Aviana Global Technologies :: A Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Company

Case Study

Capital Project Management System for an Internationally Reputed Solar Panel Manufacturing Company.

Client	Solar Panel Manufacturing Company
Project	Capital Project Management System
Executive Summary: Aviana has designed, developed, deployed and continues to support custom applications at a Major Solar Panel Manufacturer. The Capital Project Management (CPM) application is one such important solution that is currently under development for this client. Aviana developed the core application platform used for this project for this client, and it introduced the concept of inter-database integration into this archaic mainframe-based customer service application environment.

What Was The Problem ?

The client did have a Capital Project Management system already in place, which will be replaced by our new application. Some of the shortcomings of the current system are:

	Extremely difficult to use and master, as it is a stand-alone system with a lot of manual steps needed for effective management, as it lacks any integration or synchronization with the core ERP system,
	Required extensive and frequent training investment for customer service reps, since (a) it required specialized skills in working with the system, and (b) staff turnover was quite high,
	Performs poorly due to increasing transaction volumes over the past few years from gas companies (utilities) spread across the nation, and
	Based on desktop technology (MS Project tied up with Spreadsheets) and lacked the robustness and scalability desired.

Why Aviana ?

Aviana was tasked to design and implement this innovative system based on its well-recognized expertise in using Oracle Applications for providing custom solutions to Fortune 1000 and other large organizations, as well as its functional knowledge of the Renewable Energy Sector. In addition, Aviana had prior experience with the design and implementation of other financial transaction processing applications for many clients, over many previous projects, spread over several years.

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Aviana's Solution

Aviana is assisting a major Solar Panel Manufacturing company to develop a Capital Project Management (CPM) System that will assess and guarantee the financial performance (Average Rate of Return, Pay Back Period, Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return etc), technical performance (Output in Kwh, Shaping the peak Demand, Storing Energy for future Considerations etc), and timely completion of contracts for its end users. The new CPM system will help the company's customers to calculate the CFAT (Cash Flow After Tax), Depreciation based on MACRS rule, Investment Tax Credits, Rebates, Demand and Energy Charges and other such information using the PV Designer (A Borland Delphi Product using Interbase databsae), customer's tax status company's contractual terms and different state laws.

The new application is being developed using Microsoft Visual Basic, Borland Delphi, and Oracle Applications Suite (primarily INV, BOM, Costing, Purchasing, Payrolls, OE, Payables and Receivables). The portability of Microsoft Visual Basic offers a great front end promotional tool for the Sales and Marketing Division of this company. The new CPM system will be available by March'2003 and be a lot more powerful and efficient than the old system.

The application will be easier to maintain and to extend by adding new functionality. It will always be in sync with key parameters from the ERP system. In the future, the company wants to go to a web-based application for the system, and the new 3-tier architecture takes this into account. All that will be needed for a web-based deployment would be a re-programming of the front end GUI of the application. They also want the rebate program to be maintained by the Government authorities via Internet. They would not be needed to do any changes to the middle tier and the back-end of the system.

Additionally, the new system has the following advantages as it is based on XML:

	XML makes all layers of the system loosely coupled. As each layer is loosely coupled, each layer can be modified without changing any other layer in future. As Capital Project Management System wants to move into web Application in future, XML make it very easy to move to web based system.
	In future any new systems can interact with Capital Project Management System very easily as XML is universal type of communication today.

Architectural Overview of the Capital Project Management System

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