Client: Manitowoc Food Service Group

Project: Online Product Configurator

Technologies: ASP.NET, Win Forms, ADO.NET, SQL Server, GDI+, WSE 2.0, C#, VB.NET, HTML, Javascript

 

This project was especially sensitive.  We had worked with a subsidiary of Manitowoc Food Service Group (FSG) for years and had a good relationship with their Engineering Department but hadn't yet worked with Sales. 

 

We lost out on bid for a Sales Product Configurator to another software consulting company.  But we still had FSG's best interests at heart so we offered our considerable engineering expertise and experience with their product line and manufacturing processes to the winning consulting company.

 

We also offered a warning that FSG's product was considerably more complex than it appeared at first glance and that underestimating this complexity had been the downfall of several other efforts by other developers.  We had succeeded where others had failed because of our own rigorous engineering background combined with state of the art software development techniques.

 

Our offer of assistance and advice were both declined.

 

Three years later FSG asked us to come and study the system because the consultant couldn't get it working fast enough to be usable despite several budget and timeline extensions.  The consulting company was still on the job and didn't take kindly to our presence but something had to be done and they had run out of ideas.  We studied the system for a week, wrote up a report to FSG detailing the architectural bottlenecks and possible solutions.

 

The software consultant said there was no way they could implement these solutions without additional large budget increases.  Our client instructed them to deliver the product as promised with no further extensions of budget.

 

Apparently they stopped answering the phone because FSG called us to ask us if we could do anything with what they'd produced.  FSG had used years of their own people's hours inputting product configuration rules in to this consulting company's software paradigm and all that would be lost as well as all the time and money they had spent with them.

 

We said that not only could we help them, we could preserve all the rules and product models that had been created and get it running FAST.

 

They were getting justifiably skeptical, especially since the author of the software had given up and walked away.  So, since FSG was an established client, we offered to do the work without payment up front provided they agreed to pay our fee if we met the requisite site performance metrics within five months.  If we couldn't meet those metrics they owed us nothing and they could keep the work.  If we did meet the metrics they would pay our fee, we would own the product and they would have a lifetime license exclusive to their industry.

 

Obviously we met our targets or this wouldn't be a Case Study right?  Not only did we meet the metrics, we exceeded them.  And for 1/8th the cost and 1/6th the timeline we accomplished what our larger competitor couldn't.

 

 

This site has now been running for several years and our client says it's their solution for the "forseable future".  They had run out of time, money, interest and patience by the time they finally asked us for help (don't make that mistake!).  So we built in lots of extensibility hooks that we hope to implement as soon as the painful corporate memory of their first experience has faded.

 

We're still here waiting and helping when we can because that's what we do. 

 

Is there something we can do for you?

 

I hope to hear from you soon.