Hart Doors

Company:

Hart Doors is a successful Newcastle based company that supplies a range of industrial doors for some prestigious projects and specialist applications in the global market place.

The new website for Hart has been developed as a collaboration between Halogen Creative who, working closely with Hart Doors, have provided the design and the look and feel for the site, and STCS who have worked for Halogen on this assignment to build the site. The new site has been specifically designed and built to project the more global nature of the company’s current products and also to take a stronger role in marketing the company by providing more easily updatable content and better methods for communicating with the company’s customers.

Project Requirement and Scope:

Hart Doors required a website that help to take the company forward. More specifically the site needed to:

Communicate the global success achieved through exports from the UK.
Showcase the high calibre clients such as Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Dubai Metro.
Have high visibility across the internet.
Keep up to date with the latest company news etc and to communicate innovation quickly.
Interface with social media

The resulting site, with the home page shown opposite, achieves these objectives through using innovative design in conjunction with a content management system.

There is clear navigation through traditional menus as well as product category visuals and there is also a product search feature for user convenience and to help with search engine performance.

The site includes the following features:

video playback through YouTube.
E-newsletters
The collection of subscriber data for the newsletters
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
Some foreign language content
Sitemap

Technical Approach:

Halogen Creative are responsible for the innovative design of the site and worked with Hart Doors to determine the features that can best take advantage of the possible marketing opportunities.

STCS have been responsible for translating the design into a content managed site and for building in the required features.

Key Technologies Used:

Joomla, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MYSQL

Schools Need Me

Company:

Schools Need Me is a service which allows schools to advertise free of charge vacancies for jobs for ‘providers’ ranging from Sessional Coaches to Workshop Leaders, within the categories of Sport, Music, Drama, Art and miscellaneous areas of expertise. The system also allows for both individual providers and organisations that supply providers to sign up to Schools Need Me in order to apply for jobs that have been advertised by schools.

Project Requirement and Scope:

The website is to allow schools to register on the system then to advertise for jobs for non-teaching Sessional Coaches, Workshop Leaders posts, and so on. It also allows organisations to register on the system as well as individual providers. An organisation can subsequently register its own providers. Organisations and individual providers can register for free and have limited functionality. Once either they as individuals or their organisation have paid a subscription the providers can use the system fully and search for and apply for jobs.

Halogen Creative has been responsible for the site design with the layout and images to attract customers.

STCS has been responsible for functionality allowing the aforementioned schools to see how many providers or organisations match the skills they want, to post job advertisements on the system, to check the status of current jobs (i.e. jobs they have already posted) as well as managing their accounts.

Both individual providers and those who are part of an organisation (once subscribed) can search for jobs as well as apply for those jobs, they can view jobs they have already applied for as well as updating their personal details and any skills they possess.

When searching for jobs one of the criteria used to narrow the search involves the use of an interactive map of the UK.

Organisations that have subscribed can search for jobs, update their own details, and update the skills of their providers.

The system is also maintained by the staff working for Schools Need Me. Their functionality allows both viewing and updating the details for schools, providers and organisations. These administrative users can also search for schools and jobs on the system, as well as maintaining their account settings and creating new Schools Need Me staff members.

Technical Approach:

From the initial business requirements of Schools Need Me, STCS analysts worked with Schools Need Me to develop a design for the system, focused on ease of use for clients, which will not only support the present requirements but also support potential future expansion of the business.

The functions developed by STCS were integrated with the designs of Halogen Creative to culminate in a comprehensive site that is effective and easy to use.

Following thorough testing by STCS the system was tested by Schools Need Me before being opened for use by customers.

Key Technologies Used:

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MYSQL

TD Clothing

Company:

TD Clothing is an innovative textile recycler and exporter, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, which offers cash incentives for customers to recycle their unwanted clothes and textiles.

The Collections Management System is part of the company’s website and the overall website and system has been developed for TD Clothing through Halogen Creative. The work has been carried out as collaboration between Halogen and STCS, with Halogen providing all of the creative design input and STCS working as a sub-contractor providing the functionality for the Collections Booking Process and underlying Management System.

Project Requirement and Scope:

The www.tdclothing.co.uk website is to inform the public about the two main schemes for recycling clothing: enviroclothes and recycle2fundraise. The enviroclothes scheme offers clothes collection from peoples’ homes. Members of the public can request a collection through the website, and on the requested date the collection is scheduled, and cash is paid for the clothing collected. The recycle2fundraise scheme is for schools and other groups. The schoolchildren or group members contribute clothing so that the group can raise funds.

Halogen Creative has been responsible for the site design with the layout and images to attract customers.

STCS has been responsible for functionality allowing members of the public to book a collection. In the enviroclothes scheme a customer enters the postcode where they require a collection and the system identifies appropriate collection timeslots in the immediate two-week period. The customer can then pick the most convenient collection slot and provide details for the collection. Customers become registered during their first collection request but on subsequent collection requests, when the customer logs in, their stored details are retrieved to provide a streamlined booking process.

Behind the scenes, system administrators maintain the calendar and catalogue of postcodes from which collections can be made. The collection schedule for each postcode is entirely configurable to support business growth.

The system provides the collection schedule for the individual timeslots sorted in appropriate order for the van driver.

Full historical details of receipts are maintained in the system for each customer.

Comprehensive reporting functionality has been developed by STCS to meet the needs of TDClothing. From financial data to customer profiles, custom reports allow the company to tailor marketing strategies and monitor growth/opportunities.

Technical Approach:

From the initial business requirements of TD Clothing, STCS analysts worked with TD Clothing management to develop a design for the system, focused on ease of use for customers, that will not only support the present requirements for clothes collections but will also support very substantial expansion of the business in the North East and beyond.

