT modernization to devise the best solution. The department created a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that embraced and extended its investment in mainframes to meet its goals quickly and cost effectively. webMethods ApplinX and webMethods EntireX were used to bring existing mission-critical applications based on Adabas and Natural to the Web. They were linked via the webMethods Business Process Management Suite. The embedded webMethods Integration Server enabled transaction processing. webMethods Composite Application Framework provided a user-friendly interface for adjudicators.

Business Results:
The project took only nine months. Rewriting the system would have taken 10 years and $30 million. With the solution, DNR can deliver consistent service quality. Adjudicators work through a guided process that ensures data is captured and shared appropriately. Adjudicators can easily provide status updates and issue permits faster using a process that is standardized across offices. A self-service portal allows citizens to follow their requests, which minimizes the need to call adjudicators.

Technology Benefits:
DNR moved from the world of "green screens" to the World Wide Web. The department built on its mainframe investment in an SOA while empowering users with improved access to information and increased process visibility. DNR has modernized its legacy systems by building a distributed, loosely coupled, services-driven and process-centric framework that meets both the functional and technical requirements of the Unified Permit Project.

Why Software AG?
Alaska is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Midnight Sun" because the sun shines nearly around the clock during the summer. Due to the reliability of our Software AG infrastructure, now its systems also "shine" around the clock, all year long. A loyal Software AG customer for more than 20 years, DNR was confident that Software AG could help it achieve its vision of a streamlined process and deliver a solution that would work smoothly and reliably with existing data formats. Going with a trusted vendor with the experience and a proven track record made the selection easy.

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