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Overview:

This project is a multi-tier, distributed web application designed to support a wide variety of hosted client's business needs including customer tracking, commodities trading, and inventory / supply management. The DSW Group assisted in the design of the overall architecture of the project and has created numerous proof-of-concept projects to show our customer's developers how to implement this Application Service Provider (ASP) architecture. The DSW Group is providing ongoing consulting and development support to ensure that the project stays on track.

Situation:

The traditional application-based systems employed were cumbersome and limited the number of concurrent users at customer client sites. Various applications, written in different development tools, conflicted with each other on client's machines. These problems diminished the benefit of each specific application because clients could not implement them without having problems with numerous other applications that were already running. Our customer desired to eliminate the need for their clients to install the application on their local computers. Their goal was for the necessary application to be hosted in a single, easily maintained location. Our customer also wanted the application to provide information to both internal company users and their external client users, and to have the ability to collect data from across clients to provide statistical analyses of the industry as a whole.

Solution:

The DSW Group developed a multi-tier ASP infrastructure that supports every layer of operations, from commodities trading to inventory management. The application is web-based and is available to anyone with a browser. It is a multi-tiered system where the lowest layer stores data, the middle tier does all of the required work for the application, and is accessed by the client through a browser as a third tier. It is never installed on clients' machines and therefore does not interact with any other applications that the client may be running. No proprietary development tools or practices were used, so the application is not dependent on a specific vendor of a specific software package. Thus, vendor reliability is not an issue.

This single application has met its goal by allowing for internal commodities traders and external users to access information. An authentication mechanism allows clients to access the database with an access code and the system delivers the appropriate information to the client. When using traditional client server development practices, two separate applications would have been required to perform these two functions. Results: Our customer has recently instituted a company mandate that all applications must be web-based. The architecture that we have instituted will be the basis that all future applications are built upon. The very nature of web-based applications is such that the application is stored at the host site, no installation is necessary at the client's browser locations, and the application is both easily accessed and secured.

Return on Investment:
  1. This web-based application eliminates the cost of local installations as well as the costs associated with the previously conflicting applications.

  2. The Open System architecture is no longer tied to a particular vendor. Different parts of the system can be exchanged for similar parts, and costs associated with supporting specific vendors are eliminated.

  3. Internal and external clients can use the same systems, reducing the amount of development effort. Therefore, all users can access information at the same time. The authentication mechanism takes care of rights and availability of services. This has significantly cut the cost of the transfer of information from internal traders to their clients.

  4. Extreme scalability and high availability is provided. Simply adding hardware can scale the application -- no changes whatsoever are required in code, and clients are not required to purchase additional software. The system is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

  5. Development time of new web-based applications is reduced because both front-end and back-end developers can work on an application concurrently, without having to wait for information from each other.

  6. Consistency across all new applications allows the company to establish a common look-and-feel for all future projects, which reduces interface prototyping studies.

  7. DSW is continuously training the in-house technical personnel to allow the users to maintain the application and troubleshoot future difficulties. The DSW Group is also available for ongoing support of the application.
The "Extra Mile":

Upon our arrival, the company had an architecture in place that we flagged as being of significant concern for future scalability. It was determined through an independent third party consulting firm that our analysis was valid. We developed numerous "proof of concept's" and presented the pros & cons of each. This led the client to change the architecture and arrive at the exact solution that met their objectives.

Due to the architecture and technology that were employed in developing the system, we customized our training to focus on these aspects and allow their staff to troubleshoot any future issues. This enables their full-time staff to support the system without additional charges incurred by through a consultant. We continue, on a monthly basis, to provide mentoring and technical expertise as the project progresses, including additional training for the staff. They have now rolled out two new projects under this architecture with great success, and more projects are pending.

* Due to The DSW Group's confidentiality policy, the names of our client are withheld.