Discrete Manufacturing
- Home
- >
- Industry
- >
- Discrete Manufacturing
- >
- Case Studies Select
Case Studies
Client Product Customization and Revision
Overview
The company is a provider of global, integrated mail and document management solutions for organizations of all sizes and has subsidiaries operating in business segments like Global Mailstream Solutions, Global Enterprise Solutions and Capital Services. The company maintains field service organizations in the United States and some other countries to provide support services to customers who have rented, leased or purchased equipment.
One of the products offered by the client is an electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) system by which companies can bill customers and receive payments electronically over the Internet.
The client's customers were requesting increasing degrees of customization of the solution. The client therefore asked Infosys to handle the varying demand for customization of the solution including addition of new product features for a specific customer.
Challenges and Requirements
Handling activities on behalf of a client for its customer poses unique communication challenges, which can reduce efficiency.
- The customer had earlier used another service provider and had switched to Infosys' client because of the poor quality it had faced earlier. Infosys had to prove its process efficiency to both its client and their customers.
- The time allotted for the tasks, both by the client and its customer, was extremely limited. Infosys had to deliver a quality product with almost no defects and do it rapidly.
- The data exchange processes had to be extremely robust. To ensure this, they had to be programmed early so that defects could be removed before the final implementation.
- The algorithms for the project were quite challenging and involved data exchange between four applications used by the end-user.
- Lack of direct interaction with the end user company was a challenge, as they had to ensure deliverables were achieved to perfection.
Infosys Role
Infosys used the Global Delivery Model to manage communications with the client and the end-user and ensured quick improvements. The Infosys team of four individuals could complete the project in a short span of eight months.
As documentation was the key to successful completion of the project, the Infosys team designed the requirement templates even before it reached the client's offices. Complex flows in logic were represented using diagrams and flow charts and Unified Modeling Language (UML) was used for certain activities. Wire frames were used to document the look and feel.
The entire project was divided into various components, which were programmed and released to the client. This enabled the client to provide solutions to its customer in well-organized phases. Another advantage of this method was that, in case bugs were found, they could be easily tackled on a modular basis.
The algorithms for the project were quite challenging, and involved data exchange between four applications used by the customer. The Infosys team also had to design a Card Verification Value (CVV) application, which was used for credit card processing. Infosys also faced unique issues because its team did not have any direct interaction with the end user company. However, in spite of this, the team ensured quality deliverables by developing a single flow to perfection and then duplicating it in other flows.
Since time was critically short, specific agendas were drawn out for each and every day. Regular reports on the progress of the deliverables were generated and these helped the client to keep its customer informed.
Benefits and Outcome
The benefits that the client's customer enjoyed as a result of the Infosys solution include:
- The EBPP system was highly customizable, enabling the end user company to offer a single invoice format across the US.
- Integration with existing applications ensured smoother operations, with absolutely no compatibility glitches.
- Though the client and its customers had set a very short time frame for delivery, Infosys surpassed expectations by delivering the solution ahead of the deadline. This enabled the client's customer to go into production ahead of schedule.
- With a strong technical team from Infosys, the client was able to deliver a robust code with complex data handling processors and user friendly UI.
- Future design changes were identified by identifying potential issues only.
In the News
Sourcing at your fingertips:Global Sourcing Essentials
Everything you wanted to know about global sourcing, in five easy parts.
Download your copy
