Client profile
In addition to being a leading electricity producer, our client is responsible for contracting fuel supply and transport of material including coal, which is used to generate electricity, to various power stations across regional areas.
The challenges
The client’s existing technical process used MS Access and MS Excel spreadsheets to administer deliveries and verification of accounts payable invoices for the purchase and transport of coal.
However, as business needs changed, the existing system proved inadequate. The challenge was to develop a new platform that engaged stakeholders, was functional and also met the contractual needs between our client’s various business entities.
The Ajilon approach
The Ajilon team focused on understanding the needs of the business and in discussions with management and stakeholders, identified the key issues.
Our recommendations were to develop a new system that:
- Enhanced functionality by incorporating existing processes, as well as adding new ones
- Built-in greater system flexibility to manage ongoing contractual relationships with suppliers
The Ajilon approach ensured stakeholders were involved throughout the development process to provide feedback, which could then be quickly incorporated into the new system.
How did Ajilon deliver flexible architecture?
We favoured a flexible architecture, which provided rapid feedback to the business between interactions and also enabled the application to be developed and implemented without server and database components.
This meant we facilitated the development, testing and deployment of new, flexible architecture, which ensured functionality without compromising the final solution.
Key expertise provided by Ajilon:
- Agile software design, build and implementation
- Project management
- Business analysis, change management and training
- Testing
- Application and post-go-live support
Delivering the business benefits - partnering with Ajilon was the right choice
Our client’s partnership with Ajilon ensured that key business needs were met. The various stakeholders and users of the system were engaged, the new system had built-in capacity for future expansion and evolving business needs, which in turn delivered greater ongoing flexibility.
The new system delivered efficiencies by incorporating processes currently executed ‘outside’ the system; it provided an automated interface to the financial system and provided a robust and supportable technical platform for the business.