Loki Management Systems
Software Developer Helps Builds a Healthy Business Pipeline with Microsoft-based Solution
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Company Overview
All businesses know that old maxim “time is money,” but Richard Swann is one entrepreneur who has bet his business on it. Since 1995, Swann’s business, Loki Management Systems, has offered scheduling and management software to help businesses of all sizes manage staff scheduling, workforce planning, time attendance and payroll. Swann came up with the idea for scheduling software while working on a project for his MBA. When his work group was facing problems with scheduling staff, Swann developed a solution that formed the basis for Loki’s product offerings today.
Business Challenge
From the start, Loki Management Systems has been a shop that uses Microsoft® software. Loki supported Microsoft® SQL Server™ 7.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database software and used Microsoft Visual Studio® 6 for development. However, in 2001 the increasing popularity of the Linux platform piqued the company’s interest. When IBM approached the company that year, Loki decided to test IBM DB2 Universal Database.
“IBM had just announced it was investing heavily in the Linux platform, and we were curious to evaluate the technology,” says Richard Swann, President, Loki Management Systems. “We also wanted to make sure Linux users would still be able to deploy our application. It was a matter of extending our technology footprint.”
At the time, Loki had an arrangement with Oracle Canada where its technologies served as the front end for the PeopleSoft payroll offering. IBM asked the company to consider porting the Loki solution to also run on the IBM DB2 Universal Database for Linux. Given the tremendous buzz around Linux at that time, the investment looked promising so they signed up as a premium IBM partner and received a copy of Linux Red Hat 9.2. According to Loki, however, the deployment soon soured.
“We tried to install the IBM DB2 database on the Linux platform, but it would not work,” says Swann. “We spent two weeks with IBM technical support before someone discovered that our version of Red Hat did not support DB2. We had to use an earlier version that was no longer distributed so IBM had to give us a copy of it.”
Eight months passed and the team was not much further along. Loki managed to get the application running on DB2 for the Windows® operating system but according to Swann, the Linux version was still not working.
“At that point, it became clear to us that Linux is not just Linux. There is Red Hat Linux, IBM Linux and SUSE Linux – the list goes on. From our standpoint, it was a support nightmare because we could not depend on the flavour of the operating system,” says Swann.
Moreover, the company spent thousands in support costs—something they hadn’t considered. “Instead of paying approximately $2,000 for a copy of Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, we received a copy of Linux but with a $600 bill for the first year of Red Hat support. Then we spent another $6,000 to $7,000 in resources trying to get DB2 to run,” says Swann.
The interest from customers was disappointing as well. When IBM launched a joint marketing campaign for the DB2 solution for Linux, few of Loki’s prospects in the healthcare industry responded. “Out of 1,000 hospitals, we received literally half-a-dozen responses. Basically, we got no response,” says Swann. “We soon learned that very few hospitals actually had applications running DB2 for Linux.”
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Solution
By 2002, Loki had abandoned the Linux platform and the company was looking for another way to differentiate itself in the healthcare market. One of its main competitors focused on the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Loki saw an opportunity carve out its niche using Microsoft Dynamics AX, formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta®, for its workforce optimization solution for Microsoft .NET connection software.
“In healthcare, PeopleSoft is common. We looked at Microsoft Axapta because it provides a virtually seamless interface with the software,” says Swann. “Users can enter tables created in PeopleSoft, pull out information and update the scheduling system with resource system changes.”
Upon further investigation, Loki discovered that Microsoft Axapta had a very basic HR offering for North America. In response, Loki created a payroll HR solution for Microsoft Axapta that enhanced the Microsoft software, and complemented the Loki workforce optimization solution. Payroll using Microsoft Dynamics AX allows healthcare customers to handle complex earnings and benefits calculations, manage integrated scheduling, time and attendance tracking, and manage multiple jobs for a single employee.
To develop the payroll HR component of Microsoft Dynamics AX, Loki used x++ programming language and ported its existing code for payroll capabilities into the Microsoft .NET Dynamic Link Library (DLL). When these codes are called upon from Microsoft Axapta, the application pulls them from Microsoft .NET DDL to get the payroll functionality.
“DDLs represent 60 to 70 per cent of the work needed to create a payroll system,” says Swann. “Since Microsoft Dynamics business software are compatible with Microsoft .NET, I can create the same functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP formerly Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® or Microsoft Dynamics NAV, formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Navision®), without the same degree of effort.”
Business Benefits
The extensive development capabilities in Microsoft .NET are providing Loki Management Systems with a flexible platform on which to help grow its business.
“There is a perception in the marketplace that Linux solutions are much more customizable than Microsoft-based solutions, but I beg to differ,” says Swann. “In my opinion, you shouldn’t have to tweak the operating system to make it do what you want – it’s not good design. However, customizing at the level of Microsoft Office makes much more sense. With Microsoft Office, you have a wonderful set of tools that you can easily make part of your application.”
In addition to customization capabilities, broad integration was another key reason Loki chose to develop on the Microsoft-based platform. According to Swann, customers benefit since most companies are using Microsoft Office software on their desktops. The response from customers to the offering of Microsoft Dynamics AX has been overwhelming.
“The Microsoft-based integration story is a very attractive to customers because the products all work together virtually seamlessly. Since Payroll using Microsoft Dynamics AX integrates with other Microsoft software – like Office, SQL Server, and Windows Server - users can work with familiar tools, which helps lower training costs for customers,” says Swann. “In my mind, Linux does not offer a great customer experience.”
Loki has since become a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner. Through the program, Loki has access to tools, training and resources that have helped the company to penetrate new markets.
“Becoming a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner has been an extremely worthwhile investment for us. Since getting certified, we have already generated that amount in sales from Microsoft leads, and we’re expecting to do so much more,” says Swann.
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
The Microsoft .NET Framework is an integral Windows(r) component for building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services.http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is the rapid application development (RAD) tool for building next-generation Web applications and XML Web services. Visual Studio .NET empowers developers to rapidly design broad-reach Web applications for any device and any platform. In addition, Visual Studio .NET is fully integrated with the Microsoft .NET Framework, providing support for multiple programming languages and automatically handling many common programming tasks, freeing developers to rapidly create Web applications using their language of choice.http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/
Acquire Visual Studio .NET: http://shop.microsoft.com/devtools/default.asp
MSDN(r) Subscriptions:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/vstudio/aa718656.aspx
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Loki Management Systems products and services, call 1-800-378-LOKI (5654) or visit the Web site at: www.lokisys.com
