Objective
Software engineer and IT Architect with over 20 years of information technology experience in designing innovative business solutions for retail, manufacturing and financial enterprises. Skilled in infrastructure implementation, design, middleware integration, systems management and multi-shore model. Demonstrated mastery in evaluating requirements for business application integration. Proven mentor and training with expertise in communicating across organizational levels and with cross-functional teams to drive shared vision and foster culture of excellence.
Core Competencies
Enterprise Integration
Enterprise Architecture
Systems Management
Middleware Solutions
Team Leadership
Client Focus
Technical Skills
EAI/B2B platforms:
webMethods Integration Server Suite Version 4.6, 6.1, 6.5, 7.1, 8.2, 9.5 and 9.7
webMethods modules/Add ons:
webMethods Integration Server, HTTP Reverse Gateway Server,webMethods Developer, webMethods Designer, webMethods Modeler, webMethods Administrator, My webMethods Server MWS, webMethods Monitor, webMethods Deployer, webMethods Broker, webMethods Certificate Toolkit, Optimize for Infrastructure OFI, Analytic Engine, Data Collector Engine, Prediction Engine, SubVersion, webMethods Reverse Gateway Servers, Universal Messaging, SSL Certificates, Java Key Store
webMethods adapter and interfaces:
JDBC, web service producer, web service consumer, Broker, flat file, fix, JMS, http, https, ftp, smtp, java client, stored procedures, DSPs (Dynamic Server Pages), RosettaNet, IBM WebSphere MQ
Informatica
Informatica Data Transformation Engine
Programming languages
Java, JavaScript, SQL, Visual Basic, HTML, DHTML, COBOL
Development tools, frameworks
eclipse, netbeans, JUnit, javadoc, CVS, PVCS, JIRA, Visual Source Safe, Clear Case, Samuri, XMLSpy, UltraEdit, SOAPUI, Subversion
Caching
Coherence, Terracotta
Operating systems:
MS Windows 10/7/XP/2008/2003/2000/NT 4.0, Windows Home Server, Linux, Sun Solaris, MS-DOS, MVS, LDAP
Database:
Oracle, MS SQL-Server, MySQL, DB2, UDB, Informix, MS Access, SQL, jdbc, odbc, stored procedures, oracle SQL developer
Network, intranet, internet:
client/server-architecture, synchronous and asynchronous communication, encryption/decryption, session handling, cookies, http, JMS, scp, wiki, ftp, telnet, tcp/ip, socket
Secure transmission:
https, ssl, ssh, basic authentication, server certificate, client certificate, openssl, CA (Certificate Authority), Root CA, encryption, private keys, public key, SHA1, SHA256 certificates, open ssl
Office Suite:
MS Office Professional, Lotus Notes, MS Outlook, MS Project, MS Visio
Change/Process Management
ITSM, ITPAM, JIRA
US Citizen and no sponsorship required
Work Experience
08/12 - Present- Engineer Lead/Team Leader, Global Technology Infrastructure, J.P.Morgan & Chase
05/12 - 08/12- Consultant- Engineer/Architect, Software Guidance & Assistance, J.P.Morgan & Chase
Lead a technology team in a large scale environment. In my multi-role responsibilities as a Team Leader, Systems Architect and Systems Administrator, I am able to support my team, clients, LOBs and business processes through the entire Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Responsibilities include architecting, designing, and implementing middleware enterprise-class integrated B2B and A2A applications solutions. Interface directly with internal/external clients and partners to lead specifications, design sessions, testing cycles, implementations, post implementation support, infrastructure management and documentation. Mentor and develop less experienced team members. I also interface with non-technical stakeholders to gather and refine requirements. Evaluate 3rd party products, services, and technologies for potential adoption, documentation of POCs and presentation findings to management as mandated. Also involved in infrastructure resource planning with defining firewall rules, SAN requirements, predictive modeling and automation.
