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| Xelleration's Path to Perfection (A Success Story) |
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| Xelleration Abandons Lotus Notes for Microsoft to Stay Competitive |
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Hi-Tech Medical Services Company Reviews Web and Portal Strategy
Lacking a centralized and consistent web and portal strategy, this company was facing a fragmented approach to creating information online for both employees and customers. Seven departments were creating silo solutions adopting a hybrid of technologies with little consideration to economies of scale across the organization.
Solution
Xelleration recommended creating a single web site platform built on existing infrastructure. Having considered various products and the company in-house skills, SharePoint emerged as the ideal solution in terms of cost and ease of implementation. Key to the choice was SharePoint’s ability to expose existing Lotus Notes data over the web and creating a real-time management dashboard to help IT and Management make critical decisions.
Benefits
The company now has a single web platform strategy and a single content management system saving thousands of dollars annually, and on training. This system was piloted with their helpdesk and proved that the capabilities were enormous. - Xelleration provided expertise in cost-benefit analysis building upon existing infrastructure
- Employees can make changes within familiar Microsoft templates and products
- Microsoft SharePoint Web Parts allow for the building of complex personalized pages for developers to create and share data as the business requires
The consistent strategy has made it easier for them to maintain their IT infrastructure, employ the right IT skills as well as make all employees self-sufficient in creating web content. SharePoint was by far the best choice for this because it fits in with their legacy IT applications, is secure and quick to implement.
Microsoft SharePoint provides a platform to build web portals that allow workers, customers and suppliers to share, edit and take advantage of relevant information across the business and beyond the business. For example, by creating a workspace, documents, emails, and spreadsheets can be viewed, edited and shared between team members – whether internal or external to the organization. Document management and workflow technologies mean that team members can work together efficiently and information and data is shared securely. |
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Hi-Tech Medical Services Company Revolutionizes Events Attendance
Marketing and Events are essential to finding new customers and keeping in touch with loyal customers. This company was struggling with expensive vendor bills for an event management and portal solution that took several days to update agendas, customer details and travel bookings. In a fast moving department, every minute lost means a loss in customer loyalty and retention.
Solution
Xelleration consulted with the client and suggested bringing the Event Management tool in-house. Using SharePoint Services, within 6 weeks a new tool was created mirroring the vendor application thereby not disrupting the marketing department. Within SharePoint Services, the changes made are real-time and customers can access their details on the web and via any device.
Benefits
Management now have accurate sales and marketing data via a dashboard and can make those business critical decisions with confidence. - Xelleration consulting can provide cost-benefit analysis and years of experience in portals
- Quick development time based upon interoperability and building on existing infrastructure
- No need to re-train employees as solutions can mirror existing ones and use familiar Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office 2007.
Their event registrations have increased by dramatically but more importantly their customers have complete confidence in knowing that they can rely on the system. Previously they had to phone us and email us to ensure changes were accurate - and they themselves never had sight of accurate data.
Microsoft SharePoint provides a platform to build web portals that allow workers, customers and suppliers to share, edit and take advantage of relevant information across the business and beyond the business. For example, by creating a workspace, documents, emails, and spreadsheets can be viewed, edited and shared between team members – whether internal or external to the organization. Document management and workflow technologies mean that team members can work together efficiently and information and data is shared securely. |
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Hi-Tech Medical Services Company Revamps Customer Feedback System
To maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty, this Services Department was lacking insight on how customers perceived the company and sales were declining. Their feedback system was broken and development time on the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino Infrastructure would have taken a minimum of 4 weeks plus costly developer skills.
Solution
Xelleration helped the organization adopt the latest IT solution based upon Microsoft SharePoint Services, creating a solution that was up and running within a week. Two new applications were built upon existing infrastructure, created from templates within SharePoint services making it simple to implement and easy for the company to maintain in the future.
Benefits
The division is now receiving more feedback, both regularly, and of a much higher quality, which has prompted them to consider implementing further SharePoint templates across the business. - SharePoint Services and its customizable templates are included in Win Server
- Quick development time compared to Lotus Notes/Domino is minimal saving money
- Employees can make changes independently within familiar Microsoft templates
- Interoperability and ability to build on existing infrastructure allow for flexible solution
Previously, they would have built their solution on IBM Notes and Domino which was extremely time-consuming and problematic. But, with SharePoint Services, the process was straightforward.
Microsoft SharePoint provides a platform to build web portals that allow workers, customers and suppliers to share, edit and take advantage of relevant information across the business and beyond the business. For example, by creating a workspace, documents, emails, and spreadsheets can be viewed, edited and shared between team members – whether internal or external to the organization. Document management and workflow technologies mean that team members can work together efficiently and information and data is shared securely. |
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Third-Party Medical Insurance Company Redefines Corporate IT Policy
A subsidiary of a Fortune 500, and the largest employee benefits third-party administrator in the US, the company was experiencing difficulty managing documents and communications with their many customers, employees, and partners, and vendors. They were using three different systems both internally and externally for document storage and process workflow: SharePoint Services, Lotus Notes QuickPlace, and Lotus Notes Discussion databases. These systems combined hosted 75 web sites, 76 databases, and were accessed by hundreds of users both internally and externally.
