Enterprise Architecture

Background

The Louisiana Enterprise Architecture (EA) project is currently setting the standard for all future IT development for OTS customers.  The EA project is the technology, infrastructure, and governance for the Department of Health’s Medicaid Modernization efforts.  Initially designed to support the Medicaid Eligibility & Enrollment System, its utility and value as a statewide asset has now been established.

The Enterprise Architecture project will implement the following enterprise services vision:

  • Core EA Components: 7 core components based upon best of breed COTS products exposing secure services to the enterprise through the ESB.
  • Governance: Design time and runtime governance capabilities to support governance planning activities, runtime policy application and cost allocation functions.
  • Operations: Significant investment in DevOps approach and tooling including IT build automation, monitoring and deep Application Performance Monitoring (APM).
  • ALM: Support for software development lifecycle (SDLC) management, planning and tractability for both EA components and line-of-business applications consuming these components.
  • Infrastructure: Extensive support for HA (Active/Active), security and configurability through a Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) approach covering storage, networking and compute.

Key Advantages

  • Infinitely scalable and highly robust
  • Highly available for all applications or systems integrated into it
  • Cost effective, eliminating the need for unnecessary hardware and software
  • Standardized, thus decreasing both the time to procure and the time to implement new systems

Governance

OTS will work with agency decision makers to provide oversight of the EA. All proposed new applications to be integrated into the EA will undergo a thorough analysis to determine the appropriateness and impact on the existing systems.

Also included in the EA are sophisticated technologies that will facilitate cost allocation as well as close monitoring of the system’s performance, reinforcing OTS’s commitment to provide exceptional customer service.

Components

Seven software components comprise the EA:

  • Identity Access Management — all users, both internal and external, will be validated through a common security portal.
  • Enterprise Service Bus — all applications will pass through the ESB to access the other components using standardized methods.
  • Master Data Management — stores common, shareable, reusable records, such as for an “applicant” or a “provider,” to improve data integrity within and across applications.
  • Data Warehouse — a statewide data storage system that will allow for cross application or even statewide reporting of information.
  • Electronic Document Management — a document storage system that will allow flexible and scalable storage of a variety of file types
  • Consumer Communications — a system that will allow for the production and distribution of internal and external communications.
  • Business Rules Engine — an easy-to-use tool that will allow agency personnel to create and maintain the rules that underlie the decision logic within an application