Blue Cross

When several muddy bodge Blue Shield programs in upstate parvenu York merged, each placement brought its sustain condescension processes and IT systems to the new entity. Because they were so different, tho had to be consolidated, the new entity, Excellus Blue compensate Blue Shield, wanted to first apply a strong trade abridgment process to clearly identify phoner functions and processes. They wanted to be up to(p) to stock certificate and visualize their current state computer architecture in support of system modernization and SOA sudors.Problem Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield is part of a $4 billion family of companies that finances and delivers health premeditation services across upstate New York, including the major cities of Syracuse, Elmira, Rochester, Utica, and Buffalo. As New York situates largest nonprofit health plan, the arrangement provides health insurance to more than 2 million people, and employs more than 6,000 New Yorkers. It is the answer of a merger of several health organizations destiny upstate New York.following the merger, Excellus found that in that respect were few effort architecture (EA) standards embraced by all of the previously independent entities. The companionship formed a group within the IT department to cerebrate on EA as it consolidated business and IT systems and reduced the amount of technical diversity within the organization. With multiple computer programmes and environments, it was extremely intriguing to create smoothly running, cohesive business procedures, without a clear understanding of what processes and systems were serving each organization.Many of these legacy systems, about in place for 30+ years, didnt have adequate documentation, so there were part of the systems that were completely unknown. Before make sweeping policy or platform decisions, we accepted the importance of identifying all company functions and the processes used to implement them, explained Eric Stephens , enterprise architect, endeavour Architecture and Integration Team at Excellus. This was the first step in our effort to reduce duplicate processes that were a conventionalism result of the merger.We had to develop single systems for claims processing, supplier contracting, member registration, and more, but could not do that until we fully understood and mapped the existing processes. Excellus recognized that a key success portion would be a service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach, offer the ability to devise flexible architectures that confide on smaller parts (services), alternatively than larger monolithic solutions. Being able to implement the architecture in parts gives the company more choices (buy vs. uild) and allows for variation in particular components to adapt to a fracture market demand for products.It was clear that handout forward with big systems implementations would drive twain risks and financial resources to unacceptable levels. In addition, the organization established a goal of standardizing practices so that customers and others outside the organization would feel wish well they were dealing with a single company, alternatively than multiple entities in a informal federation.