The FAST project (http://fast-fp7project.morfeo-project.org) was shown at the CeBit in 2010 at the SAP public sector stand. The use case presented was based on the EU Service Directive. The work presented was an installation of a prototypical implementation of the use-case using CRM 7.1 (the mashing extension) and to show how the mashing of services may further develop the FAST Project was shown. This Blog however should focus on the work done in the CRM 7.1 and further describe briefly how this may be translated into the Mashup platform FAST.
The use-case
The video underneath shows how CRM 7.1 can be used to aid any flexible business environment to have a quick implementation cycle on service based interfaces. Here the example of the EU Service directive in the industry public sector was used to show how relatively complex decisions can be supported by integrating external up to date information within a platform that is automatically called based on a electronic services call (SOA call). The use in the public sector is here the idea of a back office were some information of simple citizen requests will be checked in the future by a single point of contact. The single point of contact can be a central place within multiple towns, which have a breath of knowledge rather than specific. Hence they may get requests for opening a business or others. They are hence the "gate keeper" to make sure that information handed in digitally is correct and can make some decisions directly. For the support of their decision process they get information, which is coming from electronic services and is already prepared with the information they have in the system. Hence they have the opportunity to look at a for example a map and the address is already displayed. Another example for such information is a police records check. This means if there are driving fines leading to the loss of a driver's license then a restaurant opening would properly not be a problem; however a taxi and transportation business may be a problem.
The System
We have used the SAP CRM 7.1 system, which has a mashing extension (EhP1) the idea of the system is that you can integrate small interface tabs into your CRM frontend that are coded using simple Java Script of HTML. From these interface tabs one can then call services which are internal or external to the CRM platform. We have integrated a mapping applet and some web services giving feedback on financial reliability of people. The services integrated have the option that if there is a reply the option is by default negative towards a decision made on a citizen request. However the single point of contact has the option to overwrite this depending on the information available or forward the request to a specialist if needed. All the interface tabs can be added or taken away from the interface of the single point of contact in a very simple way. The adding of new interface tabs can be done with simple scripting languages like JavaScript or HTML.
The Future
The FAST project his developing a platform called GVS (Gadget Visual Storyboard) allowing the combination of similar tab interfaces like in the CRM system. Outcome is a so called complex gadget. The difference to the CRM option is that one gadget in itself can not only display read or write information, but it can display small processes, which have information interdependencies. This means instead of one interface there are multiple layered behind each other, giving the opportunity to handover information between the interfaces that can then be processed. For the above use-case this would mean that there would be one interface for one specific check rather than multiple interfaces and the “freedom to choose” by the single point of contact.
To find out more about the FAST project please visit http://fast-fp7project.morfeo-project.org
To try the platform please visit http://demo.fast.morfeo-project.org/ (it however works only on Mozilla Firefox)
