 Home  Business Decision MakersCase Studies Trax Associates Speeds Up Software Development by 30 per cent After Migrating to Microsoft .NET Platform | |
Trax Associates Speeds Up Software Development by 30 per cent After Migrating to Microsoft .NET Platform Deciding to bite the bullet, Trax Associates switched to a better development platform – Microsoft .NET. The improved developer productivity provided by Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework helped it to complete development of the EMP solution ahead of schedule. The .NET platform has given the system solid performance gains, quality improvements and valuable new features. Situation Trax Associates is a strategic market and brand consulting company and independent software vendor dedicated to the acceleration of market creation skills within emerging-market companies. Since its establishment in 2000, the Kuala Lumpur-based firm has focused on developing integrated solutions for strategic brand building as the driver of enterprise market planning and competitiveness In December 2004, Trax started the enablement of their market-think® Enterprise Market Planning System (EMP), a business solution targeted at emerging brand or emerging market companies as they transition to more competitive organizational structures and operating standards in globalising market environments. A knowledge-driven application, the EMP has been designed to drive the structural, process and systems transformations of companies through a brand or market-competitiveness focus. Depending on the stage of - the market and brand readiness of the company, the EMP is offered in a structured and modular manner where the combination of modules can be customized to suit a company’s business requirements. The EMP solution was initially developed on a competitive collaborative software and messaging platform by Trax’s small internal development team together with several external developers. “I had chosen the previous platform as I believed it was the ideal platform for knowledge management applications,” says Yasmin Merican, Trax’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. However, Trax’s development efforts soon faced obstacles as the EMP solution was taking longer than expected to be completed.Yasmin said: “Our developers found that development was hitting various walls and roadblocks. And this slowed down the development process.” “When we wanted to put in certain features, the developers discovered it was more complex than easy to develop the functionalities. We felt that we couldn’t put in a lot of the things that we wanted and it was very frustrating. We did not want a platform that restricted our solution development. It was important that the platform was versatile enough to support our solution design,” adds Yasmin. After striving for almost nine months, the EMP solution was still only about 60 per cent completed. “We were getting worried. I thought we wouldn’t be able to move on with this solution. We were spending a lot of time and effort trying to get it completed.” Trax also discovered that developer resources for the previous platform were limited. These issues prompted Trax to consider moving the EMP solution to a new platform where development resources were more readily available. “It was a difficult decision to make as we knew that we had to start all over again but we had no choice since we wanted the assurance that we will be able to achieve our objectives both from a functionality and resource perspective, explains Yasmin. Solution After evaluating several development platforms, Yasmin decided to opt for Microsoft .NET. Trax started the conversion of its EMP solution to .NET in August 2005 and by January 2006 was ready to roll out modules within the system to its first customer. The EMP solution now runs on Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005, both part of Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server software. The solution’s components were written using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 development system and the Microsoft .NET Framework, an integral component of the Windows operating system that provides a programming model and runtime for Web services, Web applications, and smart client applications. “We are releasing the EMP system module by module. Our client is pleased that we were able to develop the solution quickly and cost effectively for them,” she adds. “They were surprised that a small system like this could do so many things. With our .NET application, you just need a browser to access the EMP system,” she adds. Yasmin admits that the decision to migrate to the .NET platform was not without its concerns. “We weren’t convinced about .NET initially. However, we did our research and also received in-depth information about the user-friendliness and strengths of the .NET platform from Microsoft Malaysia.” “We were not too sure that it was the right move but on the information which we received from the market, we switched to the Microsoft platform. However, it was a move which we are pleased we made,” she explains. Yasmin said that she was “pleasantly surprised” that the .NET Framework could resolve the major problems and obstacles hindering its solution development. “We were actually stuck. If .NET hadn’t come into the picture, we might have given up developing the EMP system as the difficulties we experienced made us feel that the EMP might be too ambitious a solution. With .NET, we are confident that we will be able to deliver the solution as designed," states Yasmin. She adds that Trax's future applications would likewise be developed on the .NET platform. Benefits Faster Time-to-Market Yasmin estimates that development under the .NET Framework is at least 30 per cent faster compared with the previous platform. With .NET, Trax has been able to take a proven technology platform and immediately leverage it to meet the needs of the business. “We are seeing developer productivity increase as a result of our adoption of this platform. The .NET platform has given us performance gains, quality improvements and valuable new features.” According to Yasmin, .NET facilitates speedy and efficient development because it supports the debugging of codes while replication of classes of codes is also relatively easier. In addition, reporting and pulling of records is much easier while site map (XML) enables dynamic menu creation for ease of maintenance. “The .NET platform broke down many walls for us, allowing us to enhance our solution potential and expand our possibilities. It has enabled us to come out with a more comprehensive solution, beyond what we had originally envisioned. In short, it made our team more creative in the development of the solution.” Cost Effective Development Impetus for Innovation She says .NET will allow Trax to easily replicate the EMP application for new clients. In addition, the company is also planning to develop a ‘lite’ version of the EMP solution to cater to small and-medium-sized businesses, possibly on an ASP model. Yasmin also highlights the support provided by Microsoft to encourage independent software vendors (ISVs) to innovate and develop new solutions. “Microsoft, being a software developer as well, understands the challenges faced by ISVs and has given us invaluable support. Ultimately, that’s good for the customers as they will have access to an array of world-class solutions which she knows Microsoft would continue to promote and invest.” Secure Roadmap for .NET “Ultimately, it is all about the user. If the user is excited about this system, it is simple to use, cost effective and delivers what they need, we have a winning combination. With the EMP system running on the .NET platform, we know that we
will be able to offer a world-class solution to our customers,” affirms Yasmin. | Overview
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For More Information For other case studies in this series, visit For more information about Trax Associates’ products and services, call +6(04) 2094 8266 or visit the website at www.trax.com.my |
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 | |
