| Date: |
10/15/2006 |
| Industry: |
Floricultural - Retail |
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| Critical Issue: |
The $500M premier electronic network of an online exchange/retailer connects over 23,000 businesses worldwide and processes 15 million orders and messages annually. In addition to order expedition, our client provides PC-based business management and POS (Point-of-Sale) software. The current member base is supported by a mix of legacy systems running COBOL code in a Linux environment and Microsoft .NET-based applications running under Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
Our client's legacy COBOL system is extremely expensive to maintain, difficult to change, and has an outdated "character-based" user interface. In addition, industry competition is pushing this market leader to innovate in order to stay on top -- or lose major clients.
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| Reasons: |
Our client faced several difficult challenges. First, there were the difficulties inherent in supporting a legacy COBOL application. Second, they needed to react quickly to the steady stream of enhancement requests of members doing business in an increasingly tough, quickly changing market space. Additionally, new global markets and larger "mega" shops were difficult to reach due to complex international tax laws and the need to share customer and financial data between affiliated shops. |
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| Result: |
With Geneca's assistance, this client has been able to create two successive product releases that succeeded in accomplishing all its stated business objectives for new features. They also achieved their goal of creating a product that requires less support, is easier to install, and has a defect rate that sets new records for stability. Additionally, Geneca was a key resource in building a product that allows existing legacy users to easily migrate to a newer, Windows-based application. |
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| Capabilities: |
Over a two-year period, our client mapped out several ambitious improvements to their newer, Windows application:
- Replicate all the functionality of the older, yet more full-featured, legacy application.
- Make it easy and seamless for users of the old system to move to the new Windows application.
- Support the larger stores by enabling the sharing of customer and financial data.
- Support members by integrating the order and POS data with Intuit QuickBooks.
- Support international sales efforts by adding support for complicated tax calculations.
- Assess the cost and risk of redesigning the Windows application, both internally and at the Graphical User Interface level.
- Reduce support and installation costs.
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| We Provided: |
Geneca led "Feet on the Desk" strategy sessions to assist in identifying the best course of action. Additionally, Geneca provided a team of resources with varied expertise to assist in the design and coding efforts leveraging .NET, C#, VC++ and SQL Server. These resources were able to quickly respond to the demanding nature of writing solid, defect-free code so essential in a "shrink-wrap" software distribution model. Geneca also provided, via its industry partners, specialist-level consulting around a hot, new Windows GUI and the use of Microsoft BizTalk for a member-to-member order trafficking system. Finally, Geneca provided project oversight and risk assessment to mitigate surprises every step of the way. |