Specialize in the softwareAG's webMethods Technology Suite
Experience in leading projects with multiple version of webMethods Upgrades from 6.1 to 6.5, 6.5 to 7.1, 7.1 to 8.2 and 8.2 to 9.7
Experience in providing 24x7 Production Support to time critical interfaces
Expertise in doing Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in solving critical business issues
Experience working in a global team environment including an Onsite-Offshore model
Experience with IT Service Management
Experience with SOA concepts for designing and developing integrations
Experience with High Availability, clustering architecting B2B Solutions
Experience with capacity planning, scalability, performance and testing
Experience with vendor management including ability to work directly with 3rd party vendors and consultants
Experience with Sustained Resiliency and Disaster Recovery Exercises
09/11-04/12 Systems Consultant II/IT Architect, SOA Team, Colonial Life Insurance
12/11- 04/12. Architect/Systems Administrator, WebSphere Message Broker Upgrade Project 6.1 to 7.0
The project goal was to upgrade the Enterprise Service Bus WebSphere Message Broker 6 to IBM
WebSphere Message Broker 7. This also required WebSphere MQ to be upgraded from 6.0 to 7.0. Defined the technical requirements and design to support existing and future business solutions. Developed technical architecture components and participated in technical discussion with Enterprise Architects. The project tasks included planning, analysis, defining infrastructure requirements, infrastructure resource planning, architecture/design of the ESB, High Availability system requirements, WMQ Cluster requirements, licensing requirements, capacity planning matrix, predictive modeling, hardware/software and SAN Storage requirements. Tasks included WebSphere MQ, WebSphere Message Broker, WMB Explorer and the WebSphere Message Broker Toolkit installation, configuration of Queue Managers, Message Brokers, Execution Groups, F5 BIG/IP systems requirements. The environment was be implemented on a Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise Operating System hosted on a VMware HA Cluster.
09/11-12/11 – webMethods Integration – Customer Claims Integration Project
The goal was to develop multiple prototypes with the WebSphere Message Broker and software AG webMethods ESBs to evaluate the future direction of Colonial Life Middleware Platform. The objective of this project was to design a proof of concept for the softwareAG webMethods software technology. A customer claims processing prototype was designed and developed to process a policy claim. The webMethods Integration Server 7.1.2, Developer, webMethods Broker, WebSphere MQ Adapter and the JDBC Adapter were utilized. The integration was based on a publish-subscribe pattern. The POC for webMethods was successfully developed, deployed and demonstrated. A similar integration was also developed for evaluation utilizing the IBM WebSphere Message Broker ESB.
07/07- 09/11 Integration Architect/webMethods Administrator, Electrolux North America
09/10- 09/11 EAI Architect/Systems Administrator, Data Center/Head Quarters Relocation Project Phase II
The Phase II project objective was to relocate the Electrolux Major Appliances North American Headquarters and the Data Center from Augusta, Georgia to Charlotte, North Carolina and actual migration of IT Assets. Tasks included actual physical migration of servers along with all of the software/hardware components. SAN Storage replication was a pre-requisite of all migration activities. Configuration changes for the ESB webMethods with the new firewall, internal and external load balancers. Unit testing of all infrastructure components, applications unit testing and user acceptance testing of migrated applications, databases, file systems, firewall rules, ports and dependencies. The system migration included both internal and B2B Applications. The ESB component migration included the webMethods Integration Server, webMethods Broker Cluster, MWS Cluster and webMethods system databases. The ESB Environment was hosted in a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition OS including Windows 2003 Clusters.
04/10- 08/10 EAI Architect/ Systems Administrator, Data Center/Head Quarters Relocation Project Phase I
The project’s objective was to relocate the Electrolux Major Appliances North American Headquarters and the Data Center from Augusta, Georgia to Charlotte, North Carolina. Tasks included identification of all infrastructure requirements, inventory of applications, database inventory, file systems, firewall rules, ports, network components, load balancer requirements and all system and application dependencies. Tasks also included compiling the Phased EAI Migration Plan in coordination with the BI, Web, AS400, Infrastructure, Storage, Data Center, PMO and Network Teams. The system migration planning included both internal and B2B Applications. Migration planning also included tasks to migrate the Enterprise Service Bus webMethods Application Suite 7.1.2. webMethods migration included webMethods Integration Server Application Cluster, webMethods Broker, Trading Networks components, My webMethods Cluster and webMethods system databases. Phase I of the project included all analysis, planning and requirements gathering for migration of all corporate assets and operations.
