Case Studies

Customer:
CERP
Solution:
Automated Ordering & Price Tagging System
Keywords:
Agile Development, Distributed Environment, PDF Generation, AS/400 Integration

Context

CERP is a bulk supplier to many pharmacies across Belgium. They needed a streamlined, highly automated, yet flexible ordering and price tagging system for their customers. The system poses some specific challenges:

  • The application interface must be lightweight and very streamlined, for operation in a large number of small pharmacies.
  • A highly diverse non-technical user base.
  • Availability and pricing data is managed centrally by CERP in an AS/400 mainframe system.
  • Off-line operation is needed for pharmacies in areas with no or low connectivty.

Solution

Telio’s solution consists of a custom-built J2EE web application, integrating only those components necessary for delivery of the necessary functionality. The development approach is based entirely on agile development methodologies: features are developed rapidly, incrementally and in close contact with the end-users. The result is a high performance application based on standards such as JSP, ODBC, HTML and XML. Principal features are:

  • Automatic consultation of inventory availability and prices at CERP.
  • Management of pharmacy-specific inventory, and automated ordering when stock is low, directly into CERP’s AS/400 back-end.
  • Automatic generation of price tags for pharmacies, based on CERP prices, but customizable per pharmacy.

Benefits

  • High performance, low bandwidth, ideal for distributed environment of CERP and customers
  • Extreme simplicity of UI, localized in fr and nl
  • Seamless integration with CERP AS/400 backend
  • Perfect match with customer expectations due to agile development approach
  • Low maintenance and development cost to CERP: no licensing costs for overkill software platforms or frameworks.