NECS and Web Services

In this NECSpress we tell you more about work being done to define the requirements for system-to-system communications in NECS.

Industry stakeholders have made it clear that for NECS to be of value to them its functions must be accessible by Web Services from the outset. Web Services is the means by which NECS is integrated with the in-house case management and documentation systems used by conveyancing industry participants. It is an alternative to a person using a web browser to access NECS and it is expected that the majority of transactions completed using NECS will use Web Services.

NECS is an industry system that relies for its viability on being suitable for use by a wide range of independent users with different systems. Those systems include purpose-built systems and proprietary systems supplied and maintained by third parties, many of which are already using Web Services to communicate with other external systems.

Implementation of Web Services in an environment of many independent users and systems requires standardisation of both the content of messages exchanged between systems (Data Standard Requirements) and the means by which the messages are exchanged (Web Services Requirements). Without such standardisation NECS would have to be provisioned to service a large number of existing different Web Services implementations and message content interpretations which would significantly affect its viability and implementation time, and make it a very fragile system in operation.

Standardisation of the content and means of exchange of Web Services messages requires all parties to collaborate in developing standards that all parties can implement with the minimum amount of alteration, re-testing and re-commissioning of existing systems. This work cannot be done without extensive stakeholder involvement and input.

Data Standard Requirements

Standardisation of the content of messages is the purpose of the National Electronic Conveyancing Data Standard (NECDS) being developed with the Lending Industry XML Initiative Ltd (LIXI). Read about this work here.

A Working Group of LIXI members under the direction of a specially convened Management Group has developed draft requirements for the NECDS and most recently a single, controlled vocabulary for terms used in the NECS environment, including wherever possible their synonyms used in the various States and Territories. If you are a LIXI member you can access the requirements documentation here and the NECS Vocabulary here.

Late last year the National Office with the assistance of Ajilon Australia Pty Ltd reviewed the draft requirements and supplemented them with a Message Use Case Specification. The requirements documentation consists of separate Operations and Administration & Maintenance requirements for NECS/Land Registry and Industry/NECS transactions and the Message Use Case Specification covers all four requirement sets. All of these documents are available for review and feedback here.

These documents are drafts and are currently being reviewed by stakeholders. Following the review, it is expected that a first draft of the XML schema for NECS/Land Registry transactions will be commissioned.

Web Services Requirements

Standardisation of the means by which messages are exchanged between systems will allow NECS to communicate efficiently and reliably with the wide range of systems used by industry and government participants. Defining the most suitable requirements for Web Services in the NECS environment allows industry participants to get their systems ready for communicating with NECS. Read more about the reasons for this work here.

In February 2009, the National Office commissioned Saratoga Professional Services Pty Ltd to consult with industry participants and define the technical and commissioning requirements for Web Services connecting NECS to external systems. Saratoga undertook extensive stakeholder consultation and developed requirements set out in the report dated August 2009 available here.

In November 2009, the National Office commissioned Ajilon Australia Pty Ltd to extend and clarify the Web Services requirements necessary for the NECS environment. Ajilon’s report dated February 2010 is available here.

If you are interested in the definition of Web Services in environments characterised by a diverse range of independent users and systems and would like to comment on any of the work done to date, we would like to hear from you here.