07/09- 03/10 Project Leader/ Systems Administrator ESB Upgrade, webMethods Upgrade Project 6.5 to 7.1.2
The scope of the project was to upgrade the EAI Integration Infrastructure to webMethods 7.1.2. The project spanned over all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle. As the EAI Architect and Project Leader I was involved with planning, analysis, architecture, design, system/hardware requirements, capacity planning for all components of the Integration Infrastructure. Infrastructure planning involved software licensing, hardware requirements, SAN storage requirements for the application servers and the webMethods user and systems databases. Tasks involved installation, configuration of webMethods Integration Servers, IS clustering, webMethods MSCS Broker Cluster, webMethods Trading Networks, database creation/migration, infrastructure security model and ACLs, My WebMethods Clustering, application enhancements and deployments, firewall rules, MQ Series Adapter/JDBC Adapter configurations and the webMethods HTTP Gateway Server. Applications for HBC Orders releases and EHPD Orders were enhanced to eliminate “Single Points of Failure” on the JDBC Adapter. The upgraded system was developed on a Microsoft Windows 2003 Enterprise Operating System with MS SQL Server 2005 as the backend. The webMethods infrastructure was upgraded successfully and the GO LIVE was November 07, 2009.
01/09-06/09 Project Leader, Energy Guide Integration
The scope of the project was to produce Energy Guides for display on Electrolux appliances at Retailers and Dealers. The energy guides provide energy consumption estimates to buyers/consumers. The integration involved all phases of the SDLC. The business process involved data receiving data from AS400 REX and transforming into a XML schema and transmitting it to the .NET. Involved in all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle of the project. The webMethods components comprised of Flat File Schemas/Dictionaries, Trading Networks partner profiles, TN documents, processing rules, flow mappings, transformation, JDBC and MQ Series adapter services. The application is deployed to a webMethods IS Cluster and the project was successfully implemented.
02/08-12/08 webMethods Application Development Projects
OTM Integrations: The OTM Integration was used by the enterprise to manage the customer orders and planning shipments in a Transportation Management System. Developed and implemented OTM Integrations for the factories located at Kinston, Webster City and St. Cloud. The development involved IS Documents, XML schemas, flow services, transformations, mappings, triggers, Trading Networks, MQ Series/JDBC adapter connections, listeners and services. The integration is based on a publish-subscribe architecture utilizing the webMethods Broker. Several development initiatives also involved business requirements for modifying freight payments, order releases, shipments and shipment confirmations modules. All of these development initiatives were successfully implemented.
ESAMS Integration: Developed and implemented ESAMS Integration changes related to pricing and ESA Contract Modules. This integration is based on a SOAP Messaging Protocol and is a B2B Solution between Electrolux and Sales Force.
HBC Integration: Developed and implemented the virtual warehouse module for the HBC Integration. Broich was the virtual warehouse that was the scope of this project. The project resulted in financial savings for the company.
04/08-06/08 EAI Architect, ICoE (Integration Center of Excellence)
As the webMethods Administrator/EAI Architect, set the foundation and built the Integration Center of Excellence. Implemented webMethods naming conventions, configuration, installation, port utilization, integration patterns, deployment standards and best practices. The ICoE was built following the instructions from Director of Architecture to eliminate “Single points of Failure”. The ICoE was the foundation of synchronizing the DEV, TEST, UAT and PRODUCTION Environments.
Change Management: Compiled and designed standard change management templates for the Integration Team. These templates help our team keep track all implemented changes in a single place and governance of the infrastructure deployments has also been synchronized. These internal controls and governance standards are in place and followed by the team.
01/08-06/08 Project Leader/EAI Architect, webMethods Upgrade Project 6.1 to 6.5
The scope of the project was to rebuild all of the webMethods environments to webMethods 6.5 SP2. Stability and environment synchronization was the core for this initiative and the project spanned over all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle - SDLC. As the Architect and Project Leader planning, analysis, architecture, design, system/hardware requirements, capacity planning were compiled for all component of the Integration Infrastructure. Tasks involved installation, configuration of application servers, application clusters, messaging broker cluster, webMethods Trading Networks, database creation/migration, infrastructure security model, MWS Clusters, application enhancements and deployment, firewall rules, MQ Series/JDBC Adapter configuration and the webMethods Reverse Invoke Servers. All the databases were upgraded to 6.5 schemas and all applications were transitioned from 6.1 webMethods to webMethods 6.5. The systems were deployed on a Windows 2003 Platform with SQL Server 2000 as the database. The project was successfully launched.
