Devise a MIS suite of applications to assist with the day to day analysis, transactional and reporting requirements for the newTransSend venture. The solution should where possible be supplier neutral and be capable of being rapidly extended.
Users need to be provided with a variety of ways of accessing the information in a format that is both accessible and meaningful to them and the task being undertaken.
To meet the clients requirements we first designed a "Common Cards Database" to centralise all transactional information. A custom Windows Service was developed as a framework around a "Black Box" application. The Windows Service is vendor neutral with all vendor specify data import functions wrapped within the "Black Box". This approach allows for further "Black Boxes" to be developed as and when required.
The Common Cards Database is able to be interrogated via the following methods:
- Cards Intranet Site - IIS based ASP.Net website, implements advanced AJAX functionality to provide the end users with the optimal user experience. This intranet site has been designed to allow for additional functionality to be added with relative ease.
- Several secured SQL Views of the data for the users to perform ah-hoc queries within Excel etc.
- Financials / Sun Accounts Integration. Custom Excel 2003 plug-in was developed to take the financials, transforming into a format suitable for importing directly into Sun Accounts.
Going forward a suite of Microsoft Reporting Services will also be provided to complete the custom MIS requirements of the new venture.
