Overview The decision was made to move from the mainframe environment to client/server. After purchasing a cookie-cutter application to manage data and automate processes, and after several years of implementing it, the managers who rely upon this data quickly realized that unless the pre-packaged tools did it for them, they were just as much in the dark as before. There were few pre-packaged tools. The decision was made to begin building middle-ware applications to take advantage of the new environment and transform a powerful, but limited, tool into the advantage they knew was right

under their noses. Relatively inexpensive to build and quick to deploy, these ancillary tools quickly became a management favorite.

Challenges Produce a reporting and lookup interface that enables nimble report creation. Allow users to supplement query criteria with data filters to extract only the pertinent information. Teach internal devloper how to develop their own reports. Dropping them into the interface is simple, but the databases are quite complex. Integrate global data into smaller local applications and utilities used by other teams.

Resolution After converting from mainframes to Microsoft SQL Server and installing the pre-packaged software throughout the organization, everything necessary was in place, but to the users, the answers seemed a million miles away. As it stood, they were confined to the tools provided by the new application and the vendor had little interest in meeting their custom demands. Enter Digital Structures to extract the value from their diamon in the rough. The first step was to create a container to hold all the custom reports and lookup tools. This ensured a solid infrastructure to support rapid development of items as managers and users envisioned them and provided a central location. After the master tool was devloped, adding a report was a simple matter of extracting the correct data so we were able to provide these almost immediately once requested. The tool enabled simple report creation, but the databases are extremely complex. Since report requests seem to never cease, our next step was training internal developers how to write powerful queries and educating them on the overall data structure. This increased the value of staff techies and put the power to move forward back in their hands. Sometimes a printed report is not necessary and it makes more sense to simply view it on the screen. For these instances, we integrated lookup utilities directly into the same container. This saves on paper and prevents users from needing to walk over to the printer so it saves time, too. With their pre-packaged application running smoothly and all the data now at their fingertips, all was running smoothly. The next target was the countless unrelated applications being employed that use the exact same data. The teams that do not use the new application still rely upon their own MS Access databases and other tools. The old practice was manually retrieving data from various sources and keying into these systems. The new system is for these systems to link or automaticaly retrieve pertinent data from the SQL Server. This save them enormous amounts of duplicate, triplicate, or more data re-entry. It also eliminates data entry errors caused by the weary fingers and droopy eyes of the college grads who performed this repetive, mundane task. They are now able to focus their efforts on more valuable functions.

Site Map