10/07-12/07 Project Leader, CSG B2B Project
The scope of the project was a B2B application between Electrolux Major Appliances and BMI-LFE. Involved in analysis, design, pattern identification, application architecture and mentoring. Prepared application specifications documents for Purchase Order, Order Acknowledgement, Shipment, Shipment Confirmation Integrations for webMethods Developers. Also involved is defining TN Partner Profiles, TN Documents, TN Processing Rules, adapter connections, adapter services, developing publish-subscribe flows, mappings in webMethods 6.5. The project was implemented 2 weeks ahead of schedule and the implementation was a success.
07/07-02/08 webMethods Administrator/OTM Project Infrastructure
The tasks involved production support and webMethods infrastructure stabilization for webMethods versions 4.6 and 6.1. The day to day activities involved supporting and stabilizing an array of B2B and enterprise applications and data processing issues. Configured a new webMethods 6.5 Integration Server Cluster to deploy the OTM Integrations. Performed design and source code review of all webMethods implementations. Performed 30+ fine tuning production changes to stabilize the environment, reduce outages and increase performance and productivity.
04/04-07/07 The Lowe’s Companies Inc.
11/06-07/07 Project Lead/Architect - EAI webMethods 6.5 Upgrade Project
The scope of the projects spanned over all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle. As the Architect and lead for the project the design was compiled keeping in mind the short, medium and long term technical and business requirements of the enterprise. All aspects of the architecture avoided a "Single Point of Failure Scenario". Failover components were designed to keep the system up and running 24-7. The scope of the project was to upgrade the EAI webMethods environment from version 6.1 to version 6.5. Tasks involved were setting up new file systems on an AIX Operating System, migration/creation of UDB 8.2 Databases, configuration of ACLs, security roles and permissions, installation of Integration Servers, repository servers, portal servers (My webMethods Servers), configuration of the message broker, installation and configuration of Web Sphere MQ Series Adapters, PeopleSoft Adapters, UCCNet Module, EDI Module, CISCO Load Balancer Module Switch, configuration of clusters, setting up failover/HA, testing of the use cases with the new 6.5 version. The project included all three environment (Development, QA, and Production) servers. The SOX Compliant project was implemented 3 weeks ahead of schedule. The project involved hands on technical tasks, designing the architecture as well as project management. The project achieved both scope and timeline.
03/07-04/07 Senior Programmer Analyst, Disaster Recovery Exercise
The Lowe’s' Companies Inc. conducts quarterly Disaster Recovery Exercises to prepare the IT Organization to cope with various disaster recovery scenarios. The DR Exercises included recovery on a myriad of platforms including MVS, UNIX, AIX, Solaris and Windows. Gold images of the different systems were deployed and restored on failover systems that were capable of running parallel application feeds. The scope of the application testing was to execute a parallel production system with a image of the production. The exercises spanned between 60-72 hours at a stretch and involved execution of batch schedules on the Main Frame, testing of web applications, kron shell scripts running on AIX to HTTP/Firewall Communication with B2B solutions. The DR Exercises was an overall success and enhancements were incorporated with every exercise. Was part of the DR Team in 6 DR Exercise over 6 quarters.
09/06-12/06 Senior Programmer Analyst, Lead Developer-ASN Webforms Phase II
The project involved analysis of business requirements, User Interface Design, application development, testing, UAT/stress testing and implementation utilizing the LKN Framework, Java 2, Mercury Load Runner and DB2 as the relational database. The IDE used for the application was Web Sphere Application Development Studio. The application provided Lowe’s external vendors the capability to search/filter advanced ship notice data against outstanding purchase orders. The application was enhanced to include medium to complex filtering components that provided the end-users search criteria relating to elements of a purchase order or an ASN (Advanced Ship Notice). Adding the filtering algorithm to the ASN Webforms made the application robust. It also resulted in increased performance for the users and eliminated time consuming reconciliation reporting process that vendors used before. The filtering scenarios spanned over a test plan comprising of 8000 filtering combinations. The project met its scope and was successfully implemented in production and was deployed using IBM’s Web Sphere Application Server residing on a UNIX Operating System.
