Brief on the client:

Client: Access Programs
Industry: Health Care and Social Assistance
Subject: Case Management System
On the Web: www.accessprograms.com.au

The client ACCESS programs is a professional, independent, not-for-profit, specialist, quality accredited Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider to assist employees and organizations engaged in all fields of endeavor, including Government, Industry, Business, Education, Health and Welfare. It partners with organizations to enhance individual well-being, positive organizational behavior and workplace productivity by providing counseling and related organizational support services. ACCESS Programs has offices throughout Australia and an extensive domestic and international network of counselors and consultants.

The client had a requirement for a new case management software to be built which would replace the existing system as well as integrate with an accounting software already in use by the client.

Challenges:

There were plenty of challenges upfront in order to build a system that would meet the client’s expectations:

1. Once the analysis and study was completed, there were a lot of basic issues that surfaced like data issues; the data integrity was not in place.
2. The existing data was unreliable. In a case, a repeat instance of the same report produced different results.
3. The client had to do a lot of repetitive work during the month-end in terms of manual financial processing (because of the data unreliability). All this was very cumbersome.
4. The system capabilities were quite limited, because the system’s expansion was not visualised at the time of creating it. So, a lot of issues arose which were not expected at the time the system was being created.
5. The system did not allow for proper maintenance of records or any reporting capability, as there had not been any analysis from the client’s perspective. All these activities had to be carried out manually by the client. In a month they would spend 8-10 days a week on these manual operational nuances.
6. A big ask was integration with the client’s existing accounting package. A system where we could generate information which could be directly imported into their accounting package for the relevant information.
7. As far as the usability is concerned, they wanted the GUI to appear as a normal window based application. There was an interesting challenge at hand, where the client expected this web based application to retain data even while moving between pages and yet not save the data to the database, before the user actually saves it. This would help the user enter the interdependent data all at once and the validation would happen at the end of it, while saving the data. At the same time, the pages of the application shouldn’t get bulky, while retaining the needed data and that the system should also provide dynamic features and information available on the fly (like an autocomplete field).
8. There was a need for high performance for the system along with really easy to use forms as this would need to be used by the customer care reps while taking calls from their customers.
9. A lot of security was vital for the system as it contained very confidential data. Hence the, permissions had to be in proper place. The system had to have multiple levels of users – administrators, top level managers, consultants, and end clients.
10. The unique and exhaustive business rules, complex technical logics and very high expectations from the system made it quite an interesting project for us. One of the major aspects was that although the client was one entity but their state units were considered to be an entire business unit and their profit and loss were considered as a separate organizational aspect.
11. There was a lot of time spent in finalising the client’s specification. Once their specifications were ready over a period of 1 year, they wanted everything to be developed in just about 5-6 months.

Astra Galaxy I.T. solutions approach:

Astra Galaxy took up the endeavour to deliver end-to-end services for the project, also a lot of services on behalf of the client.

The services offered to the client included Consulting services as well as application production, with activities beginning from project feasibility to maintenance and support.

The project initially started off with some minor enhancements. The initial scope of work was to add a few reports here and there. Subsequently some of our consultants went to meet the clients and got to realise their problems. The clients then gave Astra Galaxy an entire requirement to build a new system altogether.

The old system was scrapped and a new system was developed subsequently. We used our code generator to accelerate the coding process and saving a lot of coding time. The code generator and common libraries – evolved over a period of 10 years with a lot of varied projects and systems using it, also the projects being developed had a lot of variety in scale. This helped the code generator and the common libraries evolve and mature.

The software development lifecycle was tweaked to use the Agile approach. Every 2 months , there was a release to the client. During this approach, a lot of parallel development was happening. We did not have time for quality improvements separately, so it was being done along with every feedback from the client. All the feedbacks would be incorporated in the next release.

At times we also went out of our way to make sure the system was stable from the maintenance point of view. This was also appreciated a lot by the client.

Technology details:

1.Programming Language

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 with ASP.Net VB & C#
• VBScript
• JavaScript
• Ajax
• SQL Script
• Code Generator Library based on .Net & Access/SQL database library
• Integration with Accounting Package MYOB v12

2.Report Development

• ActiveReports for .Net

3.Database

• icrosoft SQL Server 2005
• MySQL

4.Project Management

• Microsoft Project 2007 as project Planning software
• Microsoft Visio for Data Model & Dictionary
• Zentrack as bug tracking software
• Customised Microsoft ExcelSheet as Estimate Tool

5.Team Size and Duration Technical Specification: 2 Analysts for a period of 1 year. Project Development: 6 Months

• 6 Developers
• 2 Testers
• 2 Project Manager (1 client interaction + 1 Development Team Manager)

Although there was a lot of effort and smart work that went into the solutioning, the solution not only met but also exceeded the client’s expectations as it countered all the challenges effectively and successfully. To know more about how we used our Application Development and Delivery (note: refer to the last section for this approach) to develop the application, please contact us at info@astragalaxy.com.

The final result and client experience:

Although the specifications took an entire year to be finalized, the project was actually delivered in 5-6 months of time. Subsequently the client took about 3 months to test the system, as it was so exhaustive.

• The system handled the data accurately and the data was perfectly in sync. The data integrity got to be in place and the system’s scalability was taken care of while building the system.
• All the manual nuances faced by the client that took up a major chunk of their time were automated, including the client reports. The areas where the client had the most trouble got trouble-free.
• There was seamless integration with the existing accounting system Myob after a detailed analysis and study was conducted. Also after the final integration, the system ran very smoothly.
• The usability and the unique GUI requirements were met, without getting the pages to be bulky and allowing the user to save all the interdependent data once all of it has been added in various pages. The dynamism asked for by the client was maintained and a lot of information was available on the fly.
• Information management was done in such a way that the flow of information was efficient, quick and the system integrity was in place. Reporting capabilities were incorporated after discussions with the top management and a detailed analysis by us.
• Sufficient privacy and confidentiality of data preserved in the through the use of access privileges and secure pages.
• The old system data was imported into the new system to keep their data history. There were initially problems with a lot of changes to the data integrity, addition of new capabilities, removal of limitations and other similar aspects. All this was very effectively taken care of and things were smoothened to provide a highly impressive system to the client.
• At the fag-end of development we started guiding the client on what they needed to do. Although initially we learnt from the client regarding the system and processes, subsequently we got to know about their system, more than even the client. We used to even get back to them suggesting new approaches.

The client after getting the new system designed was extremely satisfied with the quality and in time delivery. The system is till date highly successful and robust. The client continues to have excellent relations with Astra Galaxy since it started working with us.