I’m not going to give you the standard reasons why you should use BizTalk Server, but I will point to the reasons from the clients I worked with. I put the list in order, from which I think is the most important reason till the least important reason. Note: because Cloverleaf is one of the widest spread integration products in the Healthcare, I can’t neglect to compare with this product.
- In comparison to other products, Microsoft BizTalk Server has a positive Return Of Investment and one of the lowest (if not the lowest) Total Cost of Ownership (wow, that sounds like sales, but it is true
) - With BizTalk Server you don’t have to deal with Vendor lock-in. BizTalk Server is not open source, but there is a large community and a lot of vendors who can deliver BizTalk Server expertise. (HL7 knowledge can still be a problem)
- BizTalk Server is not a black-box. Because of the documentation from Microsoft, bloggers, and other communities; BizTalk Server is very open.
- Keep old systems up and running. BizTalk Server is very flexible. BizTalk Server 2009 and BizTalk Server 2010 (and older versions) are delivered with the HL7 Accelerator. See my presentation or article (Dutch) for the benefits.
- One disadvantage: HL7 v2.6 and v3.0 are not supported (yet), but
- 2.5 is at the moment the de facto standard, so that shouldn’t be a problem and
- HL7 v3.0 is XML based and BizTalk Server is all about XML, so that also shouldn’t be a problem (just download the schemas from the HL7 organization site)
- One disadvantage: HL7 v2.6 and v3.0 are not supported (yet), but
- BizTalk Server has more possibilities to work with the messages in a flexible way (like translation, use custom code, enrich data via databases).
- BizTalk Server also support other transports then only MLLP.
- When you want to connect to a governance site which support SOAP, then with BizTalk Server a connection is easily established (eg. in the Netherlands: SBV-Z, Nictiz, etc).
- “Use Microsoft products, unless …” (heard twice, so there must be a truth in there
) There are healthcare institutions who shift up to Microsoft platform and therefore wants to use BizTalk Server (note: this is also the case for other platforms like SAP or Oracle).
This is the list I’m aware of (in respect to the Healthcare). Do you think I’m missing something? Or do you have another opinion? Please let me know.
One Comment
I only wish getting the HL7 v3.0 XML schemas was as easy as downloading them from the HL7 organization site. You have to pay a decent amount of money to get them: $675/version (or buy a membership, which costs no less than that).