Web Services – ISDK – Omnichannel and eCommerce retail solutions, CRM-marketing

Jan

High-traffic eCommerce webstore Harman.club

Customer

GLOBAL AUDIO AND INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM PRODUCER

Harman is one of the biggest players in the audio and infotainment systems industry. Its mass market and professional audio equipment is well known for crystal clear and realistic sound, which became a standard for the whole audio industry. The company includes several brands such as JBL, AKG, Harman Kardon and other.

With the goal of revenues and customer loyalty increase, Harman’s Russian regional office decided to improve their online store. Redesign and enhancements implementation along with scaling up Internet and CRM marketing tools were required.

See the website: harman.club >>

Work on the website consisted of the following main areas.
Introduction of new marketing tools to increase sales, conversion, and general customer brand loyalty:

Integration with Google Merchant Center
Launch of Criteo retargeting campaigns
Integration with a leading CPA network
Site visitors interaction tracking and transferring data to CRM
Widening of the website operations and discount offers
Integration with leading Russian shipping provider PickPoint

SEO optimization:

UI/UX website modifications, adding tags and meta information
Mobile site version optimization
Site loading time improvement (desktop, and mobile view, Google Insights)

See the website: harman.club >>

open harman.club See customer feedback

Apr

E-Commerce Omni-Channel

eCommerce, Integration, Mobile, UI-designadmin

Customer

GLOBAL PRODUCER OF WELL-BALANCED NUTRITION, WEIGHT CONTROL AND BEAUTY GOODS

Herbalife, a worldwide-known producer of nutrition, weight control, and beauty goods, together with Filuet Group, its logistic partner, expands into Eastern and Western Europe.

Entering CIS and Baltic countries’ markets, the customer wanted to introduce a new strategy for market expansion, which proposed an intense use of modern e-Commerce tools. They wanted to create a system of sales channels that would include a single web-store for all new business regions, mobile applications for popular platforms (iOS и Android), and a network of automated self-service kiosks (touch screen terminals). All solution components were supposed to use a single data source as well as centralized content administration tools, and configuration settings pool.

The planned online operations needed to be fully integrated with the existing offline business process of orders processing and delivery.

See customer feedback

The Omnichannel solution required a combination of several external and internal corporate tools, integration with Herbalife ERP system and Filuet Group logistic applications. nopCommerce, a leading Microsoft .NET based solution, was chosen as an e-commerce platform as its plugin-extendable architecture using Dependency Injection pattern provides almost unlimited system integration capabilities.

The following tasks were completed within the project:

design and development of an online-store;
design and development of mobile applications delivering full cart and order sync with the online-store;
integration of the e-commerce channel with the existing offline architecture of order processing, pricing, warehouse stock tracking etc.;
Filuet Group shipping widget embedding;
integration with payment systems, addition of new payment methods using online banking;
integration of e-commerce with vending channels (kiosks, automated sales stores);
implementation of chat bots for customer support.

The system is fully hosted on Microsoft Azure using one of the standard cloud service plans which ensures good stress resistance. This helps the system to show adequate performance: in peak times the site auditory might go up to a few thousands.

Herbalife users got a completely integrated shopping environment. This allowed to increase the number of customers and the average sum of their orders significantly. Customers now can access their carts from all devices, order history is centralized and shows all orders, including offline. For example, an order can be put together in the mobile application while final checkout can be done later via web-store personal account or vice-versa.

The company saw increased customer loyalty, boost in sales revenue and endless opportunities of using marketing technologies – retargeting, upselling, cross-selling, CRM marketing etc.

Jun

SharePoint-Integration, Reporting and BI

Integration, SharePointadmin

Customer

AUTOMOBILE COMPANY GROUP, COMPRISES 5 OFFICIAL DEALERS OF LEADING CAR BRANDS

Company top management had a need for reporting and BI system for each of its divisions (new car sales, used car sales, service) with the ability to get detailed info per each brand (car manufacturer). Such system would allow transparency and quality of management decisions.

First phase was about building unified data model and automating creation of 7 financial reports. Total scope of work including various views and details was about 20 different forms. Development of those reports required integration of data from internal accountant databases.

Second phase was about moving all reports to new system based on internal SharePoint portal (free Foundation edition) and training finance department specialists in building their own complex reports with different slicing and data depth.

Third phase was about configuration of sales and costs forecasting and analysis tools and building tools for plan and actual analysis for past periods.

