EllisDon Connects Cloud, Legacy, and Mobile Apps With iWay Integration Suite

Information Builders, a leader in business intelligence (BI) and analytics, information integrity, and integration solutions, today announced that EllisDon, a $3.5 billion construction services company, has standardized on Information Builders’ iWay Integration Suite to release Gate Three, a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) application for the construction industry. Software developers in the Gate Three division of EllisDon now have a centralized integration platform that automates inbound and outbound connectivity for their popular construction project management applications. iWay makes it easy to create mobile, cloud, on-premises, and legacy interfaces to streamline communication for busy construction teams.

As a web-based SaaS app, Gate Three is currently in production mode, servicing thousands of users in multiple active projects. Architects, estimators, project managers, and subcontractors access the system via a browser or native Apple iOS apps to automate the construction management lifecycle. No installation is required — just a simple subscription to the Gate Three service.

As more people look to their smartphones and tablets to interact with enterprise information systems, EllisDon faced the challenge of exposing enterprise applications and legacy systems through mobile apps. iWay fulfills their data integration requirements by generating RESTful web services that can be easily consumed by mobile apps running on smartphones and tablets.

“Information Builders offers a rich integration platform with lots of services and broad connectivity,” said Bilal Ahmed, manager of Application Development for the Gate Three division of EllisDon. “iWay permitted us to expose the integration layer as SOAP-based web services. It not only connects many different data sources, but also transforms, marshals, and structures the data based on the requirements of the destination system. iWay scales well and it performs well.”

iWay Integration Suite forms the integration layer for this project management service, sending and receiving data between Gate Three and EllisDon’s back-office systems for costing, budgeting, contracts, change orders, billing, cash flow, and forecasting. All the file attachments that are associated with the Gate Three documents are stored in Google Cloud Storage.

iWay also plays an important role integrating Gate Three with a legacy financial management system. iWay logs thousands of financial transactions per day — but that’s just a fraction of iWay’s expected load as Gate Three grows in the market.

“SaaS solutions are gaining popularity as a way to reduce capital expenditures and move to a subscription-based IT model,” said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders. “Some SaaS vendors offer basic connectivity, but ignore complex integration issues related to system configuration, application customizations, scalability, and security. Gate Three is using integration technology to mask these technical details, improving flexibility for customers and simplifying connections among many types of applications and data types.”

About EllisDon
EllisDon was established in 1951 and is an employee-owned construction services company, with annual revenues in excess of $3.3 billion. A leader in civil construction, the EllisDon Civil Division specializes in transit, road, rail, bridge, and tunnel projects, and is the fastest rising facet of the company with a long history of success. In recent years it has grown to more than 600 skilled staff and is currently involved in more than $9 billion dollars’ worth of projects. These include the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Ottawa’s Confederation Line LRT, previous phases of the Viva program, infrastructure development for the Toronto Transit Commission, and work with the Ministry of Transportation Ontario. EllisDon has extensive experience with a variety of delivery models, including Design-Build, which requires extensive coordination of work while ensuring disruptions to the local community and the environmental are minimized. For more information, please visit ellisdon.com.

About Information Builders
Information Builders helps organizations transform data into business value. Our software solutions for business intelligence and analytics, integration, and data integrity empower people to make smarter decisions, strengthen customer relationships, and drive growth. Our dedication to customer success is unmatched in the industry. That’s why tens of thousands of leading organizations rely on Information Builders to be their trusted partner. Founded in 1975, Information Builders is headquartered in New York, NY, with offices around the world, and remains one of the largest independent, privately held companies in the industry. Visit us at informationbuilders.com, follow us on Twitter at @infobldrs, like us on Facebook, and visit our LinkedIn page.