At first glance, few would consider the humble zoo as a hotbed of IT activity. But behind the scenes at Sydney's Taronga Zoo-ââ,¬"Australia's busiestââ,¬"-a small but determined group of IT specialists are working to use Web services to streamline the flow of many core business processes.
Taronga's core IT infrastructure is all Microsoft, with approximately 225 Windows XP desktops spread between the main Sydney site and the Western Plains Zoo 500km away in Dubbo.
Using an integrated network, both sites collaborate closely with other zoos around the world on projects such as maintaining common databases of available stud animals or tracking diseases among their populations.
The zoo relies on a variety of other applications for various internal functions. SAP R/3, for example, manages Taronga's everyday business administration, while several others handle tasks such as school bookings and functions. These applications have traditionally run separately, with redundant data copied manually from paper or from another system.
Recognising the potential benefits to be reaped from increased automation of data exchange, the zoo last year began working with consulting partner Avanade to map out an application strategy built around Microsoft's .NET.
-There are some very old legacy systems that are no longer capable of doing the things we need them to do," says John Inkson, the zoo's systems administrator.
-We're looking to create a services layer that will leverage back-end investments like SAP and expose commonality of functionality for applications. We'll do this where it makes sense, where we have three or four applications that may look to retrieve the same data in different ways."
By encapsulating its key business functions as .NET based Web services, the Taronga team hopes to allow new applications to access core business functions much more easily.
By then exposing those services to customers and partners via the Internet, it expects to achieve significant efficiency and ROI from new areas.
First on the hit list are Taronga's booking system, which is currently paper-based, and the conversion of administrative paper forms to their electronic equivalents.
Coding on the project has already begun, and a proof of concept complete thanks to quite mature development tools.
-In terms of development time, .NET is far quicker than the previous DNA architecture," says Inkson. -Visual Studio.NET is a big advance. Presenting a calendar to the Web, for example, used to require a lot of coding. Now you just drag and drop it into your app."
The new booking system is expected to go live on July 1, providing applications with the ability to place and query reservations for visiting groups and those renting the zoo's function-related facilities. Once the system is running smoothly-ââ,¬"first at Western Plains, then in Sydney-ââ,¬"the zoo plans to extend it to affiliated external parties.
For example, a schoolteacher could visit the zoo's Web site to book a visit for 60 students; the zoo's system would then use Web services hooks to contact the zoo's preferred charter bus company and book appropriate transportation on the school's behalf. A catering partner might also be automatically notified should the group require food to be provided.
Over time, use of Web services will also facilitate completely new services. For example, the zoo is considering building an information delivery system that would provide dynamic, relevant content about attractions and events to visitors using a zoo-wide wireless network and rentable handheld PCs.
-Having a big system sitting across all these different areas is a huge benefit to us," says IT and planning manager Jenny Vasseleu. -At the moment [manual processes] mean we have the possibility of double-booking venues. By bringing all those systems together, this project will eliminate those possibilities. It's early days at the moment, but once the comfort factor is there we'll be using the same technology to extend it."
