Giant Eagle Builds Service-oriented Architecture for Greater Business Agility
PITTSBURGH -- Regional independent Giant Eagle, Inc. here is installing new software to create an open, standards-based IT infrastructure so that it can better to respond to changing business conditions and customer demand.
The retailer is using Oracle 10g software as the foundation of its service-oriented architecture (SOA) to help integrate the disparate systems of its various independent stores.
Giant Eagle consists of 144 corporate and 72 independently owned and operated supermarkets and more than 100 GetGo fuel and convenience store locations throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. Faced with multiple legacy, homegrown, and packaged applications, and over 200 unique application interfaces, Giant Eagle's IT group sought a way to integrate its disparate applications and create a more open and agile IT infrastructure.
"The retail business changes very quickly, and Giant Eagle needed to integrate its applications and gain a competitive advantage through strategic technology investments," said Keith Kaiser, corporate architect and director of technical services at Giant Eagle. "Oracle's support of heterogeneous environments and open standards were critical factors in our decision to select the company's software."
Central to Giant Eagle's goal of increased agility is the creation of an open, standards-based SOA that enables the company to extend the value of its current applications, while allowing new applications to be incorporated into the SOA as business requirements change.
As a result of its SOA implementation, Giant Eagle will reduce point-to-point integration interfaces and significantly decrease the amount of time required to bring applications online. Employing Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Giant Eagle is able to rapidly integrate several disparate applications, including the company's .NET-based master data management, store scheduling, handheld lookups, fuel station, and facilities applications. With its enterprise-wide SOA in place, the company will be able to respond more rapidly to changing business needs.
The retailer is using Oracle 10g software as the foundation of its service-oriented architecture (SOA) to help integrate the disparate systems of its various independent stores.
Giant Eagle consists of 144 corporate and 72 independently owned and operated supermarkets and more than 100 GetGo fuel and convenience store locations throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. Faced with multiple legacy, homegrown, and packaged applications, and over 200 unique application interfaces, Giant Eagle's IT group sought a way to integrate its disparate applications and create a more open and agile IT infrastructure.
"The retail business changes very quickly, and Giant Eagle needed to integrate its applications and gain a competitive advantage through strategic technology investments," said Keith Kaiser, corporate architect and director of technical services at Giant Eagle. "Oracle's support of heterogeneous environments and open standards were critical factors in our decision to select the company's software."
Central to Giant Eagle's goal of increased agility is the creation of an open, standards-based SOA that enables the company to extend the value of its current applications, while allowing new applications to be incorporated into the SOA as business requirements change.
As a result of its SOA implementation, Giant Eagle will reduce point-to-point integration interfaces and significantly decrease the amount of time required to bring applications online. Employing Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Giant Eagle is able to rapidly integrate several disparate applications, including the company's .NET-based master data management, store scheduling, handheld lookups, fuel station, and facilities applications. With its enterprise-wide SOA in place, the company will be able to respond more rapidly to changing business needs.