Case Studies

Customer

Billing Department of a Major Telecommunications Company

Critical Issue

Customer was having difficulties allowing customers to view their bills online. Currently, the customer service department answers phone calls from customers with questions about their bill. The information is stored in their billing system which is viewable internally but is not externally viewable. The company is not offering online services which their customers are demanding and their competition is providing. It is expensive for Customer as they have to maintain large numbers of customer service personnel to answer questions.

Reasons

The billing system is a legacy AS400 system running DB2 and it is only accessible via the internal network. The data is only made available through customer statements, print reports and internal computers.

Vision

Customer needed to make the billing data available to their customers by replicating back office billing data to a data repository that could be securely accessed online. The customer wanted to use Java technologies and Oracle databases to provide a secure web interface for customer billing inquiries, historical records and online payments.

AETEA Provided

AETEA provided the client with an experienced project manager and java architect experienced in developing online billing applications for the telecommunications industry to lead and manage the project.

Result

Customer reduced customer service inquiries by 30% and now receives 45% of payments through their web site. Former mainframe only developers were brought up to speed on Java Technologies and the client was able to use the project to train key resources in newer technologies without the need for an extensive training program.

Customer

Marketing Department of Leading Mortgage Lender
 
Critical Issue: Customer was in search of marketing professionals with Siebel Sales and Marketing experience to handle the execution of email marketing campaigns for their business units. Customer was looking to employ “best practices” of email marketing so they looked outside the organization for this expertise to provide more robust messaging and testing within this area.

Reasons

The client had adopted the “this is the way we have always done it” mentality and Business units were seeking a dynamic way of sending email marketing campaigns to their customers and needed Siebel SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) on board to deliver.

Vision

Customer was in search of an organization with resources skilled in Siebel Marketing 7.5 who could start immediately to meet tight deadlines. Responsibilities included: developing a strategy around technology marketing initiatives, managing email marketing campaigns and their execution, segmentation and audience development and metrics tracking.

AETEA Provided

A seasoned Marketing Professional with 7 years experience in Marketing Communications and prior knowledge of the Siebel modules. This person worked well in a cross-functional environment and had project management skills, excellent organizational, communication, writing skills and the ability to interface with all levels of management.

Result

Customer’s issue was met by a qualified consultant utilizing a proactive approach to developing email marketing strategies and finding more effective ways to develop integrated campaigns. Customer saw higher than average responses to their email campaigns and met their deadlines for the project.

Customer

IT Department of a Major Life Insurance Company.

Critical Issue

The decision had been made to add, implement and deploy FileNet software within the corporation. The IT group had no expertise with FileNet and needed someone of expert level that would fit into their budget for services to guide them in the implementation and use of this new tool.

Reasons

Customer had a limited budget and schedule with which to implement FileNet to improve business process workflow within the organization.

Vision

Customer needed an organization that had skilled FileNet resources that could be available immediately to assist them in their project.

AETEA Provided

AETEA provided an expert level FileNet consultant who quickly demonstrated the ability to meet planned implementation dates. AETEA’s consultant provided leadership and direction for the implementation and user training. AETEA provided working examples within the Application, Process and Content Engines, as well as with Business Process Workflow (BPW).

Result

AETEA provided FileNet based expert level interfacing between the IT staff and the business staff to facilitate a smooth deployment on time and within the projected budget. The services included technical design documentation and modifications as well.

Customer

International Electrical Solutions Provider

Critical Issue

Not enough IT staff resources to handle the heavy customer demand for customization of existing electrical software applications.

Reasons

Customer demand fluctuation which is difficult to manage with only staff software engineers.

Vision

Customer needed an organization that had the ability to provide the expert to guru level of skilled PL/SQL developer resources who could be available immediately to assist them in their growing number of customer requirements.

AETEA Provided

AETEA provided several expert level PL/SQL developer/consultants who quickly demonstrated the ability to understand very complex software application systems and contribute to the customization for their customers requirements.

Result

AETEA provided PL/SQL based expert level code customization and enhancements while effectively interfacing between the company’s team of IT staff. Due to the level of quality and customer service provided by AETEA to its customer, AETEA was nominated for prime vendor status and was invited to join the customer’s national executives at a recognition and awards event.

Customer

Knowledge Management Group for a Major Professional Services Firm

Critical Issue

The current implementation of SharePoint was being managed by many different content managers and administrators without the benefit of governance and oversight. The result had been a portal without consistency, different formats, multiple versions of content and an inability for the users to locate the information that they were seeking. They also wished to devise a portal that would dynamically display content based on preset parameters. Business analysis expertise was required to articulate their innovative vision for an enhanced revamp of their portal to a centralized, controlled model.

