Success Stories

T-INFO FROM DEUTSCHE TELEKOM, Interactive Consumer Portal

t-info, the information portal of Deutsche Telekom, is Europe’s leading Germanlanguage, multi-access portal. It is accessible via mobile phones and PDAs as well as traditional PCs.The portal supports e-commerce and provides a variety of localized news and information services.

OVERVIEW
Consumer demand in Germany for ‘multiaccess’ information services has grown significantly in recent years. Deutsche Telekom has been on the leading edge of this trend, developing the popular t-info portal on BEA WebLogic Portal™.

BEA WebLogic Server™, the world’s most widely deployed Java application server, was selected as the foundation.The selection was based on the server’s proven track record at Deutsche Telekom, its standards support and flexibility that enable it to facilitate multi-access, and its simplified integration with back-end databases and third-party applications that speed time to market and reduce IT costs.

BEA WebLogic Portal was selected as the portal framework, which made it possible for T-Systems Multimedia Solutions to simplify and accelerate the deployment of a featurerich, personalized portal.

For Deutsche Telekom, the greatest benefit of the underlying BEA technology has been its flexibility and scalability.The BEA infrastructure can accommodate rapidly changing user requirements, sudden spikes in usage, and the need to bring new services to market quickly.
Integrating content into the BEA-powered portal with Java-based portlets has also proved to be simple and efficient.The modular portlet architecture, which allows software components to be reused, replaced or repositioned with minimal effort has been particularly useful.

COMPANY BRIEF
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s largest telecommunications service providers, with annual
revenue of more than 13.6 billion Euros. t-info is the consumer portal built and operated by Deutsche Telekom. t-info provides millions of German-speaking Europeans with localized news, information services and content, and supports a wide range of e-commerce applications.The portal is available via the Internet and most mobile devices.

BUSINESS PROCESS CHALLENGE
Consumer demand in Germany for ‘multi-access’ information services has grown significantly in recent years. Deutsche Telekom has been on the leading edge of this trend.The company worked closely with BEA to develop the popular and innovative t-info multiaccess portal (www.t-info.de), one of Europe’s leading interactive Web destinations.

The aim of t-info is to provide users with access to a diverse set of services via numerous channels. For example, imagine a shopping trip to Berlin.You have been wandering around trying to find a specific shop. You have lost your bearings.Where are you? If you are a t-info customer, you can use the portal’s latest mobile feature: position determination.

It’s simple.You send a query from your PDA.Your data is relayed via mobile radio stations.Your location is pinpointed and, in seconds, you receive a detailed map showing your current position.

Hidden behind this easy-to-use service is an extremely sophisticated portal infrastructure, lthough that wasn’t the original intention. The goal of the project started out modestly – to build the largest Internet information service in Germany.

It was assumed that people would access the portal primarily from desktop PCs. However, as Deutsche Telekom expanded its vision of multi-access, the scope of t-info grew dramatically.

Integrating content into the BEA-powered portal with Java-based portlets has also proved to be simple and efficient.The modular portlet architecture, which allows software components to be reused, replaced or repositioned with minimal effort has been particularly useful.

After its initial deployment as a traditional Internet information portal, expansion into multi-channel access followed in 2002. It is now possible to access t-info via PCs, mobile phones, smartphones, and PDAs, and the list of access devices continues to grow.

Approximately ten employees were involved in the initial phase of the project, with the number increasing to 17 as the scope of work expanded.

The portal’s services now include Yellow Pages, local directories, traffic and travel information, a weather service, cinema listings, and local calendars of events. It is also possible to locate nearby cash machines, check airline schedules, submit digital photos for printing, and find hotels with vacancies.

From the outset, the breadth of information and the numerous retrieval options proved appealing to Deutsche Telekom’s customers. As a result, the number of users has grown rapidly and is now in the millions.

SOLUTION
The project was conceived in late 2000 by Deutsche Telekom subsidiary DeTeMedien, which was developing the business case for an Internet portal. DeTeMedien approached T-Systems Multimedia Solutions, a sister company in the Deutsche Telekom Group, for a proof of concept. It was at this point that technology selections were made for t-info.

BEA WebLogic Server, the world’s most widely deployed Java application server, was selected as the foundation. The selection was based on the server’s proven track record at Deutsche Telekom, its standards support and flexibility that enable it to facilitate multi-access, and its
simplified integration with back-end databases and third-party applications that speed time to market and reduce IT costs.

Ines Birkhahn, project manager,T-Systems Multimedia Solutions, explained,“BEA was already the market leader, and it supplied everything we needed to minimize risk and ensure the project’s success.” BEA WebLogic Portal was selected as the portal framework, this made it possible for T-Systems Multimedia Solutions to simplify and accelerate the deployment of a feature-rich, personalized portal.

The solution also includes a content management system from Gauss Enterprise, and Sun Fire servers running the Solaris operating system.

RESULTS
After just two months of development, the first version of t-info went live. Since then, the portal has been updated with new offerings every quarter.

For Deutsche Telekom, the greatest benefit of the underlying BEA technology has been its flexibility and scalability. The BEA infrastructure can accommodate rapidly changing user requirements, sudden spikes in usage, and the need to bring new services to market quickly.

Integrating content into the BEA-powered portal with Java-based portlets has also proved to be simple and efficient.The modular portlet architecture, which allows software components to be reused, replaced or repositioned with minimal effort has been particularly useful.

After its initial deployment as a traditional Internet information portal, expansion into multi-channel access followed in 2002. It is now possible to access t-info via PCs, mobile phones, smartphones, and PDAs, and the list of access devices continues to grow.

Approximately ten employees were involved in the initial phase of the project, with the number increasing to 17 as the scope of work expanded.

The portal’s services now include Yellow Pages, local directories, traffic and travel information, a weather service, cinema listings, and local calendars of events. It is also possible to locate nearby cash machines, check airline schedules, submit digital photos for printing, and find hotels with vacancies.

From the outset, the breadth of information and the numerous retrieval options proved appealing to Deutsche Telekom’s customers. As a result, the number of users has grown rapidly and is now in the millions.

“The next big challenge is the conversion of the hardware architecture,” said Birkhahn.“We are currently converting to Intel-based machines and a Linux operating system. BEA’s flexibility is a key enabler of this migration.We anticipate this will dramatically reduce license and support costs, and extend our ROI significantly.”

Deutsche Telekom has also made sure that the portal will remain robust well into the future by incorporating support for Web services into t-info. Data can be relayed to third parties or other applications via an open interface.This eliminates the need to create many unique content-delivery interfaces, enabling new services to be brought online very quickly and cost-effectively.

Customer acceptance has been so enthusiastic that the successful outcome of this project may lead to the use of the same architecture in Deutsche Telekom’s pan-European offerings.

ABOUT BEA
BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS) is the world’s leading application infrastructure software company, providing the enterprise software foundation for more than 13,500 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA and its WebLogic® brand are among the most trusted names in business. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 81 offices in 34 countries and is on the Web at www.bea.com.