Pilot project achieved the following goals:

Development of data model for the following areas: finance, sales, including data per division and per brand, HR (payroll)
Connecting of the following data sources: 1C Accounting, 1C HR, internal sales databases for each brand division
Development of unified procedures and business rules for data integration and aggregation
Automation of document creation – periodical and on user request reporting and BI generation
Implementation of costs forecasting module

Pilot module (its user layer) was developed as a component of SharePoint portal. However, technical implementation is platform-independent and this module can work as standalone Web application.

Project results are as follows:

Development of 4 key analytical reports and 15 supporting forms with different data slicing and depth. These reports were put into pilot production;
Before reports were generated once in a month at a certain date. Now company management has an analytical tool which is accessible on-line and allows building analytics for any data with any data slicing and depth (based on defined data model);
Development of forecasting analytical tools for sales and costs of service;
Time saving for report generation of about 80 man-hours of employees per month

Jun

SharePoint Tablet App

Custom development, Mobile, SharePoint, UI-designadmin

Customer

RUSSIAN TELECOMMUNICATION HOLDING COMPANY THAT OFFERS A WIDE RANGE OF SERVICES INCLUDING BROADBAND AND MOBILE INTERNET ACCESS, TELEPHONY AND DIGITAL TV

Client management was looking for a long time possibility of a high-level integration center for project and process tasks accompanied with the easy to use KPI dashboards. Besides that, top management wanted not only integration on its own but also easy to use aggregated information visualization tools and quick functions (task assignment, commenting, and attachments).

Ultimately, this solution was supposed to be implemented within the scope of corporate Internet portal upgrade and migration to SharePoint Server 2013 (due to the fact SharePoint became an integration center itself). Customer also planned automation for some of its internal business services and that was a good point as well to develop a desirable integration center and its services.

One of these services was a module for integration of investment planning, technical projects and billing systems. Main business users of this service are company top managers. Certain challenges included the need to integrate data from independent systems in single information space. Systems were not designed for such integration either technically or logically (from business models perspective).

Another key goal (above integration) – as highlighted in the very beginning – was to get lightweight mobile client for company top management. The idea was to gather and aggregate all key information for current projects and top-level tasks. Top managers wanted to have analysis tool accessible from tablets and wide format devices.

To achieve the set goals, project included the following tasks:

Integration and aggregation of data from disparate IT systems
Creation of a single task center based on Microsoft SharePoint corporate portal
Development of a visualization and monitoring tool for key programs and project and their KPIs
Development of a mobile client for tablets and wide-format devices allowing to show key aggregated data and KPI on dashboards and do quick task assignments

Technically solution was developed using Devexpress Devextreme HTML5 application development platform (https://js.devexpress.com/). This platform is a large collection of JS/HTML components for building interactive and lightweight Web applications responsive for both common laptops and modern tablets and mobile devices.

We used the following components:

DataGrid
Charting Widgets
UI Widgets (main UI building blocks)

Data exchange and work logic of HTML5 components is standard – call (usually asynchronously) for Web services located on a company’s SharePoint portal.

Developed solution allowed integration of 3 key corporate systems that were complete disparate before. System provided top and middle management with single tool for analysis and management of project and technical tasks. In total system monitors more than 200 projects and program tasks.

Mobile client for tablets includes dashboards for aggregated project information – target KPIs and dates, actual statuses and key issues with the ability to quickly create and assign tasks. Average mobile application response time with stable Internet connection is 1 second or less.

About 20 top and middle-level company managers including its president use this system.

Jun

Real Estate. Property Maps and Database

Custom developmentadmin

Customer

One of the leaders in the development, leasing and management of commercial, residential, retail, and hotel assets in premier urban locations

Customer processes hundreds of requests from its clients for commercial and residential property search every day. To speed up preparation of client materials (prospects and brochures) customer decided that he needs to reorganize internal business processes and to implement modern IT tools for automation of routine operations.

For example, employees needed a tool for quick property search using many different parameters. They also wanted to analyze property locations on a map with geo linking to neighbor key objects (commercial centers, hotels etc.) Result of client request processing should be an automatic creation of prospect for selected property.

ISDK, together with FinCode (US based company) developed and deployed interactive geo-database for property.