The functions developed by STCS were integrated with the designs of Halogen Creative to culminate in a comprehensive site that can be accessed by different web site addresses, depending upon the scheme required by the customer.

Following thorough testing by STCS the system was tested by TD Clothing before being opened for use by customers.

Key Technologies Used:

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MYSQL

BT - Electronic Registration of Conveyancing Application

eReg

The Land Registry in Northern Ireland exists as part of the Land & Property Services Agency within the Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland. STCS undertook this project as a sub-contractor to BT which is the supplier to Land & Property Services.

Project Requirement and Scope

The Land Registry within Northern Ireland wished to allow electronic submission of conveyancing applications. The new submission process was intended to reduce the number of rejected applications by guiding users through the process and ensuring the correct information and evidence was supplied. Instant transferral of the information into the existing Registry systems would also reduce processing time, and improve management and tracking of applications.

The project started in September 2006 and was rolled out to a pilot group in December 2007.

Technical Approach

The system was developed as a J2EE web application using a Struts 1.0 framework.

STCS was asked to take over requirements analysis, design and development for the e-Registration system. Due to the complex legal nature of the application, a large number of stakeholders were involved, both within the Registry and the wider conveyancing community of Northern Ireland. To maximise usability within the legislative constraints, an approach of application prototyping and iterative development was adopted. STCS was responsible for evolving the design with the user community, and conducted regular presentations and consultation sessions to Registry staff and members of a solicitor’s focus group.

In addition to an intuitive user interface to guide conveyancers through the online process, the application used stored Oracle procedures and packages to interface with the existing Registry systems for registering land, which staff already used to input cases manually. An iText API was used to create printable, read only pdf forms containing the information entered for each transaction, allowing the forms to be signed by all interested parties.

Other aspects of the system included secure login and session management, a ‘case folder’ approach allowing solicitors to manage their applications and track their progress through the Registry, and various reporting tools. A Robohelp project was also created to give context sensitive help on the online process, as well as substantial legal guidance.

Key Technologies Used

Languages: J2EE, JavaServer Pages, JavaScript, CSS, HTML/ DHTML, PL/SQL.

MVC Model: Struts

Database: Oracle

Other: RoboHelp

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BT - Disclosure Scotland, Basic Disclosure Online

Disclosure Scotland

STCS has worked as a sub-contractor to BT on some aspects of their project for Disclosure Scotland.

The Disclosure Scotland system is the Scottish government’s equivalent of the English Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).

Project Requirement and Scope

This project was initiated to make a number of significant improvements to existing systems including:

- Basic Disclosure On-Line (BDO).

- The scanning software and environment, which scanned in forms completed by the public.

The output from both systems feeds into a background document workflow and archiving package called eiStream which is then used to control the path of the application through the Disclosure Scotland system.

The main body of work as described in this project profile was carried out during 2006/2007. Since then we have managed to secure further work on the Disclosure project on two separate occasions.

Technical Approach

For each system a full technical design was written and signed off by the customer prior to development.

BDO necessitated changes to client facing JavaServer Pages (JSP’s) in respect of additional content or removal of existing fields and labels. The flow between pages was altered and the background logic to capture and validate information was also changed. The underlying xml schema using to generate an XML interface file to feed in the eiStream system was also altered in accordance with W3C standards.

One of the changes required a new form whose content and layout differed greatly from that of the existing forms so it wasn’t feasible to simply alter the existing recognition scripts and processes. This new area required a detailed and in-depth study into the area of scanning and recognition in order to meet the needs of the project.

The requirement to accommodate existing and new format Disclosure forms meant that the initial recognition process needed be changed to identify whether a new or old style form was being scanned in and then to apply the necessary scripts and logic applicable to the form type. This was successfully implemented despite a number of shortcomings in the underlying tools.

Key Technologies Used

Languages: J2EE, JavaServer Pages, JavaScript, XML, XSD, ANT

Database: Oracle

Other: Indicius, InputAccel.

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Reservations Unique - Booking Confirmation System

Reservations Unique

Reservations Unique is a hotel room booking agency that finds and books hotel rooms for private or corporate individuals or groups

Project Requirement and Scope

The core requirement for the Hotel Booking Confirmation System is to efficiently send out booking confirmations to both the hotel and the client in such a way that consistency of the information is guaranteed. The system is web-based and will send out the confirmations by Fax or email as necessary. Hotel and client details are stored on the system to allow even greater efficiency whenever the hotel or client is the subject of a subsequent booking. In addition to the core functionality for creating and sending confirmations the system provides a number of reports to help identify exceptions and also to provide statistics and some means of control.

Technical Approach

The requirements for the system were investigated and the specification consisting of screen designs, a database design and a narrative description of the processing was created and agreed by the client. The detailed screen designs and functionality were determined in phases through a series of design meetings with the system users.

The system is hosted by STCS and is provided over the internet as a service to Reservations Unique

Key Technologies Used

Languages: J2EE, JavaServer Pages, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS, HTML, XML

MVC Model: Struts 2

Database: MySQL 5, Hibernate, JPA

Other: Jasper Reports, iText, Spring, web services

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Northern Electric - Customer Information and Billing

Company:

Northern Electric and Gas was an electricity and gas supply, and electricity distribution company serving north east England. Formed and privatised in 1990 from the assets of the North Eastern Electricity Board, it operated in the deregulated electricity and gas supply markets.

