Multishoring

The implementation of Microsoft BizTalk Server at TIM SA – one of the leading companies on the distribution market of electrical goods in Poland – has created the integration platform, on which the selected areas of the MFG/PRO ERP system have been replaced with specialized IT systems. Thus TIM SA has regained the ability to further automate its business processes using best in class IT systems, and also has secured a great deal of flexibility in carrying out the integration of its IT environment in the future. BizTalk Server was implemented in a nearshoring model by Multishoring.

Initial situation

TIM SA is one of the leading companies on the Polish distribution market of electrical goods, whose shares have been quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1998. The company’s distribution network consists of a logistics center with an area of 30 thousand sqm, located in Siechnice, and 30 wholesales scattered across Poland. The number of electrical goods in the TIM’s offer counts tens of thousands, of which several thousand are a permanent storage items.

TIM SA has won its position by consistently realized a development strategy, innovation and business process automation. Since 2001, the implementation of TIM’s strategy has been supported by the MFG/PRO ERP system, created by an US company called QAD. It has been modified several times since the implementation to enable the smooth operation of TIM SA on an increasing scale. But as TIM grows – and there have emerged new areas of activity, new sales channels and requirements for customer service, access to information and automation of business processes – the restrictions of MFG/PRO have become increasingly apparent.

The solution

After analyzing all the options, TIM SA has decided to implement specialized, best-in-class IT systems, to replace the selected areas of MFG/PRO. It was decided to gradually implement the systems in the following areas: WMS (Warehouse Management System), CRM (Customer Relations Management) and MDM (Master Data Management). The other areas have been left to the previously used MFG/PRO ERP system. Integration of the new systems with MFG/PRO has been performed using Microsoft BizTalk Server, which served as an ESB platform.

The choice was preceded by a thorough analysis of several commercially available integration platforms, which functionality met the expectations of TIM SA. In addition to Microsoft’s BizTalk solution, there were products from Oracle, IBM and open platform Mule ESB on the “short list” of TIM SA. The choice fell on BizTalk Server as the platform with the lowest TCO while ensuring a high level of security.

The most important requirement for new IT systems was that they were to be made in the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). It was a necessary condition to allow their seamless integration with MFG/PRO. In the first stage of the integration project, there were prepared 25 Web Services, which enabled the integration of MFG/PRO with specialized new IT systems. Created groups of Web Services have been cataloged in the UDDI registry to allow easy use of them. The data, which were to be exchanged between MFG/PRO and specialized IT systems, has been written in the canonical schema standard OAGIS 9.4.1 (in XML).

The use of the canonical data model allowed us to determine common to all system’s data exchange formats, which was necessary for the smooth integration process. In the second stage of the project, there was the integration of MFG/PRO with WMS (Warehouse Management System) carried out. Integration with other specialized IT systems – CRM (Customer Relations Management) and MDM (Master Data Management) – is scheduled for next year.

Entrusting the technical support, maintenance, and development of its IT systems to Multishoring enabled the HL Display Group, Europe’s leading merchandising company, to significantly lower its IT support expenses while achieving a higher standard of service. Another essential benefit gained by HL Display’s IT Department through the outsourcing of IT support and development to Multishoring was improved control over its IT environment and, in particular, over the company’s main IT system – Jeeves ERP. Now it can be adjusted to the needs of the company faster and more accurately.

Initial situation

HL Display is a leading international supplier of products and solutions for in-store communication and merchandising to the food and non-food retail sectors. The company is also a leading supplier of products and solutions to brand manufacturers for merchandising on the shelf and in other parts of the store. HL Display operates in 48 markets in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In 36 of these markets, it has its own subsidiaries, while the other 12 are served by selected distributors. HL Display was founded in 1954. It has a turnover of approximately EUR 180m (2011) and employs around 1100 staff. The company was first listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1993. Following the takeover of the principal owner, Ratos the shares were delisted on 17 September 2010.

Prior to 2012 HL Display worked with various IT companies from Sweden, which provided technical support services for the software used in the company. Such dispersed IT support was difficult to control and cost-ineffective. This issue was particularly apparent in the case of the main IT system in HL Display – Jeeves ERP.

Taking over technical support, maintenance, and development of all IT systems

After the trial period, the timeline and scope were defined for the process of taking over technical support, maintenance, and development of HL Display’s IT systems by Multishoring. It was decided that the IT support services were to be provided on all working days in France, Poland, Sweden, UK, between 8 AM and 5 PM, by a dedicated team of consultants. The team was divided into two parts. The first one – made up of two specialists – was assigned to assist in the work of the HL Display’s IT Department, in the area of development of the Jeeves ERP system. The consultants forming that team were selected by way of internal recruitment at Multishoring – among employees from the company’s branches located near the HL Display’s IT Department headquarters. This was necessary as the consultants were supposed to work every day in the HL Display’s IT Department and to report directly to the project manager responsible for the development and maintenance of Jeeves. After four months of collaboration, four additional consultants were included in the team.

The second part of the team – made up of three specialists – was assigned tasks related to the provision of technical support and maintenance for IT systems that were to be taken over in the first phase of cooperation. The team of HL Display consultants was supplemented by the coordinator, the one who had already worked for HL Display during the trial period of cooperation. His function – as before – was to coordinate the work of the team seconded to HL Display, and, if necessary, to replace the project manager responsible for the development and maintenance of Jeeves ERP.

Cooperation between Multishoring and a Belgium-based BizTalk consultancy has enabled the latter company to get an easy and flexible access to Multishoring’s cost-effective and highly skilled BizTalk programmers. In this way the consultancy has been able to strengthen its support and development capabilities around the BizTalk integration product and to keep the fast pace of growth.

