The Introduction:

The client is a leading industrial and residential building solution manufacturing company, serving across North America and Canada. Supported by strong commitment to operational excellence, they have successfully provided exceptionally high-quality services to their customers for many years. The client experienced significant bottlenecks on with their multiple module system built on legacy applications. They decided to re-architect its current design system that was written in legacy codes such as FORTRAN, C++ code with a modern Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). They were looking for a partner who could help transition their legacy application to a new improved automated system. The client contacted Stridely Solutions to revamp its existing processes and was looking for an advanced solution that could improve the efficiency of its existing endeavours.

Key Challenges

The client already had a system in place that was turning out to be obsolete and inefficient in managing a vast amount of uncontrolled data. The main challenges encountered by the client were associated with:

• Legacy system is written with elaborate FORTRAN & C#, C++ code, and processing use of simple legacy database structure.
• Desktop-based application having complex engineering functionalities to design and run building structures.
• Re-writing the application was not feasible as the coding program was complex and outdated.
• Manual handwork by draftsman/engineer as the application was not possessing the feature needed to solve one of the key business offerings.
• Discrepancies in the results generated in the form of reports and sketches, which lead to inefficient and erroneous business work.
• Difficulty implementing new features and improving the usability of existing features available in the application because of multiple third-party dependencies.
• Lack of team collaboration options as the application doesn’t provide the ability to track and monitor change history.
• Less business agility as the software enhancement is done through local machine deployment.

The Solution

Team Stridely worked with the client’s team closely to understand its existing structures and applications. Based on the inputs of the client and keeping in mind the future needs of the company, Stridely provided a holistic view of scope of work, with guidance on priority and modernization techniques, starting with in-depth inspection to analyse and identify the pain points to provide solutions needed to enhance the application.

• A hybrid solution to effectively address the client’s needs comprising:
• A web-based application to perform customized business processes and workflows.
• An automated load intelligence, structural analysis, and design tool to eliminate discrepancies in the desired outcome and retire the legacy design engine.
• A central data repository to store data, track business users’ activity, achieve uniformity in data, and avoid the problem of data duplication.
• An automated communication tool to keep users and stakeholders updated with every stage of the project journey.
• Implemented major features to support business users’ ongoing requirements.
• Deployed a dedicated team of FORTRAN developers to tackle the challenges faced by the client to perform engineering and mathematical calculation in the application.
• A custom solution to overcome the problem of manual processes.

Benefits

• Implementation a hybrid solution helped the client:
• transform their business process,
• significantly reduce operational expenditure,
• improve business agility,
• element discrepancies and errors in output/result.
• Introduction of a central data repository enabled clients to analyze their business & customers and tackle critical business problems.
• Introduction of automated tools resulted in improved building structure stability and enhanced solution reliability.
• Implementation of an automated communication tool helped bring more transparency and brand loyalty.
• Customized solution reduced turnaround time and elevated user experience.