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Summary
Genisys builds a feature-rich Intranet to meet its own inventory management, resource management and reporting needs.
The Customer
Genisys is a value-added reseller delivering creative IT solutions and services to corporate customers around the world.
The Challenge
As an IT reseller, we depended on an accounting software package called Exchequer Enterprise to manage our daily business activities. Exchequer's main disadvantage was its inability to provide for the customisable reports that were required by our users. Exchequer could not perform several of our internal sales processes even though most of the data required for these processes was available within the software.
Genisys Solution
We developed an Intranet system on the Microsoft platform (IIS® 5.0, SQL Server® 2000 & Microsoft® Active Directory Server) that interfaces with the data available in Exchequer's database to generate its own reports based on user requirements. Summarised sales reports can be viewed directly on the Intranet home page, which also contains several mini-applications like news-feeds, weather reports, reports on the latest exchange rates, and opinion polls. The Intranet also incorporates several very useful modules that enhanced the quality of our internal processes, some of which are described below:
Stock Check: The Stock Check module downloads, on an hourly basis, pricing and availability information in the form of raw data from various vendor sites, compiling and presenting the information in a comparative format that enables sales persons to make informed decisions. This highly configurable module can embrace new vendor systems with just a few changes in its XML-based configuration files.
eCatalogue: The eCatalogue module downloads, on a daily basis, catalogue information for all Compaq products we trade. This information is downloaded in the form of XML files formatted using XSL style sheets. It is then displayed based on user-defined search criteria, enabling our salespeople to enhance their knowledge of the latest products available from Compaq.
Stock Returns: The Stock Returns module addresses the workflow involved in product returns, automating the internal processes required to complete a Stock Return.
Leave Management and Attendance System: The Leave Management System enables our employees to apply for leave and allows supervisors to authorise such leave applications. It is designed to capture employee attendance records -- a task which was hitherto performed manually.
Call Logging System: The Call Logging System allows Intranet users to log issues related to the day-to-day working of the company. These issues can be assigned to any employee and the assignee is required to update the system with the resolution to the issue. The system also sends reminders to the assignee if the issue is not resolved within a pre-defined period of time.
Technical Diary: The Technical Diary allows supervisors to book appointments for personnel from the technical team when they are required to make client visits. This system allows the supervisor to view a report that lists the status of our technical staff, eliminating the possibility of overlapping appointments. This report also queries Microsoft Exchange to find out whether the technical person has a prior appointment that has been scheduled in his / her Outlook Calendar. New appointments are updated into each users personal schedule.
Login, access control and security: Access to the various modules is controlled by a robust Privilege Management system. The user of the system is only shown those modules to which he or she has access to in the menu bar. Every module performs a security check in the background before presenting the interface to the user. Login to the system is based on the “Integrated Windows Authentication” facility provided by IIS and Windows® 2000. This ensures that once a user logs onto the companies local network, he / she need not enter a User ID and password again for the Intranet. This implements a single sign-on facility for our Intranet users.
Benefits
Our Intranet implementation enabled us to automate many internal processes, optimising our resources and boosting efficiency levels. Once the Exchequer interface mechanism was put in place, we were able to generate five times as many reports as we had originally thought possible, providing our sales staff with succinct data that enabled them to make better business decisions. the time to develop the reports steadily decreased as the system started to make use of re-usable components to render the reports.
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