Initial situation

The Belgium-based BizTalk consultancy was founded in 2007 by 3 industry experts in business integration. The company employs 15 staff and serves more than 25 national and international customers to connect their business applications and partners. The company is a Microsoft Gold Application Integration Partner and Windows Azure Circle Partner. Its offices are located in the area near Brussels, Belgium

In 2012 the consultancy felt that its rapid growth was limited by a shortage of skilled BizTalk programmers. For this reason the consultancy started to search for other companies specializing in BizTalk that could provide external development and support resources around the BizTalk platform. The consultancy came across Multishoring via Google search. After the initial contact, Multishoring’s representatives visited the consultancy at its offices in Belgium at their own expanse and proposed a trial project. Although the consultancy was talking to several potential partners and had many concerns about how it would work, the company decided to give it a try with Multishoring.

Cooperation after the test project

At the beginning of cooperation after the test project both companies put a lot of effort in creating a communication model that would enable the consultancyto work with Multishoring’s developers like with its own employees. The accepted model assumed appointing a senior developer for daily contacts at the Multishoring’s site. His task – apart from the development work – is also coordinating with a counterpart on the consultancy’s side, which includes specifying jobs to be done and setting time frames for given tasks.

Eversfield Consultants, a UK-based company providing strategic interim management services to Private Finance Initiative (PFI), construction and property management organizations, hired developers from Multishoring to build its FileMaker custom app for property lifecycle management. As a result, the company was able to reduce its system development costs by half and to focus on its core business.

Client

Eversfield provides strategic interim management services to PFI, construction and property management organizations. The company also offers asset condition surveying and life-cycle scheduling as well as cost management for businesses involved in long term asset management. Eversfield’s approach in this area is to make use of elemental data to build a bespoke profile of every building based on the asset condition.

Initial situation

Eversfield Consultants wanted to create a system to enhance property lifecycle management. The company specified detailed requirements to be met by that system and began the development work on its own. The system was to be built on the FileMaker platform as it was important that data could be entered into the app from mobile devices. They were to be used by Eversfield employees for evaluating the individual asset condition of real property in such sectors as Health, Education and Student Accommodation. However, it soon became apparent that the system development was taking much more time and was more difficult than the company expected.

Solution

Eversfield turned to FileMaker for help in creating the system and was redirected to Multishoring, a Polish near-shore development provider. The company offers custom business solutions built using the FileMaker platform on a nearshoring and offshoring basis. Its services are available to both FileMaker Business Alliance members who require additional cost-effective developers and directly to FileMaker customers.

In the course of discussions Eversfield Consultants and Multishoring quickly agreed upon the terms of cooperation and began working on the project. All arrangements were made remotely, during meetings conducted via Skype (with a screen sharing option), and via email communications.

In the initial phase of the project there were two FileMaker developers involved in the work for Eversfield. Then this number decreased to just one developer. The project team also consisted of one graphics designer (for a few days) and the project manager (for a few hours per month). The team worked on the basis of a detailed requirements specification supplied by Eversfield. They also took advantage of FileMaker support when necessary.

Scope of work

• Rewriting the entire system
• Redesigning the database and relationships in the database
• Redesigning the user interface and creating new interfaces,
• Making it possible to edit the project, buildings, floors, rooms, and to copy at any level of a building/ floor/room in the system
• Allowing the modification of the base components from the desktop application
• Allowing the generation of graphs and reports in the system
• Allowing the calculation of the budget for the project/ building by various parameters and for various periods (annual/ quarterly)
• Allowing the generation of reports as PDF/ Excel files
• Developing a new graphic interface (colors and buttons)

In 2012, the weather podcast for Multishoring suggested sunny with a chance of Spirits as Pernod Ricard, the world’s co-leader in wine and spirits, asked us to help them with a solution to enable document exchange across its global branches. Since Pernod Ricard already collaborated with us on an integration project for their Polish branch, they recognized us as first-class BizTalk experts. They entrusted us with creating a dedicated BizTalk solution for the entire company. Our collaboration on this project has spanned over 10 years, allowing Pernod Ricard to seamlessly integrate all its branches and continuously improve its integration processes.

The challenge was to:

• Replace the inefficient BRIDGE-related error management system based on ageing Microsoft InfoPath and emails with a custom solution that provides more accurate data on errors and a more flexible approach to notifying and handling them.
• Provide more information on errors and a self-service enabling approach to notifications and their handling.
• Provide visibility over all the flows being run on BRIDGE.
• Allow cloud-based integrations and publishing of on-premise APIs.
• Speed up the integration processes.

Uncorking the Perfect Solution

Like a connoisseur seeking the perfect blend, Pernod Ricard decided to transition its integration solutions into a hybrid architecture by migrating to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. This move allowed Pernod Ricard to leverage Azure Integration Services components and connectors for new integrations. With our guidance, Pernod Ricard has developed a custom solution accessible through a web browser called iTrack, which visually represents all errors originating from BizTalk and Azure. Pernod Ricard now navigates the intricate tapestry of integration with elegance and finesse.

Summary

• 2012: BRIDGE project, enabling data exchange among Pernod Ricard's branches using BizTalk and Web Services.
• 2017: migration of integration solutions to Azure, optimizing error handling processes.
• Introduced iTrack, a custom error management solution, providing detailed error tracking and notification capabilities.
• Expanded support to include branches from Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.
• Deployed self-service portals for API and resource requests, reducing manual configuration efforts.
• Established a Center of Excellence to share best practices across Pernod Ricard's branches.