Bluedog, a systems integrator, modernized the FTC's IT systems by implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) for its consumer information system, which previously operated with outdated client/server technology. The $1.2 million project enhanced scalability, data management, and inter-agency access over a ten-month period, enabling the FTC to efficiently handle consumer fraud complaints and identity theft cases. As a result of this upgrade, the FTC has been able to process a growing number of daily complaints and is now considering future IT solutions based on the success of the SOA implementation.

1. CASESTUDY
12 eWEEK STRATEGIC PARTNER esp.eweek.com
T
he federal trade commission’s
long list of responsibilities includes
handling consumer fraud com-
plaints, the National Do Not Call
Registry for marketers and iden-
tity theft cases. Until recently, the
commission’s IT systems handled
these different types of complaints
separately without communicating
with one another.
But that all changed when Bluedog, a systems
integrator and software developer based in Dublin,
Ireland, helped bring to fruition an SOA (service-
oriented architecture) that modernized the FTC’s
CIS(consumerinformationsystem).The$1.2mil-
lionupgrade involvedbringingopenstandardsand
a Web-based architecture to the core system.
OCTOBER 2006
INTEGRATOR AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPER BLUEDOG
HELPS THE FTC STREAMLINE ITS IT SYSTEMS
By Lynn Haber
With a reputation as a problem solver, Bluedog
got involved in the project after it was already
under way.
“We were called in to jump-start the SOA
project that had been in the hands of another
systems integrator but was going poorly,” said
Tom Termini, managing director at Bluedog’s
U.S. subsidiary, in Silver Spring, Md. “We got
the remainder of the budget and 90 percent of
the work.”
The project, however, was no walk in the park,
Termini conceded. The budget was adequate, but
there were serious time constraints and many
disparate pieces of technology to link together.
Bluedog dedicated most of its U.S.-based staff to
make it all work, Termini said.
The engagement began [CONTINUED ON PAGE 14]
JUDGUITTEAU
Bluedog tothe rescue

2. in August 2005 and concluded in June
2006 with the deployment of a dozen Web
services and six management portlets,
according to Termini.
Before the SOA upgrade, the CIS was
an Oracle client/server application that
had been in place for at least 10 years. An
SOA employs functions, or services, that
interact with one another when called on
to execute certain processes. Each service
has an interface, and each interaction is
independent.
The client/server application the FTC
was using no longer could handle the
commission’s growing workload as the
number of users accessing it grew rapidly.
By migrating to an SOA environment,
the FTC gained scalability to deploy more
users at its call centers or on the Web,
as well as easier data management, the
ability to make system access available
to other agencies and future
cost savings via the use of
reusable standards-based
components.
“We looked at moving
from a client/server-based
architecture to SOA and
worked with a couple of inte-
grators to figure out what
would work best for us,” said
FTC CIO Stephen Warren in
Washington. “The first con-
tractor helped us figure out
where we should go and how
to restructure our architec-
ture going forward. Bluedog
put the pieces together and
showed us that SOA technol-
ogy worked.”
Getting with the times
the ftc was created in 1914 to prevent
unfair methods of competition in com-
merce. The government agency has a long
tradition of maintaining a competitive
marketplace for both consumers and busi-
nesses. Over the years, Congress passed
additional laws giving the agency greater
authority to police anti-competitive prac-
tices.
The FTC’s work is performed by the
bureaus of Consumer Protection, Com-
petition and Economics. That work is
aided by the Office of General Counsel
and seven regional offices.
A core enterprise application within
the FTC, the CIS drives the business
processes for the group that handles con-
sumer fraud complaints, the National Do
Not Call Registry and the identity theft
complaint process. Whether a consumer
is registering a business or a fraud com-
plaint, or law enforcement officers are
querying the system, all inquiries go back
to the CIS. However, the various systems
weren’t tied together.
The thinking behind crafting a new,
SOA-based enterprise model was to
accommodate more
users and facilitate
consumer access
to the FTC’s com-
plaint processes via
the Web. Players at
the FTC also knew it
was time to update
the commission’s technology, according
to Termini.
“The client/server architecture wasn’t
supporting the number of users that
needed to access the FTC services,” Ter-
mini said. The FTC has 200 call center
users and 300 internal FTC users to handle
consumer fraud complaints, the National
Do Not Call Registry and identity theft
cases. The agency receives 3,000 to 5,000
complaints daily on the Web.
Bluedog got its foot in the door at the
FTC about two years ago while working on
CASESTUDY
another government project. “At the time,
we were working on an enterprise portal
project for the Department of Justice,”
Termini said. “Back then, I had a brief
meeting with the CIO at the FTC, who
was concerned about how long their SOA
project was taking.”
It was after this meeting that what
Termini calls a low-key strategy came in
handy. Bluedog, he said, gets the word out
quietly to CIOs that the company special-
izes in problem solving, an approach that
Termini said has proved effective.
It certainly worked with the FTC. By the
summer of 2005, Bluedog
was engaged with the CIS
upgrade.
What Bluedog brought
to the table was experi-
ence providing Web-based
solutions quickly and
cost-effectively. In busi-
ness since 1998, Bluedog
has 12 full-time develop-
ers in the United States
and 20 employees at its
headquarters in Dublin. The company
builds J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise
Edition) Web services, portlets and Web
applications for government agencies,
nongovernmental organizations and com-
mercial businesses.
Bluedog quickly outlined its approach
to the FTC project: to promote a design
based on a coherent platform from which
to build composite applications.
Within 30 days, or by the beginning
of November 2005, Bluedog put together
a proof of concept by building a labo-
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FTC FROM PAGE 12
OCTOBER 2006
The FTC’s systems that handle
identity theft, consumer fraud
complaints and the National
Do Not Call Registry did not
communicate. That changed
once Bluedog updated the
agency’s technology.
Case data
The problem A decade-old client/server application no
longer could handle the rapidly growing number of users
accessing the FTC’s CIS
The solution The FTC decided to upgrade the system with
an SOA
The result The FTC gained scalability to deploy to
more users, easier data management and the ability to
enable other agencies to access the system
Budget $1.2 million
Duration 10 months, August 2005 to June 2006