Reasons

Although the customer had knowledgeable in-house employees that could have articulated their needs for this solution, they did not have enough staff to devote the significant amount of time required to prepare full business and functional requirements required for the development team. In addition, it was important to work with a business analyst that would be affiliated with the IT team who could interface effectively with all the teams involved.

Vision

A senior business analyst with over 25 years of IT experience and a strong background in SharePoint implementations was assigned to this project. Requirement gathering sessions were conducted which uncovered an enormous amount of business requirements. Guidance was provided to assist the customer with a clarification of the priorities for the first release of this project based on the tight time constraints. Full Business Requirement and Functional Requirement documents were created and sessions were held with the development and QA teams to ensure that requirements and expectations were clearly understood. Use case process flows and examples were also documented for both the development and QA teams. In addition, this resource reported to the IT team which provided a seamless relationship with their group while keeping the needs of the business customer at the forefront.

AETEA Provided

A senior business analyst with over 25 years of IT experience and a strong background in SharePoint implementations was assigned to this project. Requirement gathering sessions were conducted which uncovered an enormous amount of business requirements. Guidance was provided to assist the customer with a clarification of the priorities for the first release of this project based on the tight time constraints. Full Business Requirement and Functional Requirement documents were created and sessions were held with the development and QA teams to ensure that requirements and expectations were clearly understood. Use case process flows and examples were also documented for both the development and QA teams. In addition, this resource reported to the IT team which provided a seamless relationship with their group while keeping the needs of the business customer at the forefront.

Result

AETEA provided an experienced business analyst that was able to quickly dive in, understand, capture and clarify the customer’s requirements and intent for this project. Close interaction with the business leaders, the design, development and QA teams ensured that they had a clear blueprint to work with to provide the expected solution on time and within budget.

Customer

Credit Card Division of a Major Global Financial Services Provider

Critical Issue

The customer was looking to expand their current online card member account management capabilities with a mobile application for the iPhone. The application needed to be consistent in features and design with their customer web site. Mobile application development experts were needed to ensure a successful deployment of the mobile application.

Reasons

Although the customer had knowledgeable in-house employees that could have articulated their needs for this solution, they did not have enough staff to devote the significant amount of time required to prepare full business and functional requirements required for the development team. In addition, it was important to work with a business analyst that would be affiliated with the IT team who could interface effectively with all the teams involved.

Vision

The customer needed iPhone application development expertise and banking knowledge that would be able to quickly comprehend and create their intricate concept.

AETEA Provided

A team of mobile application developers with credit card and banking experience to design and develop the iPhone application.

Result

The mobile application was delivered on time and on budget which has reduced customer service calls, increased the uptake of online payments and improved loyalty, branding and customer experience.

Customer

Leading Conservation Organization

Critical Issue

The organization needed to provide overall management of key data and provide useful metrics of conservation projects worldwide. The organization had disconnected systems and most project information was locally stored and would not allow for broad reporting. In addition, a new standard for managing conservation projects was to be rolled out across the organization and required a system to ensure compliance to the new standards.

Vision

The organization needed a highly scalable and web-based solution that would allow for project managers and conservation professionals to input their information into a centralized conservation project management and reporting system. In addition, the system would be built on the new standards for conservation project management to allow for detailed reporting and project metrics.

AETEA Provided

An experienced project team that completed the full Systems Development Lifecycle. AETEA met with all key stakeholders in the US as well as key stakeholders internationally to finalize the system requirements and best approach to meet the business needs. AETEA developed a custom web-based solution that follows the standards and allows for non-technical users to enter key project data, generate reports and reduce the overhead and expenses associated with collecting, reporting and analyzing project data.

Result

AETEA completed this project on time and on budget and the system is leveraged in the US and other regions internationally to manage conservation projects. AETEA also added advanced reporting and dashboarding functions to the project as part of a later project phase.

Customer

Leading Clothing Distributor and Reseller

Critical Issue

Customer has a unique process for managing their warehouse including manually intensive and reverse logistics processes. Customer had a failed engagement with a previous vendor and needed a partner that could leverage the existing investment and extend the system to quickly achieve tangible results.

Reasons

The Customer processes are highly proven, yet require significant manual tracking of information and do not allow for transactional processing of inventory and shipments. Original solution design was more of a batch processing model and did not support the rapid pace of their business.

Vision

Utilizing a phased approach to target specific business issues, introduce transactional components into their system and business process to improve their ability to provide additional services and faster turnaround for their customers.

