A recent smart
client project delivered 5-fold productivity gains
by exploiting smart client capabilities to streamline
the Order Entry process
Background
A US-based
wholesaler looked to Smart Client functionality
to improve its customer service levels by integrating
their existing RPG based Order Entry application
with smart client functionality, thereby automating
the back office validation of customer entered
orders.
Challenge
This long time iSeries customer had originally
developed a green screen RPG Order Entry application
to enable customer service representatives to
quickly process telephone orders. The 5250-based
application, used by the internal order entry
team, continues to provide a robust, customized
and productive method for telephone-based order
processing and fulfillment. The application however,
was never designed to support the simpler process
of allowing customers to enter orders via the
web.
When customers requested a web-based Order Entry
facility some years ago, a simple web application
was provided to enable them to enter orders at
their convenience. However, the flat files produced
were not processed in real-time against the existing
RPG business logic. The resulting orders were
then entered by the Order Entry team to ensure
full validation against the 5250 RPG application.
The existing application code could not easily
be reused with the web application without invasively
restructuring the existing RPG modules. The risks,
costs and timeframes associated with the invasive
changes required to separate the business logic
from the presentation layer, were prohibitive.
Solution
A smart way to reuse the existing application
was required and looksoftware’s
technology was selected. newlook
was used to define the smart client UI and centric
provided the integration support. Within a few
weeks the Order Entry team was able to process
customer supplied orders 3 times faster than normal
telephone-based order entry.
Benefits
The key to the productivity gain was the programmatic
access to the existing application, allowing the
customer-supplied entries to be fed through the
existing application code. Business user intervention
was required only to review summary warnings or
correct an error. The smart client UI accessed
the existing, unchanged order entry programs and
business rules.
A subsequent business review process identified
further possibilities for automation and the smart
client was enhanced resulting in additional productivity
gain.
This practical example of using smart client
for application modernization and reuse required
no changes to the existing applications and the
project paid for itself within 3 months.
A subsequent business review process identified
further possibilities for automation and the smart
client was enhanced resulting in additional productivity
gain. This practical example of using smart client
for application modernization and reuse required
no changes to the existing applications and the
project paid for itself within 3 months.
The original 5250-based Order Entry system continues
to be used for telephone order entry supporting
a rate of approximately 80 orders per day. Before
the smart client project, the customer-supplied
orders were processed the same way at about the
same rate. Today, the smart client UI is used
for customer supplied orders and each operator
processes around 400 orders per day – a
5-fold productivity gain!
Smart Client Benefits
- Improved user productivity from a responsive,
rich user interface which utilizes local resources
- Improved effectiveness through built-in integration
support such as web services consumption
- Increased availability supporting offline
access.
Smart Client Features
- Sophisticated UI controls
- Rich user experience
- Web services support
- Desktop integration capabilities
- Distributed application interaction
- Easy to deploy and update
- Can function online and offline
- Utilizes local resources
- Web services support.
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