Business objectives
There was neither consistency across the multiple systems in place, nor collaboration. The company has over 900 private and public sector clients, collaborates with multiple vendors, and processes more than 33.5 million claims annually, each of which contain Protected Health Information (PHI) – a gaping security risk. Business processes needed to be redefined in such a way that document management and collaboration were streamlined and consistent, with traceability, accountability, and version control.
The objective of this engagement was not just a solution, it was a strategy. Xelleration enabled them to develop an IT Roadmap, the direct output of which was a set of policies and procedures built on a foundation of industry best practices. Once the plan was put in place, the intention was to migrate all legacy systems onto the new secure, robust enterprise platform.
Solution
Xelleration worked with the client to develop a strategy that would provide consistency, security, and a central collaborative environment that would refine and standardize workflow processes and document management. Together, we developed a Server Security and Hardening Plan, an IT Governance Plan, an Infrastructure Strategy, and a Capacity Planning Strategy. Each of these required intense analysis and due diligence to ensure that industry best practices were incorporated. Once the plan was laid out, Xelleration built a SharePoint 2007 Portal system to provide a web-based workflow center for project management, document collaboration, notes sharing, and related data file storage for information exchange and process automation. The new system is used by internal and external customers for secure storage, retrieval, and indexing of files containing PHI, and has been built with granular security levels to ensure limited and controlled data access. This SharePoint environment will also provide a platform for the migration of selected Lotus Notes databases, Lotus Notes QuickPlace sites, and legacy SharePoint sites.
Benefits
The client has now achieved HIPAA compliance in its processing of health claims, and has gained the strategic business advantages of enhanced workflow, collaboration, and communication among employees, partners and clients. With its IT infrastructure securely in place, they are now gearing towards retiring disjoint legacy systems and migrating them onto the enterprise platform – thus saving employee’s valuable time and ensuring the best possible experience for all customers.
Microsoft SharePoint provides a platform to build web portals that allow workers, customers and suppliers to share, edit and take advantage of relevant information across the business and beyond the business. For example, by creating a workspace, documents, emails, and spreadsheets can be viewed, edited and shared between team members – whether internal or external to the organization. Document management and workflow technologies mean that team members can work together efficiently and information and data is shared securely. |
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Information System for Sales, Inventory, Leads, and Expenses
Background
Xelleration LLC developed an Information System for Sales, Inventory, Leads and Expenses for a California-based real estate Company. In 2003, This Information System was launched as a service for the client’s agents and staff. It is a centralized, widely-accessible tool that each agent uses to track various types of information relevant to his or her client. It also provides reports and various logistics information for managers and staff.
The Problem
While the previous version of this Information System has proven to be a successful tool, there still exists other processes within the company that could be streamlined by incorporating them into this new system. In addition, some of the current processes in the system were slowly becoming outdated and needed to be revised. Email access and access to various real estate market listings needed to be built in. The interface needed to be simplified to improve ease of use for the staff and agents of client.
The Solution
Xelleration was presented the challenge of creating a solution to meet the needs required by the client and its users. It required the new version to keep all of its current data intact, to provide an easy transition from the old version, and to provide a new look to the system. It also had to built on top of the system’s current security model and integrate tightly with their Active Directory and Exchange implementations. It also had a tight deadline of two months.
A rapid-prototype approach was adopted for implementation. Every few weeks a new prototype was presented to users of this Information System and their feedback was constantly being incorporated into the next prototype.
The initial phases saw the redesign of the interface. The color scheme was updated and each page inherited from a master template, as well an updated style sheet, to keep the look consistent throughout.
The late stages of this project saw the incorporation of the new and updated functionalities for the client’s users, such as: new presentations of expenses, a consolidated and personalized overview for each user, and integration of the Exchange web interface.
Technology
The Information System is implemented in ASP.NET using the VB.NET language. It uses Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as the database backend. It also makes use of Active Directory and some parts of the Exchange Mail Server.
Future
The project is reached its completion and a full deployment was made January 2006. Since the system’s launch, more intricate details from day-to-day use are being incorporated into the system, continually molding the Information System to be as effective as possible for the client. |
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Intranet Portal
Background
One of the nation’s largest Mal-practice insurance companies was looking for a (B2E) Business to Employee Portal solution using a technology based on emerging industry standards.
The Critical Success Factors were to use an existing code base and expand on it to keep the cost low and do the project in a low budget, use approach and design that allowed new modules to be added to the intranet with no new IT development and finally allow end users to administer content and eliminate the IT migration and deployment costs from the process of deploying new applications.