Although it was purchased in 1996 by the American corporation CalEnergy, which formed a subsidiary, CE Electric to run it, Northern Electric and Gas remained the retail brand until 2001, when npower obtained the supply business in a revolutionary swap arrangement for the electricity distribution business of Yorkshire Electric. npower was then itself acquired in 2002 by the german corporation RWE. RWE npower is now the UK's largest electricity supplier.

It generates electricity and supplies gas, electricity and related services to around 6.8 million customers. The company also operates and manages a flexible portfolio of power stations, and is a market leader in renewable energy development through its wind and hydro business, npower renewables.

Project Requirement and Scope:

STCS worked within the Customer Information and Billing (CIB) programme from 1997 until 2001 initially as part of the Technical Design Authority then after the first few months as a Technical Architect. The architect role was revived from 2004 to 2006.

The CIB programme principally consists of three main systems; Integrated Billing (IB) is the billing system for both domestic and half-hourly customers, Integrated Customer Service (ICS) supports the call centres for customer care, and Site Administration (SA) deals with the issues surrounding the gain or loss of the customer from/to other suppliers. All systems conform to the open markets protocols/agreements, such as the Data Transfer Catalogue (DTC) and Supply Point Administration Agreement (SPAA). There were also ancillary systems such as for pre-payment meters and exceptional cases.

Principal architectural responsibility was for the Customer and Premise Database (CPD), and its primary systems ICS and Site Admin, along with several ancillary systems for functions such as Management Information or message routing. As a live system, in use 7 days a week, the incremental development of ICS had to be handled very carefully, and it was vital that the development of this database was co-ordinated with, and supportive of, all the systems using it. Central Data Architectural control was key to the success of this. Quality practices were also introduced and the design of the database was captured into a central CASE repository (Principia).

Prior to the major release and live implementation of CIB, we also managed the project that cleansed and converted the database, to support the open gas and electricity markets. This involved major changes in the structure and the content of the database, which was supporting the live call centre 7 days a week.

During this period, we were also involved in specifying the changes required from a supplier perspective for the ASSIGN work management system implementation from Wheatley Associates for Northern Metering Services Limited (NMSL) another part of Northern Electric that performed the Meter Operator (MOP) and Data Collector (DC) roles. Following this we were part of the project board that controlled these changes.

The day to day architect role encompassed evaluation of all business requirements for the CIB Programme, to determine the best technical solutions and the systems and teams impacted, and the documentation of these solutions at a high level. Thereafter co-ordination and policing of the various design teams and approval of all functional and testing specifications was provided, to ensure fully integrated and consistent solutions were delivered.

Key Skills and Technologies Used:

Data Analysis

Database Design

Business Analysis

Systems Analysis

Systems Architecture

Project Management

PRINCE

CASE tools (Principia)

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BT - Land Registers Northern Ireland - CLARA

CLARA - Computerised Learning and Reference Archive

The Land Registers of Northern Ireland exists as part of the Land & Property Services Agency within the Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland.

Project Requirement and Scope

The Land Registry needed a way of increasing their training capacity whilst retaining or improving the qualitative aspects of their current approach.

The fundamental requirement was to have a library of knowledge to be available online from the desktop, supported by repeatable knowledge checks and test cases that could be automatically validated where possible.

The project started in September 2006 and was completed at the end of March 2010.

Technical Approach

The library of knowledge was created by documenting the current processes and importing the documents into RoboHelp HTML supported by demonstrations produced using Adobe Captivate. This library was produced using a combined team of STCS and Land Registry staff.

In addition, a computerised administration system has been produced from a Functional Specification agreed by the client following several prototype sessions.

This administration system provides the ability to manage trainers, trainees, test cases and knowledge checks, including automatic validation where possible.

The idea is that staff can refer to the library of knowledge from their desktop at all times and, if assigned to formal training, be able to take knowledge checks and process training cases in order to consolidate that knowledge.

The cases and their solutions are produced and then processed by trainees using LandWeb, the bespoke system used by Land Registry staff to process applications.

The CLARA Administration system then compares the trainee’s solution with the stored solution, marks the case and sends the results back to the trainee. If the case has been processed correctly, it is released ready to be used by someone else.

Knowledge checks are marked in a similar way.

Key Technologies Used

Languages: J2EE, JavaServer Pages, JavaScript, JQuery, CSS, HTML/ DHTML, PL/SQL.

MVC Model: Struts

Database: Oracle

Other: RoboHelp, Adobe Captivate

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HCA - Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) and FirstBuy

HOMES AND COMMUNITIES AGENCY

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the national housing and regeneration agency for England, with an annual investment budget of more than £5bn. The HCA was formed on 1 December 2008 through the transfer of the functions and assets of English Partnerships; the investment functions of the Housing Corporation; a number of delivery programmes from Communities and Local Government and the transfer of the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

The Homes and Communities Agency is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/

HCA is achieving local ambitions

Working with local partners, HCA use skills and investment in housing and regeneration to meet the needs of local communities; creating new affordable homes and thriving places.

PROJECT REQUIREMENT AND SCOPE

Affordable Homes Programme (AHP)

The Affordable Homes Programme 2011-15 (AHP) aims to increase the supply of new affordable homes in England.

HCA Investment Partners and prospective partners were invited to submit offers for £2.2bn of funding (out of the overall £4.5bn funding pot) for affordable housing during the 2011-15 Spending Review period.

HCA needed a facility to process the AHP Standard Offer spreadsheets used by potential providers of Affordable Homes to bid for funding. These spreadsheets were to be stored in an Oracle Database to allow for analysis and reporting of the information via Business Objects and to manage Offers until evaluation of all offers is completed ready for Ministerial Submission of the ‘Agreed Position’.