AETEA Provided

Phased delivery of system functions focused on increasing volumes and reducing costs. The first phase of the project was to implement a mobile scanning solution for their inventory management, as well as provide enhanced reporting on inventory. The second phase of the project was the development of additional modules including Shipping, Logistics, Purchase Orders and Order Management. These modules were developed as both web-based solutions as well as a Smart Client Kiosk for use on the warehouse floor.

Results

This solution has reduced their inventory staff by ½ and has provided twice the amount of productivity. Volumes of clothing units processed per day have increased over 100% allowing the customer to take on additional business from their customers.

Customer

Leading Pharmacy Service Provider

Critical Issue

Customer is having difficulty with repeatable SDLC processes and needed improved collaboration between internal team members for each development effort.

Reasons

Customer has variable data integration needs from their customers, which leads to multiple integration and development activities for each new customer they provide services to. Customer is doing too many “one-off” processes for meeting these data needs.

Vision

Provide Customer with an improved SDLC process and toolsets using Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS) 2007. Provide improved collaboration and governance by creating reusable SDLC templates and team site portals.

AETEA Provided

A fully integrated and repeatable SDLC process utilizing MOSS and TFS as well as process consulting on Agile SDLC processes. AETEA also provided training for project managers and technical staff on how to utilize and effectively leverage TFS.

Results

This solution has provided Customer with improved SDLC processes and has reduced the time and risk associated with integrating new customers within their service framework. Customer also markets these capabilities to customers as part of their delivery strategy.

Customer

Prime Service Provider for $31M Government Contract

Critical Issue

Customer was challenged finding resources to meet their project requirements for the awarded contract.

Reasons

Customer had over 30 partners and was focused on quantity of resources instead of the quality of resources from their partners. AETEA reviewed the statistics of Customer’s sourcing process and found that 85% of candidates submitted were selected into the interview process and less than 5% of these resulted in a resource that was selected for the project. Significant time and dollars were being spent talking to unqualified resources.

Vision

AETEA proposed a more consultative and transparent process for adding resources to the Contract. AETEA more closely aligned our partnership with Customer program managers to ensure a complete understanding of Customer’s project and the level of responsibility of each role within the lifecycle. This allowed AETEA to provide more qualified candidates and reduced the time being spent by Customer with unqualified resources.

AETEA Provided

AETEA provided technical staff to meet with Customer to understand the requirements at a more granular level. AETEA provided competency and technical screening results to Customer in lieu of Customer having to perform these tasks. AETEA provided fewer resources to customer but greatly increased the quality of the resources submitted for the contract.

Result

Customer immediately saved time and money by removing the costly technical competency testing. In addition, AETEA resources are selected for the project 67% of the time as compared to the 5% average from other partners.

Customer

Leading Hospitality Provider

Critical Issue

Customer is having difficulty creating reports and providing timely responses to their customers based on data collected via surveys.

Reasons

Customer has a highly manual process for creating reports and relies on Microsoft Excel, Access and manual intervention to deliver their data products to management.

Vision

Provide Customer with a data mart using a dimensional data model that allows standard reports to be automatically generated and custom reports and data analysis to be easily created.

AETEA Provided

A business intelligence and reporting solution using Microsoft SQL Server 2008, SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server Reporting Services. AETEA also provided the consulting and analysis of current business processes in order to ensure that customer data was provided accurately and as needed to meet their demand.

Results

This solution has taken a highly manual process that could take as long as 2 months to create reports and provide customer’s data to a solution that provides immediate access to standard reports as data becomes available. In addition, new metrics and additional analysis capabilities have also been utilized now that the information is more accessible and automated.

Customer

Leading Pharma/BioTech Company

Critical Issue

Customer needs to track all aspects of their product line from R&D through production.

Reasons

The customer’s industry regulations require the capture and storage of a significant amount of data and require compliance with FDA guidelines.

Vision

Provide Customer with a highly functional and scalable solution for managing their portfolio of products. Include interfaces to regulatory and clinical data as well as advanced reporting and analysis components.

AETEA Provided

A comprehensive portfolio/product management application that provides analysis of early and late stage product lines, utilizes web services to integrate with the clinical trial applications and connects to actual regulatory information from IRiS. Custom reporting capabilities that allow administrators to establish standard reports – and provide end users customized reporting capabilities to transform raw data from the database into professional PDF documents that are delivered to senior management

Results

This solution has provided Customer with a validated system to manage their portfolio of products in an easy to maintain fashion. Customer is able to audit their product development processes and gain real-time insight into information.