"I have. I reviewed the service interface, and while it certainly looks like there's enough there to warrant using the service rather than building our own, there's also a number of additional things that we'll need."

Craig responded, "What kind of changes are you looking for? Are there new operations that you need that are specific to the annuity area?"

Ramesh said, "There are two or three operations that we'd like to see, but most of the changes are actually in the message schemas for the existing operations. There are some additional attributes that we need, and some of the relationships between the attributes are different in our representation."

For the rest of the meeting, Ramesh and Craig went through the changes that Ramesh wanted to be made to accommodate his needs. In the end, it was clear that some changes to the existing schemas would have to be made. Maria asked, "We're going to need to go back and look over these changes, along with the integration approach for your existing database. What does the schedule for your efforts currently look like?"

Ramesh replied, "We're still in the initial stages of planning, which is why I wanted to make sure I talked to you now. Right now, the project sponsors would like to have something within six months, but they also know that nine months is far more likely. Since I have some flexibility in my schedule, why don't you take a week to look into the effort required for the changes, and let's work out the schedule then. Does that work for you?"

"That works for me. We'll get back to you next week with what we think it will take to implement the changes."

On the way back to their desks, Craig commented to Maria, "You know, while I don't have any concerns about getting the work done for Ramesh, I do have some concerns on how these changes are going to impact our existing consumers. Some of these changes are going to break the existing interfaces."

Maria said, "That is a concern. I know that there aren't any resources available to do any work on the home insurance side of things. Any suggestions on how we should handle this?"

Craig said, "Well, we definitely should make the existing consumers aware that a change is going to be made and at least get a clear idea of what the impact will be. If you can take care of that, I can take this to Spencer and the SOA Center of Excellence, and see what suggestions they have."

"That sounds like a good plan to me," replied Maria.

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