case studies

below you will find some case studies which we hope will illustrate the broad range of solutions we can deliver, ranging from a classic b2c ecommerce system to a complex legal workflow system :

CACI
www.caci.co.uk / www.insite.info
10 months
Team Leading, Project Management, Analysis, Design, and Development of InSite Online, an online Geographical Information System (GIS)
vb.net, asp 3.0, activex, com, dcom, vba, html, dhtml, javascript, ie6 dom, css, iis 5.0, mapping, binary streaming, gis data modelling, ms project 2002, rad, mysql, sql server 2000, windows 2003 server / xp, odbc, ado, office 2002, visio, source safe, robohelp 5.0 integration, hp proliant blade server build + config (via integrated lights out admin tool)


We were comissioned by CACI in January 2004 to design and deliver an online solution for their existing InSite (www.insite.info) client/server system, billed as 'the first true online geographical information system' (www.caci.co.uk/news-details60.htm). We reported directly to the Board of Directors, delivering regular monthly updates, including full risk analysis and budget updates, and held weekly project boards for the team and key stakeholders, as well as managing the project team.

CACI essentially sell geo-datasets and have historically delivered these in their own proprietary database format with a Visual Basic client/server front end, which allowed the customer to access and manipulate the data, including a large amount of geo-data and spatial modelling. This VB app, and a range of associated VBA applets had been built by the CACI development team over a 10 year period, and were both very large, and very complex. Our brief was to build a system to put this functionality online, as quickly as possible.

The project was very challenging, and was run to a very tight deadline as CACI's direct market competitor was about to take a similar online product to market. We used a hybrid RAD methodology, quickly speccing out the project based on the existing client/server system and our extensive experience of web-based solutions, delivering a project initiation document (PID), functional specification and plan, putting the project teams in place, and managing the development process throughout its lifecycle. Both internal resources, external 3rd party suppliers and contractors were used, which made the management process quite complex.  The project team included COM developers, graphic designers, testers, coders and help-file writers.

We proposed and built a .NET / Windows Server 2003 web based system, including building the Windows 2003 development and test servers, IIS, .NET framework & remote debugging.  Since we had much of the business functionality already in the VB client/server system, we decided to re-engineer this using C++, stripping out the GUI and wrapping it as a single COM object which talked directly to the proprietary database which sat on the web server (a team of 3 specialist C++ COM coders were used here). The system was hosted on a series of HP Proliant Blade Servers) all of which were built by from scratch. A VB.NET layer was constructed which referenced the COMponets, and a MySQL database was designed to hold all the meta-data (login details, user settings, full CMS etc).

We built a fully scaleable generic framework for these COMponents using .NET, including full online content management, with WYSWYG editing, navigation management, user management etc. A particularly interesting area of the project was the online mapping engine which delivered the full functionality of a system like streetmap.co.uk with postcode searches etc. We also delivered full technical documentation, along with the standard functional documentation,and all documentation adhered to Prince II standards, but borrowed heavily from SSADM (entity relationship modelling, dataflow modelling etc.). We also managed the testing and change-control processes.

From a technical perspective we had to tackle a number of problems during the project, including image generation from a binary stream to HTML img tag, and cache prevention, a range of multi-user issues, and COM interface and memory management issues.

The project was delivered on schedule for the product launch on the 1st October 2004, and a user license retails for £20,000+ per annum.
 

uktickets
www.uktickets.co.uk
6 months
analysis, design, development and deployment of an online ticket sales site for the uks largest ticket retailer
vb6, sql server 7.0, odbc, asp, vbscript, interdev, javascript, html


a full life-cycle development of a generic data driven e-commerce system for the uks largest ticket agency. this was a 'greenfield' development, which went from initial proposal/tender right through to management of support. the system was prototyped over a 6 month period using html, and vbscript/sqlserver 7.0 on the backend.  it now takes over £50 million of business per year.
 

unison : trade union
www.unison.org.uk
26 months
design and development of a web based dataase system
vbscript, asp, html, dhtml, css, iis 5.0, cognos, rad, prince 2, javascript, sql server 2000, nt 5.0 / 2000 server / xp, com+, odbc, ado, office 2002,  exchange/outlook api, mts, dreamweaver, source safe


a full life-cycle development of a generic data driven workflow system for one of the uk's largest trade unions.

development of a bargaining information system to provide information and support for union negotiators both via the unison intranet and the internet. this was a large scale greenfield project, to build a high transaction site involving millions of records of uk company and associated data. designed and built over a two year period, the projects backbone was a centralised sql server 2000 database and a suite of vbscript asp pages running on iis on windows 2000 server accessed through ado. the system also interfaced to cognos for reporting, using it's web services sdk, and to exchange/outlook for centralised addressing and scheduling. we developed a scalable, high-performance, and high-transaction system using prince 2, rad and object oriented techniques.

we implemented a phased-rollout over a 12 month period, rolling out groups of functional areas internally on the unison intranet, then externally to a controlled user group, the finally the system is to be rolled out to the general public once all the data has been populated. we stepped out at this point, handing over to a 3rd party who were to support the application prior to, and during rollout to the general public.

to read what unison had to say about our work, click here

you can read more about this project on unisons own website by going here :
http://www.unison.org.uk/bargaining/bis.asp
 

vivahome
www.vivahome.com
4 months
e-commerce consultancy, design and development for an online home furnishings vendor
sql server 7.0, odbc, asp, vbscript, javascript, interdev


development of a database driven, fully generic obj ect-oriented e-commerce site for a start-up on-line catalogue company. we took the project from the clients original specification though the full project life-cycle. asp's were developed in vbscript, using visual interdev and client side scripting was handled with javascript. all data for the catalogue was stored in an sql server 7.0 database, and accessed via odbc. an extensive suite of online administration and mis tools were also developed to allow the client to fill and manage their online store themselves from a web browser.
 

Lovell, white, durrant
 www.lovellwhitedurrant.com
27 months
build of a large scale client server system for on of the uks largest and most prolific law firms
sql server 6.5, windows nt4/95/3.1, vb4/5, access 95, source safe


lwd, one of the largest international law firms, asked us to design and build a 'discovery' system over a wide area network, from design through to implementation and training, for a very high-profile international tobacco case. this involved the processing, management and communication of over 20 million records of highly sensitive document related data from input through to publication over a secure intranet.

we designed the system to run over a number of distributed windows nt 4.0 servers with sql-server 6.5 as the backend, using proprietary replication routines, with a front end developed in visual basic versions 4.0 and 5.0. the system was designed and developed over a 18 month period. the final months of the project involved co-ordination of training, and documentation of the system prior to formal hand-over to lwd's internal support team.