World Bank
Researchers and policy makers need aggregation of data and documents
Researchers and policy makers working with the World Bank Group needed a way to easily capture business perceptions and data and combine this information with disparate data sources scattered across multiple organizations. We created a Web-based dashboard and data management tool for providing access to the large datasets and associated document libraries.
Success factors:
. Agile development methods and rapid turn around based on stakeholder feedback.
. Coordinating with both internal and external stakeholders .
. Business process modeling .
Core technologies include ASP.Net, C#, Microsoft SQL Server and web services
Helping Our Client Target The Cures of Tomorrow…
A major biotech organization needed a better way to see the trajectory of their current and potential products compared to the competition.
We created a complex, multi-dimensional model for competitive intelligence and analysis. The solution used Web-based visualizations to explore R&D, clinical, regulatory, intellectual property and market data factors for non-technical and technical stakeholders. These visualizations were used to create road maps showing critical areas to invest new research and clinical testing.
Success factors:
. Coordinating complex requirements with stakeholders in many different departments and groups.
. Working with demos and doing early prototyping of UX designs was a key to getting requirements finalized and getting buy-in from the disparate interests in the project.
. Data visualization and information design user stories were key to driving the whole project.
. Multidimensional (hypercube) data modelling gave us the ability to combine thousands of hierarchical factors into a unified data model.
. Engagement management and project planning (project "steering") was a primary issue. The long running project saw high turn-over of key stakeholders within the client organization. The project was retargeted several times for different groups as well.
Reporting System for Sales Pipeline Visualization & Revenue Management Tools
A high-tech manufacturing firm lacked management transparency into their sales pipeline and revenue cycle.
A high-tech solid state storage manufacturing firm had such a complex project and delivery channel that there was little management transparency into their sales pipeline and revenue sources. A multi-dimensional hypercube based reporting system for sales pipeline visualization and revenue management tools was created to allow transparency into the complex hierarchical reporting structure.
Success factors:
. Having full access to all stakeholders in a series of day long workshops, gathering the distributed teams together for knowledge transfer.
. Leveraging direct-to-the-Web reporting tools to get everyone up to speed on the complex data by quickly creating test reports.
. Building sample datasets for testing that had many "edge cases" likely to cause problems.
. Fast iterations between the data modelling team and the reporting team.
. Top down technical guidance from a single point of contact.
American Idol Underground Excites Users With Competitions
American Idol Underground is an online community focused around featuring the music of emerging musical artists and connecting them to fans interested in discovering new music.
As a new service, they sought a means to drive user and artist involvement in the site. What better way to get users excited than by giving away over a quarter of a million dollars in prizes?
Fluid Audio Networks (FAN) contacted VelocIT to design and implement a Tournament Engine for the Competitions section of the site as well as related Web Services for partner integration needs.
The Competitions engine allows FAN to design tournaments and attach dynamic criteria for which songs may enter a tournament as well as criteria for determining winners of a tournament. The tournament engine places Artist songs into competitions by genre and when the competition comes to a close, the engine automatically determines the winners or advances winners to the next round in a multi-round tournament. So far, over 14,000 unique participants have taken part in the competitions winning over $300,000 in prizes.
eProcurement Process Improves Bottomline
Healthcare Partners relied on several eProcurement systems. These were fragmented and had to be managed daily despite being somewhat automated. VelocIT was brought in to look at the current processes and technology. Specifically, HCP wanted to increase the use of Microsoft BizTalk because they already had invested in licenses and training for several other projects and they felt that unifying their IT systems would create fewer maintenance problems.
Working with internal IT, VelocIT determined that BizTalk 2003 was indeed a great fit. However it needed to be augmented with a light weight tool to replace some of the custom scripting used to move files around via FTP and HTTP. We reviewed several solutions and reccommended the Automate product by Network Automation. This tool served as a code-free alternative to the current processes and reduced the need for custom code in BizTalk. The end result was a simple to manage, easy to document and extend architecture that could be adapted to handle all current and envisioned trading partner processes.
Consumer Marketing System for Medical Device Company
We were contracted by Shepard Associates to implement a content managed site for Conceptus (CPTS) to market their Essure non-surgical permanent birth control product. Upon analysis of customer requirements, VelocIT recommended building the site on the open source DotNetNuke portal system.
The site includes an advanced Physician Locator which required custom MapPoint integration. We used Geolocation technology to automatically center the map and results on the end user’s Zip code. We built a custom integration system which keeps the search results up to date with the latest information in Conceptus’s physician management system. The Physician Locator display includes some cool customizations, like grouping results for medical centers and giving higher priority to physicians who have completed advanced training in the Essure procedure. Microsoft recognized this site as an example of how to integrate a web presence with internal business processes built on the Microsoft Dynamics platform.
The site includes a custom DotNetNuke skin which was optimized for use semantic HTML and CSS design. We’re really proud of this one - it presents a lot of information in a very appealing, easy to use format. We weren't the only ones who thought so -this site was awarded a Web Excellence Award.