Platform Metaphor Platform
Technology Foundation and Components
Metaphor provides technologists with tools and frameworks that simplify the task of providing reusable core components that can be recombined easily by business users. Because Metaphor has a wide range of built-in functionality, uses a standards-based approach, and easily integrates with existing systems, technologists can spend more time focusing on providing the core functions and systems that support the business.
Metaphor builds on the best of service-oriented and event-driven architectures, and puts that power in the hands of developers in an open and standard model. Metaphor is standards based (WSDL/SOAP, W3C, REST, etc.) and was designed to streamline interoperability and operations and provides unique technologies that simplify complex development tasks and integrations.
Because Metaphor automatically integrates processes into any and all communications and portal channels, operations are vastly simplified thanks to centralization of core functionality and single-point deployments. And, Metaphor’s built-in hosting environment is easy to operate and provides real-time visibility into service levels, multi-system performance, and simplifies the development/deployment life-cycle.
Enterprise-grade App fabric and web-services hosting
Metaphor provides an enterprise-grade application and web-services hosting environment. Applications and campaigns built with Metaphor don’t require any third-party software to implement, support, and scale the enterprise.
Service brokering and discovery mesh
Metaphor supports a robust dynamic service brokering and discovery layer. The brokering and discovery layer transparently finds and directs requests to healthy and available servers. It monitors the health of participating servers and redirects and reshapes traffic to ensure efficient and responsive distribution of service calls across the system.
Frameworks
Metaphor provides out-of-the box frameworks for technology teams: security/encryption, logging/auditing, session and state management, scalability and failover, deployment, integrations etc. And, Metaphor easily integrates with custom and third party frameworks allowing teams to easily leverage existing intellectual property and practices.
Adapters, Connectors and Integration
Metaphor provides a comprehensive suite of technologies and APIs designed to make plugging in to external systems and services a snap.
Web Services and Eventing
Metaphor supports stateful and stateless web service methods in both RESTful and SOAP based models. Metaphor also provides sophisticated, multi-subscriber, NAT friendly, eventing models that greatly simplify unsolicited notifications to down stream clients and systems. Beyond simple one off method calls, Metaphor supports web based objects and gives you complete control over queuing, concurrency and messaging format. WSDL, SOAP, REST, JSON, POX, queing, instancing, securtiy, authentication are all easily configurable on a method by method basis.
SLA and Operations
Metaphor provides core logging and monitoring features as well as advanced service level management – through its unique SLAP™ technology. This allows operations personnel to know every detail of how the environment is operating at any given moment. SLAP allows policies to be dynamically and declaratively attached to services and processes and to control both the instrumentation and operational escalation policies associated with both the execution environment and the caller.
Multi-Channel Communications
Metaphor workflow processes synchronizes key information and then reach out via web, smartPhone, voice, IVR, social media. New and custom communication channels are easily added allowing organizations to target new channels using the systems and processes they have already developed. Metaphor supports extensive API’s and frameworks for implementing channels, renderers, dynamic portals and complex system-to-human interactions directly in to processes, services and workflows.
Analytics and Monitoring
Analytics and Monitoring frameworks, dashboards and tools provide real-time visibility into data synchronized across disparate systems and departmental silos. Metaphor’s real-time analytic capabilities are easily extensible, allowing IT groups to easily publish and query data across systems, services and processes.
Business Processes and Rules
Business Processes and Rules empowers business users to quickly define and deploy customer programs – from very simple to highly complex – with minimal support from IT. Metaphor-driven business processes synchronize data across the enterprise and overlay reusable rules to drive standardized, repeatable processes of any kind.
Dynamic Content Management and Complex screen flow
Dynamic Content Management is becoming a key challenge as the volume of data increases and communication channels multiply. Metaphor standardizes and publishes content as customer interactions evolve, thus reducing the effort and costs associated with managing content on a separate system.
Visual Process Modeling and Designers
Visual Process Modeling promotes effective business practices by providing tools to design and implement workflow models. Metaphor’s graphical user interface generates executable services from these models, enabling the rapid deployment of new processes and campaigns. Workflow capabilities are easily extended to utilize existing processes, systems and data stores.