Sample Projects
Successful project management is key to any project's success - not
only in the way it allows
for the "control" of the project (which benefits the project "owner"),
but also in the way it
contributes to the ease of completion of the project (which benefits
the entire team). Thus,
project management includes not only the task for ensuring the
timely and on-budget completion,
but also the monumental challenge of keeping the entire team
balanced and focused.
LoneSource
LoneSource is the 'Bankers Marketplace' that is challenging the
established players in the banking industry. LoneSource is an
outsourced purchasing and e-procurement solution
that sells banking and office supplies to leading banks around the
nation.
The Challenge
When LoneSource came to IVC in the summer of 2000, they needed
a fully featured e-procurement solution for their customers in
less than three months with a limited budget. The nature of their
problem precluded the use of a commercial 'out-of-the-box'
e-procurement solution because of competitive advantage, cost
and functionality considerations. The challenge
was to provide a system that could act as an e-procurement
solution, an outsourced purchasing solution, and a collaborative
community environment for bank employees. Not only did the system
need extensive features and functionality,
it also needed to be extremely robust, scaleable, extensible
and secure.
The Deliverables
After carefully reviewing all possible options, IVC chose to use
the OpenACS Community System (OACS), an open-source application
development platform and suite of enterprise applications that
enables companies to create e-business solutions
emphasizing extensive collaboration within and beyond organizations.
The ACS system had most of the
features needed by LoneSource and
it had a powerful framework for building new modules as needed.
IVC engineers installed the
ACS system in a matter of days and quickly began extending the
base solution to fulfill the customer's requirements.
The Results
Within only three months from the start, live transactions were
flowing through the LoneSource e-procurement solution.
This included numerous modifications to the original
specifications based on feedback from the user community.
IVC is currently extending
the original application and integrating into LoneSource's
back office systems.
Banco Comercial Português
Founded in 1985, Banco Comercial Português (BCP) is the leading
bank within the Portuguese financial system. It tends to act as a
benchmark for Portuguese companies in light of its superior dynamic, innovative, competitive, and financial resources capability. By 1997 yearend, the BCP/Atlantic Group had six banks in Portugal and a
distribution network of 742 branches. Through its globalization
strategy the Group focuses on the realization of investment projects in partnership with a local organization, with a particular bent
toward countries with historic or cultural ties to Portugal.
The Bank's main activities include individual and corporate
accounts, extending credit, custody of securities, treasury
services, foreign-exchange transactions and money market operations. Through the Bank's subsidiaries the BCPAtlântico Group is also
involved in related financial activities, including life assurance
and non-life insurance, asset management and investment funds,
pension funds, medium- and long-term credit, specialized credit
(leasing and factoring), mortgage loans, consumer credit,
organization of capital market operations, corporate finance,
company valuation, venture capital financing, brokerage and property management.
The Challenge
With the emergence of the "Euro Economy" and increased
competition from within and outside Portugal, the ability to
maintain margins was uncertain. This competition allowed customers
to be more demanding from their financial services company, not only with direct products, but also with customer support. This requires
access to customer information across the enterprise 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, BCP's current customer support systems
were not Y2K compliant. IVC, Inc. was brought in to provide the
technology infrastructure solution to this business problem.
The Deliverables
Several technologies were used to meet these challenges. Computer
Telephony Integration (CTI) based call routing and Internet customer support tools were implemented to improve customer service. Contact
databases were developed to provide quick access to customer data
and analysis to increase revenues from cross-selling to existing
customers. Integration to consolidate information for the end user
was performed using Java, CORBA, and IVC's proprietary
code-generator, Fedora. The ability to transfer voice and data
between users was accomplished, as well as the implementation of an
automated work force scheduling system. To insure the data was
protected, a disaster recovery process was developed to meet BCP's
needs.
The Results
The new cost effective technical infrastructure allows BCP to
meet their business needs. They are able to slow staffing growth
while providing best in class service for internal and external
customers. Customers are able to perform transaction without human
intervention through the IVR and the Internet. The infrastructure to handle increased customer request volume is in place.
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