Halifax-based systems integrator xwave has set sail on a three-year, $32 million contract to build, support and maintain an e-business production and development environment for Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA).
According to the CCRA, the new environment will consolidate the various elements in the department’s information systems and create a new infrastructure for future online services. With integrated software and hardware products from 17 different vendors, the CCRA said that the new system will spawn new Web-enabled services and allow more frequent updates to existing ones.
Ranald McGillis, an Ottawa-based vice-president with xwave, said this project will move the CCRA to a leading-edge, complete J2EE environment.
“The platform is a Sun E-10000 high-availability architecture and redundant data centre with a Compaq SAN, iPlanet middleware, a monitoring environment utilizing BMC, and Rational and Borland are the main pieces of the application development,” McGillis said.
Although xwave has previously tackled projects that used pieces of this CCRA solution, McGillis said this will be the first time it has combined a Web architecture with a Java-based development environment. And as the feds’ Government On-Line project progresses, xwave hopes other departments will get on board with similar systems.
“Electronic service delivery within the public sector certainly makes a lot of sense. There is a very mature IT organization within CCRA and they certainly know what they want, and they are viewed as the leaders within the public sector, so I believe others will (follow suit),” McGillis said.
The CCRA is online at http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca
xwave is at http://www.xwave.com/