Last Friday, BEA sponsored a roundtable at which two key customers, eHeathInsurance and WebEx, talked about their SOA implementations and compared notes as to the hard-core benefits derived from them.

The new Web services-based SOA environment is specifically designed to help potential customers come to the eHealthInsurance website, usually via a marketing partner, and submit required data for rate quotes, and receive automated responses more rapidly. To that end, the firm has designed a patent-pending technology called Electronic Processing Interchange (EPI) that enables consumers to submit an application online, complete with an e-signature and electronic payment.