Main functions of this system:

Storage of information on property in largest US cities
Interactive search and review of property using Google.Maps
Embedded CRM system for clients, brokers and property owners
Online generation of profiles, reports and commercial proposals for property sale and rent

System is designed as a Web-solution. Some functions are also accessible from mobile phones.

System was deployed in 2013 in the first pilot region – New York City. System is used by more than 150 company employees, database includes more than 5000 clients and contacts and 30000 property objects were imported into the system prior to Go Live. Average response time for searches in database or via Goolge Maps – 1.5 seconds. Full prospect for selected object is generated within 2.5 seconds.

May

Stock market transaction knowledge database. Web and Mobile Version

Business applications, Mobileadmin

Customer

Financial and brokerage company offering investment services on US stock market

Customer employees need to have access to actual current and historical information on market condition and certain issuers, history of deals made and details of investment decisions made before.

At project start client had no unified approach to management of its knowledge and information database. Data were stored as single files, analytical reports, issuers’ profiles and deal records. Catalog was updated irregularly, it was not checked for data duplication, and it had significant size and was growing.

In such situation, searching for required information was hard. They also had no access to information from tablets and mobile devices, which is critical for making timely decisions on US stock market.

So main requirements for new service were:

Recording deal history and all related operations or external events for certain issuer (stock symbol)
Implementation as lightweight Web site (with minimum page load time) with the ability to view database from tablets and mobile devices
Quick and user friendly search for issuers and events

Project included the following works:

Creation of single storage for diverse information: files, reports, notes, comments
Implementation of search engine tuned for specifics of employees’ work and large database size: context search results can be filtered by dates, issuers etc. to get exact results
Development and optimization of screen forms for minimum ‘weight’ of UI and maximum load speed
UI adaptation for tablets and mobile devices

System was successfully deployed and is actively used by company employees. Each day system processes on average 1000 search requests and more than 300 data updates (files, comments, notes). Average request processing time is 1000 msec..

Apr

SharePoint Enterprise Portal. HRM. Trainings

Custom development, Integration, SharePointadmin

Customer

Kazakh engineering company

As part of the Company’s corporate SharePoint portal evolution and introduction of HRM-functionality the decision was made to develop specialized training management system.

Company has extensive training program that includes various activities. Decision to move training management into corporate portal was a natural way of growth for services that Company provides to its employees.

Service development goal was to gather information on all Company training activities in one place and to automate management of these activities.

System allows management of training schedules, registration for coming training activities and (for trainers, defined as separate role in the system) assessing results of trainings completed by employees.

Service specifics included the following requirements:

Management of training activities schedule.
Registration for coming activities.
Employee manager approvals for training participation.
Training results assessment (trainer gives marks for trainees).
Personal employee training data card with information on completed, active and future trainings.

Project development and implementation included the following:

System architecture, functional and graphical design works. Deliverables – functional UML diagrams and UI mockups;
Training form development (InfoPath Forms);
Training catalog import from external database;
Access rights configuration – only administrators and trainers can make changes;
Employee training data card development (asp.net, JavaScript and web services). Corresponding form uses ajax and doesn’t require reloading;
Training schedule development using standard SharePoint functionality;
Training approval process development using SharePoint Workflow;
Training results assessment feature development. Trainer assesses trainees by giving them marks after training completion. These marks are stored in personal employee training data card;
Development of user and administrator documentation;
Customer key users training;
Full system testing, go live and putting system into full production mode.

System was deployed into corporate portal in autumn 2013.

It allowed convenient and consistent training management for more than 700 employees. System provides line managers and HR team with convenient tool for training management and monitoring. Now system includes more than 100 various training courses. Employees successfully completed more than 2500 man-courses, and training time exceeded 30000 man-hours.

Apr

SharePoint Enterprise Portal. HRM. Reports

Custom development, Integration, SharePointadmin

customer

Kazakh engineering company

As part of the Company’s corporate SharePoint portal evolution and introduction of HRM-functionality the decision was made to develop reporting system with the ability to download detailed employee data.

Service development goal was to provide users with the ability to generate reports using various filters and data views.

Module specifics:

A large number of reports;
Inability to implement required data aggregation using standard SharePoint tools;
Calculated fields in reports depending on certain rules and conditions.