Start05/06-08/06 Senior Programmer Analyst, Lead Developer PO Reservation Webforms
The user interfaces were designed based on business and user requirements. The application
involved all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle. The application provides Lowe’s vendors to reserve ranges of purchase order number to be used for future Purchase Orders (POs) and then references to the POs in the AP and ASN Systems. Java 2 was utilized as the language and DB2 was the back end database. The application was developed and added to the suite of application on the www.loweslink.com Portal. The LKN Framework and WSAD were used for development. The project eliminated all of the mailing and faxing processes for non-traditional EDI vendors and improved the Purchase Order Reservation business process.
04/06-05/06 Disaster Recovery Exercise
The Lowe’s' Companies Inc. conducts quarterly Disaster Recovery Exercise to prepare the IT Organization to cope with various disaster situation. The DR Exercise included a myriad of platforms including MVS, UNIX, AIX, Solaris and Windows. Gold copies of system were imaged and restored on failover systems that are capable of running parallels. The scope of the application testing was to execute a parallel production system with a copy of the production data. The exercise ran between 60-72 hours at a stretch and involved execution of batch schedules on the Main Frame, testing of web applications, kron shell scripts running on UNIX/AIX to HTTP Communication with outside test vendors.
11/05-03/06 Lead Developer - ASN Webforms Phase I
The project was designed and developed to provide Lowe's vendors the capability to create and submit Advanced Ship Notices against outstanding Purchase Orders. The application was developed and added as a module to the suite of www.loweslink.com portal. The project also involved supporting 15 users during UAT Phase. The application’s interfaces provided the vendors the capability to create, save, submit, resubmit, edit and delete advanced ship notices from the PO Master Database. The backend of the application resided in a DB2 relational database on the Main Frame. WSAD was utilized as the IDE along with the Java and LKN Framework 3.7. The application was deployed using Web Sphere Application Server 4.0 on an UNIX Operating System. Mercury Load Runner was utilized as the stress testing tool.
06/05-10/05 Architect - AIX Server Configuration EDI Module
The scope of the project was to configure two brand new AIX Servers from scratch for additional EAI Use Cases to be implemented. The project plan spanned over all of the five phases of the Systems Developed Life Cycle. After assignment of IP Addresses, the AIX Operating System and JVM were installed on both the AIX Servers. After allocation of EMC SAN Storage, volume groups, file systems and directory structures were created to accommodate the EAI webMethods 6.1 software configurations. EAI software installation was followed by the creation of system databases on UDB 8.1.4. Java client applications and webMethods flow services were designed and developed to volume and stress test the servers. New MQ Series Manager was created and configured against the Integration Servers. Additional nodes were configured on the Corporate Load Balancer to accommodate the Active-Active Application Integration Servers. The application servers were configured in a webMethods Application Clustered Environment with an automated failover configured through the webMethods Repository Servers.
03/05-05/05 Disaster Recovery Drills
The Lowe’s Companies Inc. conducts multiple DR (Disaster Recovery) Exercise every year to prepare the IT Organization to cope with potential disaster situations. The DR Exercise included a myriad of applications, platforms and databases including MVS, UNIX, AIX, Solaris, Windows, DB2, UDB, Web Applications, Visual Basic Applications etc.. Gold copies of system were imaged and restored on failover systems that are capable of running parallels. The scope of the application testing is to execute a parallel production system with a copy of the production data. The DR exercise ran for 72 hours at a stretch and involved execution of batch schedules on the Main Frame, testing of web applications, executing of kron shell scripts running on UNIX/AIX Systems to HTTP Communication with outside test vendors. Lessons learned were documented to be implemented for future exercises.