One of their biggest concerns was a need for a solution that is fast to deliver and a quick win in the organization. Another problem that the client had been facing with their current Intranet was lack of ability to manage content online. The current intranet was not very productive for the client’s employees since it was mostly based on a set of static content and links.
Solution
Xelleration recommended a custom Intranet Solution based on technologies supported by the client’s existing Technology Infrastructure.
The Solution was developed keeping a modular approach in mind, The Architecture and the Components were highly integrated while separated in terms of their Implementation.
The Solution offered by Xelleration consisted of some core Architectural features like Security, Administration, Style sheets for common Look and feel and a common set of base classes defining an Interface for the development of the Intranet modules.
Intranet Modules, while developed separately, used the same base classes defined by the core architecture.
As part of the initial phases, Xelleration offered the client modules that allow users to view world news using syndicated news content, participate in online polls, view internal news, events and announcements, upload documents and pictures, participate in discussions and access different internal and external links from one common interface.
The Intranet also allow Administrative users to define Roles, add users to Roles and assigns security to each Information module based on roles, delegate the content management of a module to a department of a group. Manage Content online and ability to define new customized modules in the Intranet.
Technology
This Intranet Portal is based on Microsoft ASP.NET Technology, using Oracle 8i as the database engine. This choice was made keeping the current technology focus of the client in mind.
Results
The application turned out to be a huge success. It started an Intranet culture in the organization, within weeks most of the departments started publishing and managing their content online. New ideas started coming up, and the Intranet Portal became the choice of interface for all employees from viewing the current news to scheduling conference rooms to checking the Soup of the day at the Deli and other employee to employee communication that happens.
The Client’s Phone book was also added as another functional module to the Intranet.
Future
The future plan is to continue enhancing Intranet features and functionality, and make it a home for all information access to employees and make it into a Corporate Hub for disseminating information through out the organization. |
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Fixed Asset Inventory & Online Equipment Purchase and Authorization
Background
This client is one of the largest independent companies in the United States specializing in landscape and horticultural services. There are 20 companies and over 200 branches in the United States that makes this company a leader its industry.
Fixed Asset Inventory Project
The client requested Xelleration to create a reporting tool in ASP.NET that allows the branch users to view, print, and export to excel all assets for a particular branch. The data is derived from the Fixed Asset Inventory report generated by the JDE system and extracted into a SQL database table.
The users at the branch can view or print the asset data by selecting the appropriate hierarchical categories. The categories are Company, Location, and Equipment Class. Each category is a drop down menu in which the first one will populate the next after it is selected. For example, if the user chooses company = 100 VCLD, the location drop down will only contain locations for company 100. If location 1030 is chosen, only the equipment classes for that location will be displayed in the equipment drop down list. Once the Equipment Class is selected, the user hits the submit button. A data grid showing all detailed records for the selection will be displayed and an Account Summary of the monthly expenses will be calculated from two data columns. The print and export feature allows the user to view or print the generated results on an Excel spreadsheet which will be ready to print on a legal sized paper in landscape orientation.
The Critical Success Factors for the solution were that it is light-weight, portable, and fast. It does not require additional software to be installed on desktops or servers and it is platform independent. Since the solution is an extension of an existing ASP.NET project, it was extremely cost efficient for a client.
Online Equipment Purchase and Authorization
One of the client’s department wanted to automate the way in which capital equipment is purchased and authorized. To accomplish this, they have setup with SCAG, an equipment vendor to use a shopping cart for the branch users to do their purchases.
The branch users make their online purchases through the third party web site, which will then send an automated email containing the order information to the client’s MS SQL server. The following information will be parsed using a SQL stored procedure from the email: - Branch of user
- User Name
- SCAG order number
- Order Date
- Order detail via hyperlink to SCAG
- Order quantity and description
- Order Total
- User shipping address
The order data extracted from the email will then be saved to a SQL table and an email will be sent to the branch user who entered the order. The email that the user receives will contain a hyperlink to a supplemental order form on the intranet for the user to complete. The supplemental order form will capture all the data elements and store them into the SQL database. Once the form is submitted, the branch approver will receive an email with a hyperlink to the authorization process on the intranet. The authorization system will forward emails to the appropriate approvers and once authorized, move the information to the corporate staff to create a purchase order in the JDE system and finally confirm the order with SCAG.
Although this interface is developed with SCAG, it has been built to be generic and modular so it could be used with other vendors in the future.
Technology
Both solutions are based on Microsoft ASP.NET 1.1 framework with a MS SQL backend running on Windows 2000 – 2003 environment.
Results
The Fixed Asset Inventory, and The Online Equipment Purchase Authorization was deployed to production and was within the estimated budget.
It is expected that each system would derive a maximum process improvement and cost efficiency for the client.
Xelleration keeps its client names and information confidential. Please contact Xelleration for current and archived case studies. |
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