Custom Application Development

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COMPANY

Our client is a large procurement company with $3 billion in annual purchases serving 4,500 customers and 900 suppliers in the hospitality industry. The client provides comprehensive products and services that optimize their customer’s supply chain operations.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Our client wanted to implement an internet based tool, Customer List Portal, to enhance the communication of customer information between the company and its suppliers.

The client’s existing processes were cumbersome, inefficient and error prone:

  • Spreadsheets were the primary method for communicating with suppliers:
    • Customer enrollment information was captured on spreadsheets and emailed to suppliers.
    • Suppliers were required to email back the information that their systems use to identify the customer.
  • Active customer lists were manually compiled and distributed for each supplier.
  • Missing customer data issues went unresolved.

The company chose Ascendra to establish a robust, scalable and efficient process for communicating customer information with its suppliers.

SOLUTION

After analyzing the client’s requirements and existing information technology infrastructure, Ascendra recommended utilizing Enterprise Java architecture to develop the portal. Ascendra proposed using JBoss as the J2EE container, JSF (MyFaces) for the front-end, Spring Framework with Hibernate for the middle tier and Jasper Reports for Reporting. The Customer List Portal would interface with two back-end database systems, SQL Server 2005 and Oracle 10g.

Ascendra implemented the solution in the following manner:

  • Designed the three tier architecture consisting of a presentation layer, business layer and integration layer.
    • JSF (MyFaces) was used in the presentation layer
    • JBoss 4.0.4RC1 with Spring framework was utilized in the business layer
    • Hibernate/Spring JDBC was used in the integration layer to interface with SQL Server 2005
  • Developed Excel reports using the Jasper Reports engine.
  • Used iReport to generate the Jasper Reports templates.
  • Developed test cases for unit and integration testing.
  • Worked closely with the client’s quality assurance group to ensure a bug-free delivery.

BENEFITS

By implementing the Customer List Portal, our client achieved a high level of accuracy in maintaining customer list data and reduced reporting errors. This has resulted in the following benefits:

  • The client became synchronized with its customers and suppliers as business information was updated quickly and reliably.
  • Productivity was increased by eliminating the need to email spreadsheets to customers and suppliers.
  • Automating pricing lists reduced data entry errors, which led to increased profitability.
  • Customers and supplier satisfaction improved due to the convenience and efficiency of the online tool.

SERVICES & TECHNOLOGIES UTILIZED

Ascendra provided the following consulting services for the Customer List Portal solution:

  • Project management
  • Architecture design and deployment
  • Portal design and development
  • Reports design and development
  • Created test cases for unit and integration testing
  • Documentation and deployment support

By using Open Source Software to implement the solution, Ascendra was able to deploy a cost effective and powerful solution using industry standard open source tools and technologies:

  • JBoss 4.0.4 RC1
  • JSF (MyFaces)
  • Spring Framework
  • Hibernate as ORM framework
  • Jasper Reports for Reporting
  • SVN for source control
  • Ant for configuration management
  • Eclipse was the development environment used to build the application along with Aptana to design the UI