The import process needed to be live within 6 weeks, which was the deadline for Offer submissions. STCS worked with the customer to define business processes for the new programme as well as requirements for the IT system to support that process. We then developed and delivered the IT system on time, within budget and above customer expectations.

FirstBuy - Boost for first time buyers

FirstBuy is a new product in the Government’s HomeBuy range designed to assist first time buyers into home ownership. It is expected to assist over 10,000 purchasers to buy a new home over the next two years.

FirstBuy is part of the Government’s wider proposals to boost growth by simultaneously stimulating demand, tackling supply-side barriers and supporting local priorities for supply. FirstBuy is aimed at maintaining capacity in the housebuilding industry in the short-term while assisting deposit constrained first time buyers to realise their homeownership aspirations.

HCA needed a system very similar to that for AHP Standard Offer to process FirstBuy Submissions spreadsheets, storing them in an Oracle database to allow for analysis and reporting of the information via Business Objects. There was an additional requirement to automatically evaluate the submission based upon pre-defined criteria and produce an overall score.

Using our previous experience in this area STCS were able to reuse much of the business processing, concepts and IT system functionality to develop a system and make it live within two weeks.

STCS delivered the system ahead of time, within budget, absorbing a number of additional requirements into the original budget and timescales, and exceeding customer’s expectations.

STCS have enabled HCA to assess over 130 bids for funding from developers. The result is that £180m has been made available to over 100 housing associations, major house builders and smaller local firms across the country. The Agency’s target to deliver 10,000 new homes has been exceeded well under budget.

TECHNICAL APPROACH

These projects required the development of a new database, new screens, an excel import processes and the provision of a business object universes.

The business processing and user requirements for the system needed to be investigated and specifications consisting of screen designs, process diagrams, and a narrative description of requirements were agreed with the client.

The spreadsheets were analysed to develop the necessary data model and confirm the business requirements.

After analysis the database and application changes where developed using an Oracle Forms application framework provided for other applications at HCA.

A Business Objects Universe was also developed.

There were several complexities/difficulties in this project. In particular:

Multiple versions of excel spreadsheets, all differing slightly and been delivered from the developer in no particular order.
Lack of control and validation within the spreadsheets.
Extremely tight deadlines.
The need to develop the systems whist the customer was still in the process of defining the business model for the new Programmes.
Managing workload with multiple other high-priority projects and ongoing system support.

KEY TECHNOLOGIES USED

The system has been built using the following technologies:

Oracle Database 11g R2
Oracle Forms 11g
Business objects XI R3.1
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Citrix Servers

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HCA - Milton Keynes Tariff System

Homes and Communities Agency

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the national housing and regeneration agency for England, with an annual investment budget of more than £5bn. The HCA was formed on 1^stDecember 2008 through the transfer of the functions and assets of English Partnerships; the investment functions of the Housing Corporation; a number of delivery programmes from Communities and Local Government and the transfer of the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

The Homes and Communities Agency is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The statutory objects of the HCA, as listed in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 are to:

improve the supply and quality of housing in England
secure the regeneration or development of land or infrastructure in England
support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of communities in England or their continued well-being
contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and good design in England, with a view to meeting the needs of people living in England.

Project Requirement and Scope

The Milton Keynes Infrastructure Tariff (MK Tariff) is a legal mechanism designed to deliver more than £300M in forward funding for infrastructure and services to support the planned expansion of Milton Keynes over the next several years. MK Tariff income will be generated from development of housing and commercial units, and will be spent on MK infrastructure projects

The MK Tariff management system will be a management tool for the management of the MK Tariff programme, including the following:

creation of an effective and efficient tariff collection process
creation of an effective and efficient process for collecting funds from other funding sources (when the project is being delivered by HCA and is only partially funded by the tariff)
pooling of tariff receipts
creation of an effective and efficient process for the management of Works-in-Kind (when infrastructure development is carried out in lieu of tariff payments)
creation of an effective and efficient distribution process for tariff receipts across all of the MK infrastructure projects earmarked for tariff funding, whether delivered by HCA or by another party (e.g. MK Council)

STCS provide the following services for this:

Business Analysis and System Design
Application development (on-line application and interfaces)
Second-line support, and occasional first-line support
Training and support of HCA Applications Development staff
Impact Analysis
Peer Reviews
Testing
Database installation and administration
Application Server software installation and administration
Performance-tuning

We provide a mixture of on-site and remote support, and have build up a close working relationship with the client, allowing us to react very quickly to any urgent Change Requests or support issues.

Technical Approach

This project is the development of a database, new screens and batch processes and integration of these within an existing Project Control System. The user requirements for the system are investigated and specifications consisting of screen designs and a narrative description of the processing are agreed with the client. Impact analysis is completed to assess impact upon existing systems. The database and application changes are then developed using an application framework provided for other applications at English Partnerships. These are then peer reviewed before going to System testing, and then on to User Acceptance Testing. Changes may be batched with other changes before being scheduled to go live.

There were several complexities/difficulties in this project. In particular:

The tariff charging and rebate calculations and application of multiple indexation rates.
Extremely tight deadlines
Managing the project along with several other pieces of work, including the setup of the Homes and Communities Agency

Key Technologies Used

The system has been built using the following technologies:

Oracle Designer 10g
Oracle Forms and Reports Developer 10g
Oracle Enterprise Edition Database 10gR2
Business Objects v6.5
Windows Server 2003 R2

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HCA - Project Control System

Homes and Communities Agency

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the national housing and regeneration agency for England, with an annual investment budget of more than £5bn. The HCA was formed on 1st December 2008 through the transfer of the functions and assets of English Partnerships, the investment functions of the Housing Corporation, a number of delivery programmes from Communities and Local Government, and the transfer of the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

The Homes and Communities Agency is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The statutory objects of the HCA, as listed in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 are to:

improve the supply and quality of housing in England
secure the regeneration or development of land or infrastructure in England
support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of communities in England or their continued well-being
contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and good design in England, with a view to meeting the needs of people living in England.