11/04-02/05 Senior Programmer Analyst/Architect- EAI webMethods 6.1 Benchmarking Project
The scope of the project was to benchmark the capabilities of the EAI webMethods 6.1 software with the Lowe's Companies existing infrastructure. The primary project goal was to measure the performance of webMethods 6.1 components capabilities on an AIX Operating System. Benchmarking scenarios were executed to evaluate the EAI webMethods software's to accommodate the short-term, medium and long-term Integration needs of the Lowe’s Companies Inc. The modules benchmarked involved the MQ Series Adapters, PeopleSoft Adapter, JDBC Adapters, Integration Servers, Repository Servers and the Broker Servers. As the architect of the Project three environments were developed (DEVELOPMENT, QA, PRODUCTION). The EAI Software was benchmarked on IBM AIX Operating System running a 32 Bit JVM. The benchmarks included an array of system and volume tests that spanned over full loop, point-to-point, bottom-up and top-down scenarios. As the architect I was involved in designing the infrastructure and layout for the production servers to accommodate our first set of Use Case Integrations to be implemented using EAI. I was also involved in laying out the initial architecture for the hardware and software components. The application servers and the repository servers were configured in a Clustered Environment with an automated failover capability. The Broker Server was designed as a Cold Standby Failover against the EMC SAN Storage. IBM's UDB 8.1.4 was the preferred database configured for the EAI environments across all three platforms (DEVELOPMENT, QA, PRODUCTION). The architecture was designed to avoid a single point of failure in every components of the infrastructure.
08/04-10/04 Lead Developer, Sales 852 Web Application
Enhanced an existing web application to accommodate an array of changes to the user interfaces. Created a User Interface using Java and LKN 3.7 Framework to design and develop a search capability for vendor specific sales data. The assignment included use of Java, HTML, JavaScript, LKN 3.7 Servlet and IBM DB2 Database. The IDE utilized for development was IBM's Web Sphere Application Development Studio WSAD 4.0. The application was successfully implemented in production. Mercury Load Runner was utilized to stress test the application. Web Sphere Application Server 4.0 was utilized to test and deploy the application in development, QA and Production.
04/04-07/04 Senior Programmer Analyst, Acknowledgement Alert
Designed and developed a Java Batch Application to process overdue alerts for EDI 204s Motor Career Load Tender Vendors. The application processes EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgements for every 204 transmitted to the vendors. The Java application produces data files for EDI Coordinators/Supply Chain Teams and transmits via SMTP Email. The LKN 3.6 Framework was also utilized to develop the application. The application was implemented in production for meeting the company’s business needs for 204 Acknowledgement Alerts. The project spanned over all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
01/00- 04/04 Programmer Analyst, Borders Group, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
11/03-04/04 Baker and Taylor Project (Multi-Media/Entertainment Module)
Designed and developed the Baker and Taylor Multi-Media Integration Application. The new system enabled customers to check real time availability of books/multi-media/entertainment items and place orders from the Borders Express System. Involved with Java Development and the end-user testing of the project. The successful implementation of this project helped the company increase special order sales by 10%.
05/03-10/03 Baker and Taylor Project- (Book Module)
Developed the architecture and technical system design of the Baker and Taylor EAI Integration Project. The project involved a Book module and a Multi-Media Module. Developed the HTTP/HTTPS Communication between B&T and Borders Group Inc. Designed and developed Poly Maps using the IBM Cross Worlds Mapping Tool and Java. Developed XSDs/DTDs and created XML requests and responses based on the BISAC Standards. Designed, developed, tested and implemented data handlers and protocol handlers using Java/DB2. Successfully implemented the Baker & Taylor Book Project, which resulted in an additional $5,000,000 in annual sales for the company in 2003.
11/03-03/04 Programmer Analyst, Supplier Response System(STH (Ship To Home) Project)
Developed a three-tier architecture to implement the Supplier Response System that utilized both HTTP/HTTPS Communication with different supplier/vendors. Developed Java Clients that called Java Servlets that utilize Java APIs to persist data and deliver real time XML requests and responses. The benefit of the system was tremendous in terms of reliance on outside vendors. The completion date for this project is April 2004.
10/02-06/03 Programmer Analyst, EAI Projects/Business-To-Business Solutions
Developed real time solutions with IBM EAI Cross Worlds Software. Designed and developed the Ingram Ship-To-Store Project. Developed business objects, maps using Java-DB2. Developed data handlers and protocol handlers performing HTTP and HTTPS Communication. Configured MQ Series Adapters, XML and SOAP Connectors for real time transactions. Designed and developed collaboration templates and collaboration objects for both Stock Check Inquiries and Purchase Orders. Developed applications, performed unit and B2B integration tests. Also performed full loops high volume tests with Borders Express and Blue