Following through on a strategy to appeal to vertical industries, Microsoft has updated its BizTalk accelerator for healthcare and issued a new accelerator aimed at the financial services industry. The products use BizTalk Server 2002 to reduce the amount of customization and development needed to integrate applications and translate data and documents into industry-standard formats. Version 2.0 of the BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA adds support for new U.S. government requirements in the medical industry and adds new tools. The BizTalk Accelerator for Financial Services translates between various financial services message standards.

BizTalk Server acts as a hub that connects disparate applications and passes messages in the formats each expects. (For more background on BizTalk Server, see "BizTalk Server 2002 Focuses on Deployment and Management" on page 3 of the Apr. 2002 Update and "BizTalk Server 2000 Orchestrates Business Interaction" on page 3 of the Mar. 2001 Update.) To speed deployment of BizTalk-based solutions, Microsoft and selected partners are creating software components, called BizTalk "accelerators," that contain the basic business logic and data translation capabilities commonly required in the business or market segment served by the solutions. (For more information on BizTalk accelerators, see "Microsoft and Industry Partners Accelerate BizTalk Integration" on page 5 of the July 2001 Update.)

The new additions bring the total number of BizTalk accelerators to four: there is also one for connecting electronic components businesses in a supply chain (RosettaNet) and another for connecting suppliers to customers (Supplier Enablement).

Updated HIPAA Accelerator

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, mandates that the U.S. healthcare industry standardize its administrative processes to reduce paperwork and increase efficiency. Microsoft wants BizTalk to play a key role in integrating systems that need to exchange HIPAA-based data. The BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA translates HIPAA messages that are currently in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) formats into XML, which makes it easier to integrate the messages into other systems and technologies.

Version 2.0 of the BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0 includes XML schemas for all 12 HIPAA-defined transactions and supports new implementation guides and addenda approved by the HIPAA standards body. The new addenda are expected to become mandated by the extended HIPAA transaction deadline of Oct. 2003.

The new HIPAA accelerator also adds the following capabilities:

• Prebuilt support for healthcare claim attachments that enable providers to electronically attach reports, results, and progress notes with each electronic claim, and allows payers to receive and process these claims
• An administrative interface that allows healthcare organizations to efficiently manage the numerous partner connections that HIPAA compliance requires
• Support for "de-identification maps," which strip personally identifiable information out of patient data so that organizations can use the data for testing without the risk of revealing sensitive client information.

New Accelerator for Financial Services

The BizTalk Accelerator for Financial Services provides prebuilt BizTalk interfaces to financial industry standards for payments processing, capital markets trading, settlement, and delivery processes. It's designed to address the needs of financial services companies—banks, asset managers, brokerage firms, exchanges, and even corporations that need to automate payment processing with their financial institutions—that are struggling to integrate various standalone applications, such as payment, settlement, portfolio management, or trading applications. Mergers, acquisitions, and the introduction of nontraditional offerings, such as insurance and brokerage, cause a proliferation of applications never designed to work together, making integration even more difficult.

Built-in features include more than 90 XML document specifications or schemas that describe message standards used for payments, foreign exchange, securities trading, and reporting. These standards have been set by bodies such as Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) and International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC).

The BizTalk Accelerator for Financial Services is also intended to reduce risk exposure from mismatched trades and errors. A good trading system must not only process good data but must also properly handle bad data, known as exceptions. The new accelerator uses BizTalk's workflow component, or orchestration, to facilitate processes such as custom validation of messages at the business logic level. This enables companies to identify and handle exceptions without writing a lot of code.

Microsoft states that the new accelerator will make it easier for financial institutions to achieve their nirvana of "straight through processing"—replacing the traditional phone and fax confirmations with a completely automated loop, from pretrade communication and deal capture through to clearing and settlement. Even though the BizTalk Financial Services accelerator eliminates some of the effort required to build this level of integration, overall it is still a daunting task. However, Microsoft is partnering with firms such as BearingPoint, Capco, FireStar, Ironbark, Macgregor, SIA, and SolutionForge that specialize in the financial services industries and can help customers build custom-tailored solutions.

Availability and Resources

The estimated retail price of BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA is US$5,000 per processor for BizTalk Standard Edition and US$20,000 per processor for Enterprise Edition.

Microsoft plans to make BizTalk Accelerator for Financial Services available by the end of 2002. Pricing will start at US$5,000 per central processing unit (CPU).

Both accelerators require BizTalk Server.

For more information on BizTalk and BizTalk accelerators, see www.microsoft.com/biztalk.