Project Requirement and Scope

STCS’s initial involvement with English Partnerships was the provision of training courses. In December 1999, we were asked to provide some Oracle Forms and Report training for a few members of the IT department, to show them how to update an existing bespoke application called PCS (Project Control System). We then undertook a 4-month 10-person joint development project to streamline the system and better meet the needs of the business. Following successful delivery of the project we were awarded a system support contract in June 2000. This support contract is still ongoing and is continually supplemented by more change requests and ad-hoc consultancy work. The project currently takes between 300 and 400 days a year, the majority of which is due to Change Requests and additional consultancy work.

The PCS System allows HCA staff to monitor the progress of their projects, including the following:

Expenditure and Income
Milestones
Financial Approvals
Outputs
Assessment of Risks
Quality Standards
Interfaces to other systems, e.g. Finance System

STCS provide the following services for this:

Second-line support, and occasional first-line support
Training and support of HCA Applications Development staff
Business Analysis and System Design
Impact Analysis
Application development (on-line applications and interfaces)
Peer Reviews
Testing
Database installation and administration
Application Server software installation and administration
Performance-tuning

We provide a mixture of on-site and remote support, and have build up a close working relationship with the client, allowing us to react very quickly to any urgent Change Requests or support issues.

Technical Approach

This project is on-going development and support of an existing system. The requirements for changes to the system are investigated and specifications consisting of screen designs and a narrative description of the processing are agreed with the client. Impact analysis is completed to assess impact upon other areas of the system, or other systems. Any database changes are then designed, and application changes developed. These are then peer reviewed before going to System testing, and then on to User Acceptance Testing. Changes may be batched with other changes before being scheduled to go live.

Key Technologies Used

The system has been built using the following technologies:

Oracle Designer (versions 4.5 –10g)
Oracle Forms and Reports Developer (versions 4.5 – 10g)
Oracle Database (7.3 – 10gR2)
Oracle SQL and PL/SQL (7.3 – 10gR2)
Business Objects v6.5

HP L2000 HP-UX10 server, migrated to Windows Server 2003 R2

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Financial Advice Bureau - Certitude Pass Book System

Financial Advice Bureau

The Financial Advice Bureau is a firm of independent financial advisors, located in Middlesbrough, North East England. It is a Financial Services organisation specialising in the full range of Pensions, Investments and Savings financial advice.

Project Requirement and Scope

For certain types of investment, The Financial Advice Bureau wanted to create a system in which their customers could keep a passbook, similar to a traditional bank savings book, showing the investments and withdrawals, as well as the monthly valuations. The idea was that a computer system would maintain the investment record and whenever a customer returned a passbook for updating, the system would update the passbook, and then it would be returned to the customer.

Technical Approach

The requirements for the system were investigated and the specification consisting of screen designs, a database design and a narrative description of the processing was created and agreed by the client. The graphic design of the passbook was done in parallel with the design of the print module for the computer system to ensure that the fonts, and line spacing were compatible with the passbook blanks. The system was built between January and June 2008, and was passed through user acceptance testing at the end of August 2008.

Key Technologies Used

The system was built using C# and a MySQL database.

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Courage & Co - Progress Report

Courage & Co

The Progress Report application was developed as part of a joint venture between STCS and Courage & Co, providers of bespoke conveyancing software to legal practices throughout the UK.

Project Requirement and Scope

Courage & Co’s main product is ConveyPro, allowing legal professionals to manage conveyancing matters and generate the required documentation automatically.

STCS became involved when conveyancers started to ask about expanding ConveyPro to keep clients informed of progress with their sale, purchase and remortgage transactions.

The new application would need to interface with the existing ConveyPro office systems, allowing clients and third parties (such as estate agents) to view the status of their transactions online. There was also a requirement to notify the client of updates via email or sms.

In addition to developing the application, STCS also host and support the system.

The project has been running since 2002.

Technical Approach

STCS worked with Courage & Co to identify the requirements of the various stakeholders, leading to a flexible design allowing each conveyancing practice to customise elements of the online interface.

A secure online Administrator interface allows Courage & Co to register conveyancing practices to use the service and upload organisational details and logos.

The ConveyPro application within each practice posts daily feeds to the Progress Report system using an xml data stream via a secure connection. These feeds upload end user details and information about the conveyancing matters that will be viewed online.

New clients are sent email or text messages informing them that they have been registered to use the service, together with their login details. On logging into the system, the user can view all conveyancing matters to which they have been granted access.

As matters progress, email or text messages keep the user up to date with events. The conveyancer can also upload comments and additional information for the client to view online.

Progress Report was developed as a 3-tier application within a J2EE framework; utilising an Oracle database and Enterprise JavaBean technology, presented via JavaServer Pages and XML/XSL.

STCS host Progress Report themselves, using Jboss application server.

Key Technologies Used

Languages: J2EE, Enterprise JavaBeans, JavaServer Pages, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, XML/XSL, PL/SQL.

MVC Model: A bespoke J2EE framework developed by STCS.

Database: Oracle

Other: RoboHelp

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City Council - Local Government Planning & Building Standards

Local Government Planning and Building Standards

A major City Council now provides a number of Planning and Building Standards services online through its Planning and Building Standards portal. STCS helped development an online application process as sub-contractors to BT, the main supplier of IT services to the Council.

Project Requirement and Scope

The City Council asked BT to develop a system allowing users to complete and submit planning and building applications online.