The following reports were implemented within project scope:

Labor book log
Employees on probation
Sick leaves
Employee’ documents
Salary changes
Work trips
Health insurance
Job locations
Vacations
Trainings passed
Employment contracts
Employee’ marital status
General monthly report
Schedule of positions and salaries
Leave balance

Development specifics:

Module is based on SQL Server Reporting Services Platform;
A special web service performing server-based searches was developed to fill reports with data. Upon report opening Reporting Services platform calls certain web service methods passing report parameters to them. Methods collect and aggregate the data and return it using xml;
Client part of the system uses this data to create reports for end users.

More than 20 reports of varying complexity were created. Now it is possible to aggregate information and obtain reports on more than 700 Company employees.

Apr

Bank SharePoint Portal. Employee Surveys

Analysis and design, Custom development, SharePointadmin

Customer

Russian bank, in the TOP-10, with large branch network over the country

Bank has more than 20 thousand employees. As a part of corporate portal development, there was a need to implement survey service for employees who use this portal.

Service development goal was to obtain flexible and customizable tool for survey creation and execution as well as survey results reporting.

Standard SharePoint platform functionality was not enough for that task because of the lack of needed customization capabilities.

Specifics of this project included the following requirements:

IE8+ browser support;

Capability to customize look and feel of each separate survey: page and column splitting, question sequence setup;
Ability to create answer validation rules;
Creation of several question types not existing in SharePoint;
Ability to add pictures into survey;
Percent of completion indication;
Report creation

Project development and implementation included the following:

System architecture, functional and graphical design works. Deliverables – functional UML diagrams and UI mockups;
System is based on standard SharePoint survey functionality but survey content was enhanced to load survey visual settings during survey loading;
Standard survey template is transformed using JavaScript and web services;
Visual representation of each survey can be set up using newly developed administration page. Then this representation is saved into a file;
It is possible to customize visuals for each separate question like showing answer options in a row or in a column and setting indentation;
Answer validation rules are applied using JavaScript;
DevExpress was used to develop reports on user survey passing with per-department analytics. This required integration with other portal module which stores organizational structure information;
Development of user and administrator documentation;
Customer key users training;
Full system testing, go live and putting system into full production mode.

System was deployed into corporate portal in autumn 2015.

This development significantly extends existing SharePoint survey functionality and makes it lot easier to create new surveys and analyze their results.

Apr

Bank SharePoint Portal. Branches and ATMs directory and map

SharePoint, UI-designadmin

Customer

Russian bank, in the TOP-10, with large branch network over the country

Bank has more than 1000 branches across Russian Federation. Branches are different in functions they perform: servicing companies or individuals, working with deposits, types of ATMs etc.

One of the goals of corporate SharePoint portal development was to give bank employees access to this information.

Service development goals – to consolidate all information on bank branches and ATMs, to provide users with convenient access to this information, to implement flexible search with the ability to show results on the map, to manage information amendment rights.

Specifics of this project included the following requirements:

IE8+ browser support;
Each bank branch can be either point of service or point of sales;
Branch information change approval process shall start only when certain fields are changed;
Only employees responsible for the region of the amended branch can approve changes;
Some information about branches is stored in external system and uses BCS for its retrieval;
System should include interactive map of Russian Federation with split to federal districts for searches within federal district and region;
Search results shall be shown on this interactive map;
System shall support full-text branch search by region, city, address, name and properties;
Each branch shall have its data card with information and photos.

Project development and implementation included the following:

System architecture, functional and graphical design works. Deliverables – functional UML diagrams and UI mockups;
Branch data import;
Interactive map of federal districts development using svg-format. When user clicks on federal district, system selects regions belonging to that district. When user selects a region, system shows the list of bank branches. This solution was also adopted for work in old IE8;
System supports full-text search for all branches in Russian Federation using SharePoint search function;
User can further filter search results by parameters, also quick search by text is available;
Search results include shortcuts to services provided by corresponding branch;
Search results are shown on Yandex map;
When user clicks on branch the system opens its data card with information and photos;
Administrators get associated with regions via lists with simultaneous user addition into corresponding SharePoint groups for rights assignment;
System has fully interactive interface and all user interactions are done without page reloads, using JavaScript libraries: SharePoint CSOM, jQuery, knockoutjs and web services;
Development of user and administrator documentation;
Customer key users training;
Full system testing, go live and putting system into full production mode.

System was deployed into corporate portal in autumn 2015. Information on about 1500 branches and 3000 ATMs was imported.

System response time for any search options is within 2 seconds because there are very few requests to data source – most of the time information goes from SharePoint index.

System has easy-to-use interface and can be quickly deployed.