PROJECT DETAIL
Sontay as an organisation are renowned for providing the HVAC,(Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning) industry with high quality and reliable devices for measurement and control of environmental conditions within‘intelligent buildings
Equipment supplied by Sontay is used to monitor and control temperature, pressure,water flow and air quality so any potential issue with a sub standard item can be easily identified and sorted out before any major issues occur.
The existing system provided all the necessary manufacturing, supplier and sales functionality but fell short in terms of track and trace capabilities. A combined project was set up and in conjunction with Sontay personnel we specified and developed a solution for the tracking and control of all components, batches and orders.
The solution was based on wireless hand held mobile data capture devices to collect the data, and 2D bar coded labels on the physical orders and items to identify each individual one and where it was used. Orders and items are now fully traced and managed both individually by batch, and importantly by customer !
The bespoke application was written from scratch. Sql Server was selected as the database, visual studio to write the client and hand held software.
Sql Server Database
Wireless Network
Hand Held Terminals
Bespoke Client Software
The project timescale mitigated against development along traditional lines - detailed specifications being produced and agreed at each stage. As a basic requirement of the system was to be the validation of information at source, it was decided to reduce the learning curve by employing George James’ Integrator TM solution as the messaging hub for the system. This freed the team to concentrate on the user interface. The system was developed using SQL Server as the backend database with a Visual Basic interface for the office PCs and C for the hand held terminals. At the start of the project a roadmap of milestones was established - one milestone per user-delivered module. SPF established a user team to test the system as it was delivered and gradually the SPF team began to refine the requirements with experience and with the close working of the George James team. The teams met on a weekly basis to review and test progress. SPF recognized that the changes would lead to an implementation delay, the price to be paid for a system that actually met the business requirements. In the event, through sound George James project management, the system was implemented on schedule, and the success and robustness of the George James solution has led to extensions to the overall system. Recently a web interface was developed to allow their customer base to have access to their individual stock holding at the port. This has been a major sucess as the port no longer has to handle time consuming phone calls from customers asking about their stock levels.
"George James Ppovided us with an excellent system, which has grown with our business and is now vital to our everyday operation."
"The support we recieve from George James is fantastic. It is very rare we encounter issues but when we do we can rely on George James to solve them."