The main requirements for the system were as follows:

The application process must be accessible to a registered user group, via the existing Planning and Building Standards online portal.
A series of wizard-based application forms should allow users to supply all required information online.
Functionality to submit drawings and plans online to support applications must be available.
The system must calculate the fee payable (based on the information supplied in the application forms) and interface with an online payment provider.
A Case Management screen must be provided to allow users to track and maintain their applications.

STCS were asked to join an existing BT team for the initial phase which involved developing the online Planning Applications process.

Following the success of this project in 2006, STCS were then asked to undertake the next phase in 2008 – developing similar functionality for Building Standards applications.

Technical Approach

The system was developed as a J2EE web application using a Struts 1.0 framework.

All page structure and dynamic content variables were held in database tables, leading to an easily configurable system.

As the system aimed to reduce the number of rejected applications, we employed both client side and server side validation (via javascript and validation scripts held on the database).

An interface to WorldPay (online payment service provider) was also developed.

In addition to undertaking a second development phase (Building Standards forms), STCS continue to provide support and development for this project as required.

Key Technologies Used

Languages: J2EE, JavaServer Pages, JavaScript, CSS, HTML/ DHTML, PL/SQL.

MVC Model: Struts

Database: Oracle

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HCA - Business Objects XI3.1 migration

Homes and Communities Agency

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the national housing and regeneration agency for England, with an annual investment budget of more than £5bn. The HCA was formed on 1st December 2008 through the transfer of the functions and assets of English Partnerships; the investment functions of the Housing Corporation; a number of delivery programmes from Communities and Local Government and the transfer of the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

The Homes and Communities Agency is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The statutory objects of the HCA, as listed in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 are to:

improve the supply and quality of housing in England
secure the regeneration or development of land or infrastructure in England
support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of communities in England or their continued well-being
contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and good design in England, with a view to meeting the needs of people living in England.

Project Requirement and Scope

As part of the setup of the Agency, it inherited a number of disparate and outdated systems, including several Business Objects reporting environments:

Business Objects v6.5 full client
Business Objects v5 full client
Business Objects v5 InfoView
Oracle 8.1.6 database
Windows Server 2000 and 2003

Keen to enhance the end-user experience, to update the IT infrastructure and provide cost-savings to the agency, STCS took the lead by analysing the current Business Objects environments and providing a way to upgrade and integrate into Business Objects XI release 3.1 (BOXIr3.1).

Our main tasks included:

Document the current environments and provide a plan for upgrading and integrating them.
Patching of v6.5 environment to ensure stability of the service prior to BOXIr3.1 migration.
Installation of a Proof of Concept environment for Business Objects v6.5 InfoView, to show that there was the option of merging the v5 environment into the v6.5 environment, as a stepping stone to a subsequent BOXIr3.1 migration.
Installation of a Proof of Concept environment for BOXIr3.1, to prove that a stable environment could be built and that the v6.5 environment could be imported into it. This also helped identify additional functionality that the end-user, developers and administrators may wish to use.
Training needs analysis for STCS and the agency’s IT support staff. Procurement of a set of training courses specific to STCS’s and the agency’s needs.
Production of macros to confirm that the 30,000+ migrated reports can be used in the migrated environment.
Migration and integration of the various environments directly to BOXI r3.1 development/test and live environments, including installation and configuration of Oracle Database Server 11gR2, BOXI r3.1 server, InfoView and Desktop Intelligence.
Assistance with auditing and migrating licences without extra cost to agency, even though in previous discussions, a SAP partner had said there would be additional licensing costs. This included rationalisation of user accounts to ensure that the agency complied with the licensing terms, and other changes to free up approximately 45 user licences.
Implementation of improvements including Active Directory integration, and single sign-on.

Documentation of the migration process, for use during the go-live and to assist with on-going support of the systems.

Technical Approach

STCS worked closely with Agency to understand the requirements and work out a plan that would limit the disruption to the users, whilst providing the new server as quickly and efficiently as possible.

A BOXIr3.1 proof of concept was developed in a new virtual server environment to act as both proof of technology, and a basis for information gathering and definition of requirements. This included importing some information from both the v5 and v6.5 environments.

Once the basic requirements and a plan had been agreed a development/test environment was built, including a full configuration and migration of the older environments. This was then fully tested by the Agency. This process was fully documented and revised to include changes agreed with the agency during testing.

The development/test environment was then rebuilt to prove that the final documented installation process was correct and fully tested.

Due to the huge number of reports to be migrated, these were copied and automatically tested via scripts prior to go live over a period of two weeks. The new live environment was also built and configured in advance of the final implementation.

A full weekend of system downtime had been agreed with the Agency to allow for go-live. On the Friday evening of the go-live weekend the v5 and v6.5 environments were fully migrated, including any new or updated user reports. This was then made available to a select number of key-users over the weekend to perform confidence testing, prior to making the system available to all users.

A wide range of technical skills were required to deliver the BOXI upgrade. The fact that the upgrades were delivered together (rather than as 2 separate phases originally considered by the agency) and that there were only 3 relatively minor BOXI related calls made to the HCA IT service desk in the 3 days after go live is testament to the excellent all-round technical job.

Key Technologies Used

The system has been built using the following technologies:

Business objects XI R3.1
Oracle Database 11g R2
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Citrix Servers
Apache Tomcat 5.5

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HCA - Business Objects v5 migration

Homes and Communities Agency

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the national housing and regeneration agency for England, with an annual investment budget of more than £5bn. The HCA was formed on 1st December 2008 through the transfer of the functions and assets of English Partnerships; the investment functions of the Housing Corporation; a number of delivery programmes from Communities and Local Government and the transfer of the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

The Homes and Communities Agency is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The statutory objects of the HCA, as listed in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 are to:

improve the supply and quality of housing in England
secure the regeneration or development of land or infrastructure in England
support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of communities in England or their continued well-being
contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and good design in England, with a view to meeting the needs of people living in England.

