JDE 9.2 Business Services (BSSV)

DPost_man

Member
Wasn't sure if I should put this in technical or process forums - will start here.

We are exploring using JDE Business Services (BSSV) to integrate an external system utilizing extensive web-services with JDE 9.2. We've been led to believe from various sources that utilizing BSSV is "best-practice". We can find lots of documentation on the configuration requirements of BSSV (i.e. how to setup, how to create new interfaces, etc.) but very little on the benefits of doing so and administrative requirements. Does anyone here have experience with new implementations of BSSV integrated with a 3rd party system? Some questions I have are:

1. Is it part of the general JDE Tools & Technology license or does it need to be licensed separately?
2. What are the technical and business benefit of using BSSV? Are there other interoperability options available?
 
In regards to point 2, other options, I would strongly recommend using AIS to manage integrations. BSSV relies on the enterprise service bus model to use SOA. I've found that this worked well in the past but using AIS to consume APIs is lighter weight, less cumbersome to manage, and enables flexibility with various kinds of integration. Here is Oracle's documentation on AIS: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E53430_01/EOIIS/aisguide_intro.htm#EOIIS134
 
Hi,

In regards to point 1, to my knowledge, it does not have to be licensed separately.

In regards to point 2, options other than BSSV and AIS include several third-party products, many of which have been around prior to BSSV and AIS. One such product is LynX Business Integrator, which is Oracle Validated. Link: https://www.aellius.com/lynx-business-integrator/
 
1. Included in license
2. Benefits. A lot depends on what your alternatives are. If the external system is oriented towards web services then that narrows your choices substantially (you're not going to use Z-Files/tables for example). Web services are pretty much the trend (today and future). Cloud implementations in particular use Web Services for integrations with third party systems.
As others have mentioned there are some alternatives to JDE BSSV but pretty much all have a learning curve you'll have to deal with. Consider hiring a consultant for your first trip/dip into these new waters.
 
As this is your first post just a friendly suggestion to include your JDE details (See Larry's for a good example) in a signature so that everyone knows which technology and constraints you're dealing with.

On to the questions:
1. As has already been stated, there are no licencing implications.
2.
The strategic direction for integration at Oracle is to continue to develop the AIS server. The AIS is also included in your licence although there are additional components such as the IoT Orchestrator and Composer which are licenced separately. If you're not on the 9.2 tools though I'd suggest that you spend a bit of time reviewing this as quite a bit has changed and if you're on a tools release below about 9.1.5.5 I'd suggest you stay away from AIS as it was pretty much beta software before then.

If you currently have a middleware product or integration tool set that is strongly geared towards SOAP web services then BSSV is probably your best bet. I would second Larry's suggestion in regard to a consultant because you can go down a very expensive dry gully with this stuff very easily and the "best" architecture for BSSV is up for some debate.

If your integration requirements are not SOAP based, but REST based for example, and the AIS server is not an option, then there are third party tools available.
 
One other thing to add. Will you be consuming the external system services or will the external system be consuming JDE services (or both)? If the later, i.e. the external system needs to consume JDE services you can also use XML CallObject. We have used it extensively and it works really well. There are also several 3rd party applications that rely on XML CallObject as an interop solution.
 
The nice thing about JDE is that there are multiple solutions for integrations. The challenge is to figure out which road to travel. You need to look at this, and future projects, to make your decision on which solution to use.

A previous poster recommended using a consultant as an advisor. I agree with that. I have watched clients get set in their thinking and waste time and money traveling down the wrong path. Spend a few dollars to architect the solution.
 
One other thing to add. Will you be consuming the external system services or will the external system be consuming JDE services (or both)? If the later, i.e. the external system needs to consume JDE services you can also use XML CallObject. We have used it extensively and it works really well. There are also several 3rd party applications that rely on XML CallObject as an interop solution.

I am also a big fan of the XML CallObject interface. It doesn't require any additional technology or instances added to your JDE servers, just the Enterprise instance you already have.

I will also echo the other cautions about spending too much money. Do not go overboard and buy an expensive integration package. Instead, hire someone with experience who can get your team up to speed & select the right interface (BSSV, AIS or XML CO) for your environment.
 
DPost,
AIS is good and lightweight if you are planning to send data into JDE. If you are planning to send data out of JDE, AIA doesn't support it. I have implemented both on different clients but the level of support and documentation available with the BSSV's is very good. On the other hand, AIS is still evolving.

There are few other options as well and real time events is one of them. It's fast and lightweight and based on JMS queue. The only caveat is that it's only outbound (i.e. data going out of JDE).
 
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