3. CASESTUDY
ratory production envi-
ronment to demonstrate
to the FTC how it would
achieve its objective. In
addition to emulating the
Sun Microsystems Solaris
equipment that was in use
at the FTC, the integrator
introduced Linux applica-
tion services.
“We learned a lot of
things about SOA technol-
ogy and what it brings to
bear,” said Warren.
Getting a green light to
continue its work meant that Bluedog had
to win over other IT contractors used by the
FTC—inparticular,databaseadministrators
who needed reassurance that moving to
services-based architecture wasn’t going to
cost them their jobs.
“There was a lot of friendly conflict,
but, at the end of the day, there weren’t
any problems,” said Termini, adding that
the DBAs were allowed to focus on what
they did best, and Bluedog’s work was to
focus on processes.
The FTC also reacted positively to an
SOA demonstration using the National
Do Not Call Registry. The demo showed
how telemarketers—who, up to that point,
had to download the registry
nightly to stay up-to-date on
entries—could simply log on
using the proposed new sys-
tem, submit a telephone
number query and get an
answer in real time.
The team then dove
in with a pilot proj-
ect. According to
Bluedog, the team
consisted of 11 people:
eight of its employees and
three FTC representatives.
Making headway
although bluedog rallied to meet the
two milestones of the project—the infra-
structure build-out, completed in February
2006, and the development of a dozen Web
services, which were rolled out in 30-day
increments—the company faced a number
of challenges along the way.
For starters, the FTC handed Blue-
dog notes, high-level requirements and
a small integrator who focuses only on
the number of projects we can handle,”
he said. For the FTC project, Bluedog
committed about 80 percent of its U.S.
staff. In addition, Termini said, the com-
pany is highly specialized and tight-knit,
with staff having worked together since
1998.
By June 2006, Bluedog had completed
its mission, introducing an SOA plug-
and-play architecture combined with Unix
and J2EE. Ease of component integration
enabled the FTC to swap services and
connect and use them easily. In addition,
the SOA was scalable and redundant and
made use of open standards.
In the time since Bluedog completed
its project, Warren said the FTC has
taken what it learned from its first SOA
project to make decisions on future IT
needs. One of those decisions is based on
the good results of the CIS project. “We
asked ourselves where to go with SOA
technically,” Warren said. The answer
the FTC came up with, he added, is to
buy SOA as a service rather than build
it in-house. ´
Lynn Haber is a freelance writer in Norwell,
Mass. She can be reached at
lthaber@comcast.net.
a bunch of infrastruc-
ture products that had
already been purchased
for the project. The main
products included Sonic
Software’s Actional XML
Security Gateway and ESB
(Enterprise Service Bus),
M2M Holdings’ Onyx Soft-
ware, Ilog’s JRules, Apple
Computer’s WebObjects
and Plumtree’s Corporate
Portal 5.0.
At first, Bluedog wasn’t
sure it was given the right
set of tools to do its job. “We didn’t want
to have to shoehorn these products to
make the project work,” said Termini.
But having had previous experience
working with Sonic, Actional and Ilog,
the integrator knew the solutions were
enterprise-class and fit the bill for the
FTC job.
Another challenge was winning over
internal users with the proof-of-concept
demo.
And, while Termini said the budget
proved adequate, the project’s time frame
was tight. “But that’s our advantage as
Warren: The FTC is considering
software as a service.
Bluedog
Headquarters Silver Spring, Md.,
and Dublin, Ireland
Number of employees 12 full-time
in the United States, 20 in Dublin
Years in business 8
Yearly revenue $12.2 million in
2005; estimated $18 million in 2006
Web site bluedog.net
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OCTOBER 2006