Project Requirement and Scope

As part of the setup of the Agency several of the Agency’s systems were transferred from an outsourced IT supplier, to HCA’s data centre in Gateshead, so that the services could be supplied and supported by their in-house IT department.

Part of this transfer included an Investment Management System (IMS) and its supporting reporting facilities using Business Objects and InfoView. Shortly before the migration, it was determine that some of the hardware wasn’t being transferred to HCA, including the Business Objects servers, so alternatives would need to be provided. STCS were already involved in the project, assisting with migration and configuration of the application servers. Due to STCS’s track record with the agency, we were asked to take on the task of migrating the Business Objects and InfoView facilities to new servers. This was complicated by the lack of knowledge within the agency about the existing setup; the inability to access the existing servers; and the use of out-dated hardware and software, including Business Objects v5 and Oracle 8.1.6 database.

Our main tasks included:

Multiple installations and configurations of the Oracle 8.1 and 9 database client software on Windows 2003 and Citrix Servers to support both the IMS application software and Business Objects/InfoView.
Multiple installations and configuration of Business Object v5 and InfoView against a Windows 2003 server environment. Previously the Business Object v5 and InfoView installation was supported on a Windows NT/2000 server environment, this is no longer the case, support has been removed fully by the software supplier due to age of the software. Installation against a Windows 2003 environment has never been supported by Business Objects, but we were asked to install in that environment anyway due to the need to fit in with the Data Centres IT infrastructure.

It was also necessary to perform the installation and configuration without direct access to the existing system. We were provided with the installation files and the Business Objects database repository, but no other information about the existing configuration.

We used our expertise to install and configure Business Object v5 full client on Citrix Servers, and with our knowledge of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 we where able to complete the InfoView part of installation even though the standard installation routines failed due to the unsupported newer version of the operating system.

Utilising knowledge of key users of the existing system, STCS where able to reduce the differences in the systems, and minimise disruption for users.

Creation of documentation covering the installation process, for use during the go-live and to provide a starting point for in-house support staff to enable better support of the systems.
Provision of a Proof of Concept (PoC) upgrade of Business Objects v6.5 InfoView server to show that the system could be easily merged into a Business Objects infrastructure already held in the Agency’s Data Centre, reducing maintenance and cost overheads and providing a more-integrated solution for users.
Provision of on-going support for the migrated environment.

This migration was a temporary measure and was a stepping stone towards a major upgrade, migration, integration and technology refresh based upon Business Objects XI v3.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Oracle 11 database.

Technical Approach

STCS worked closely with HCA to understand the requirements and work out a plan that would limit the disruption to the users, whilst providing the new server as quickly and efficiently as possible. One of the key aspects of the project was to transfer the knowledge STCS had of the installation to HCA’s in house technical support team. This was achieved by guiding HCA staff through the various steps of the installations and providing documentation which had been lacking from the previous supplier.

Key Technologies Used

The system has been built using the following technologies:

Business Objects v5 and InfoView
Windows Server 2003
IIS version 6.0
Citrix 6.1
Oracle Database 8.1.6
Oracle Database Client 9.1

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HCA - Datawarehouse and Business Objects

Homes and Communities Agency

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the national housing and regeneration agency for England, with an annual investment budget of more than £5bn. The HCA was formed on 1st December 2008 through the transfer of the functions and assets of English Partnerships; the investment functions of the Housing Corporation; a number of delivery programmes from Communities and Local Government and the transfer of the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

The Homes and Communities Agency is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The statutory objects of the HCA, as listed in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 are to:

improve the supply and quality of housing in England
secure the regeneration or development of land or infrastructure in England
support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of communities in England or their continued well-being
contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and good design in England, with a view to meeting the needs of people living in England.

Project Requirement and Scope

The client required a mechanism to gather information from a variety of sources and integrate them for reporting purposes. It was agreed that an Oracle Database would be created, with a mechanism to copy data into that database from multiple sources, and refresh the information in the database on a daily basis. Existing applications and data sources were reviewed to identify information required. An Oracle database has been created along with mechanisms to connect to the various data sources. Database tables were designed and scripts written to create and populate those tables. The initial phase of the project concentrated primarily on extracting data from two systems, but the warehouse has since been expanded to include data from several other systems. The warehouse includes mechanisms for matching data to ensure only consistent information is allowed through to the warehouse. Several Business Objects universes have also been developed to report this information.

Information in the Data Warehouse can be accessed by HCA’s intranet, and Business Objects for ad-hoc reporting. It is also accessed by other applications as a source of shared data to provide consistency of information and integration across the systems.

STCS have provided ongoing support and development of the Data Warehouse and Business Objects, since 2004 when the initial warehouse was implemented.

STCS providse the following services for this:

Second-line application support, and occasional first-line support
Training and support of HCA Applications Development staff
Business Analysis and System Design
Impact Analysis
Database and interface design and development
Peer Reviews
Testing
Database installation and administration
Performance-tuning

We provide a mixture of on-site and remote support, and have build up a close working relationship with the client, allowing us to react very quickly to any urgent Change Requests or support issues.

