|
Business Challenge
Our customer is the purchasing company of a retail chain. Previously, to determine supply needs of individual
stores, the customer used a basic order form sent by email. The order was then manually processed to separate
items and to schedule the delivery by supply company. The customer wanted to replace this time consuming process
with up-to-date web based order management software. Because the custom solution was intended for in-house use
only, the customer did not need much flexibility, but rather cost-effective development.
Software Solution
Axmor's .NET developers created a Supply Order Website that allowed for separate item maintenance by supply
company; orders flowed through the approval circle and scheduled delivery dates. Axmor has been providing
software support services from the time of the software delivery up until now.
Phase I. Software Development
The customer wanted the application to be hardly tailored to the organization needs and wanted to avoid
excessive expenses on development. Axmor's developers provided a software solution to meet customer's
objectives to the fullest:
- Compliance with requirements. Before the project start, Axmor's analysts made efforts to understand
the level of flexibility and complexity required for this application. The analysis resulted in an
implementation proposal that included exactly the required functionality - no more and no less functions.
- Proven architecture solution. The Supply Order Website was developed on the Microsoft .NET platform.
Axmor's .NET developers offered simple, yet expedient architecture for this project. The Supply Order
Website consists of User Interface and Windows Services responsible for request processing, and the shared
code resides in the common Library. The image below represents software structure and components:
- Workflow worked out in detail. The flow of the supply order in the company is regulated by many
established conditions and depends on delivery schedules and approval requirements. There are a number of
specifics which cannot be overlooked - they entail complexity of the algorithm that Axmor developed.
Implementation of the customer's workflow required relentless attention to details and outstanding accuracy.
Axmor's developers successfully implemented the order management workflow, avoiding tedious adjustments and
hidden malfunctions.
- Distinctive interface. The company's order processing workflow involves many people with various
roles and responsibilities (see the image above). The customer wanted to identify user roles in the software
visually. Axmor's developers applied different design sketches to separate office workplaces, and adjusted
navigation according to available functions for a particular role.
- PDF converter. The Customer required that all documents including product catalogs and orders be
converted into .pdf form. To address this requirement, Axmor's .NET developers selected an appropriate
third-party component to convert web documents to pdf.
Axmor delivered the developed custom software within the planned timeframe and budget. The customer was
completely satisfied with the released Supply Order Website. The developed software has been stable for about
a year after putting the website into operation.
Phase II. Software Optimization
Slow and unstable connectivity to the hosted database server during the operational testing revealed a problem.
Axmor's .NET developers discovered a bottleneck in communication of the website with the Windows Services and
suggested to optimize the architecture of the custom solution. The application was improved to allow the user,
if the session was broken for some reason, to continue operations from where he or she left off. By our
recommendation, the customer also switched to another host to allow for better application performance.
Phase III. Application Support & Maintenance Services
Axmor continues to provide on-demand software support services for the customer, which includes development of
new features, issues resolution, and answers to customer's questions. To make the support more effective,
Axmor's developers added an extensive logging system to the application. They can diagnose the reason of
software failure quickly, and answer questions, which are critical to customer's business, almost immediately.
As a remarkable example of outstanding service, we helped our customer move to another server at the height of
the Christmas season without the customer falling out of hot business. The transition was completed on the day
after the request receipt and while the US was still sleeping. Our developers acted professionally and
accurately, and after the transition, the application began working right away without any failures.
Currently, the customer is very satisfied with the response and resolution time provided by Axmor's .NET support
services; many of the requests are addressed to on the same day that they are received.
Back >>
|
BRIEF:
Website for supply order entry and subsequent item separation by supply company, supporting approval circle and scheduled delivery of the order.
BENEFITS:
- Cost-effective implementation according to the requirements;
- Accurate custom implementation of specific workflow;
- Stable operation of the application over the past year;
- Immediate response to support requests;
- Strong adherence to commitments.
TECHNOLOGIES:
- .NET 2.0 Framework, C#
- ASP.NET (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
- MS SQL 2005
- Visual Studio 2005
- PDF4NETl (UI component)
|