Technical Approach

This project included development of a new database, interfaces to/from the database from other databases, and continuing support of the developed assets. The data requirements were captured based upon current reporting requirements and frequently used information in the applications. These were then converted into a database design including de-normalised data and indexes to improve performance. SQL and PL/SQL scripts were written to extract data from other data sources via SQL*Net and ODBC (including Oracle, Lotus Notes, MS Access, dBASE) and store the extracted data in the Data Warehouse. These scripts are run every evening to ensure that the database is correct as of close of business for the previous day. The performance of the database was then tested, and compared to accessing the information in the ‘live’ data sources.

Some of the Data Warehouse information has been made available in HCA’s intranet, and is being used by other bespoke applications.

STCS has also developed a Business Objects universe to provide a complete picture a of HCA’s involvement with HCA’s Developers and Partners and to improve consistency across systems.

A batch process has been developed to monitor all stages of the overnight refresh and to email a status report to key IT support staff.

For ongoing development and support, any required changes to the system are investigated and specifications consisting of data requirements and possibly a narrative description of the processing are agreed with the client. Impact analysis is completed to assess impact upon other areas of the system, or other systems. Database changes are then designed, and data warehouse refresh script changes are developed. These are then peer reviewed before going to System testing, and then on to User Acceptance Testing. Changes may be batched with other changes before being scheduled to go live.

Key Technologies Used

The system has been built using the following technologies:

Oracle Designer (versions 6i –10g)
Oracle Database (8i – 10gR2)
Oracle SQL and PL/SQL (8i – 10gR2)
Business Objects v6.5
HP L2000 HP-UX10 server, migrated to Windows Server 2003 R2
ODBC
Lotus Notes SQL v3
Microsoft Access 2000
Sculptor

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AMH Workspace - IT Strategy

AMH Workspace

Established in 1984, AMH workspace has been providing clients with superb contemporary workspace for over 25 years. They operate throughout the UK and have worked with many National Blue Chip clients as well as local SMEs and Public Sector organisations.

AMH workspace has grown as a business over the past 25 years and like many businesses their I.T. infrastructure and requirement for technology has also grown over the same period but in an ad-hoc way. STCS undertook a study to identify some strategic directions that would enable AMH to make more effective and efficient use of IT within the company.

Project Requirement and Scope

The study sought to identify areas where IT could be used to provide additional business benefits or savings through the introduction of more efficient processes. The efficient use of IT systems also means that the IT infrastructure needs to have sufficient capacity to operate at an acceptable speed. Also, the infrastructure should be resilient so that system down-time will be minimised and finally if some serious or catastrophic event were to take place the system needs to be recoverable. The report considered how to improve all of these aspects of effectiveness and efficiency

Technical Approach

In conjunction with the senior management of AMH, STCS determined the scope for a study that would examine the main areas where improvements in IT were thought likely to have a positive effect on the business processes within AMH. STCS analysts working with AMH staff examined the existing records and observed the existing system processes. STCS also looked at the IT infrastructure with a view to identify problems or aspects that could be improved. Through a process of analysis and discussion with AMH management STCS then wrote a report detailing a strategy that would address the main weaknesses that were discovered in the area under study.

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Orchard Information Systems - arcHouse Plus System

Orchard Information Systems

Orchard Information Systems provides specialist software solutions to public service providers - including housing management, financial management, e-Government, and business intelligence.

Project Requirement and Scope

arcHouse Plus is an upgrade and migration of the functionality of Orchard’s successful arcHouse housing management system delivering contact management, workflow and web enabled citizen access. The major aim of the project was to develop an interface to allow the functionality to be delivered via a web browser, so that customers could more flexibly configure how the system could support their business. At the same time, additional functionality was developed for a major new customer, a devolved government Housing Executive.

STCS provided additional analysis and design resource to allow Orchard to meet extremely challenging timescales. The timescales meant that it was vital that quality of delivery was high and learning curves were short.

Technical Approach

Since documentation for the existing system did not exist, it was a vital element of the migration that consistent and comprehensive module designs were produced to enable efficient development and future maintenance. UML was chosen to facilitate an object-oriented approach and increase the reusability of the modules produced. This was essential given the modular natures of the product offerings and the configurability of the implementation.

All documents and designs were quality approved using a Quality Management System broadly consistent with the PRINCE2 Project Management methodology.

STCS introduced an innovative proposal to minimise and share the risk to Orchard by funding some of the learning and induction.

Key Technologies Used

The system was built using Java accessing a progress database.

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CE Electric - Oracle Financials

CE Electric UK

Working through its subsidiaries NEDL and YEDL, CE Electric delivers electricity to residential and commercial customers in the North East of England, including Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire. The company maintains the electrical infrastructure excluding the National Grid and invests £220 million per year on this infrastructure.

Project Requirement and Scope

In 2007 CE Electric implemented a new version of their Oracle Financials system. The staff were very familiar with the older version and it was not considered cost-effective to take the staff through the full product training when ideally what was required was a training programme that would train them to understand what the differences were. STCS was approached to advise on a cost-effective programme that would concentrate on the differences. STCS was responsible for the design of the training programme, the production of the training materials and the delivery of some of the material. In some cases the CE Electric manager responsible for his or her staff delivered the material.

Approach

There were some style changes in the new version of Oracle Financials that all of the users needed to understand, and aside from that users in different sections of the company needed to see the new and changed transactions relevant to their work. Although there were about 200 users that needed training over a large geographical area the volume of training for each user was not generally large. It was considered impractical to provide hands-on training and so it was decided that the training would be provided as short pre-recorded modules. Training courses could then be compiled for different groups of users so that only the relevant modules needed to be presented to a particular group. The modules were prepared using the Captivate product and the resulting modules were available on a website for ongoing use as well as on the day of the initial training.

Key Technologies Used

Adobe Captivate

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