A Case Study in Custom Application Development
Successful businesses rarely start out with the financial and intellectual capital required to develop a strong technological infrastructure capable of automating the work required. As a company grows, employees develop unique business processes and ways of storing critical company information. The result of this is that by the time a company is ready to invest in software, significant customization is required.
The Problem
Our client imports skilled laborers from the Philippines and manages the complex legal and financial paperwork involved in hiring international workers. These workers, under contract to our client, are subcontracted to large oil and gas companies who require skilled labor on short notice and do not want to take on the burden of an employer. The result is a massively complex logistical task for employees who must arrange housing, transportation, and jobs for their contractors. Prior to the Employee Data System (EDS), a single employee tracked important information about 700+ contractors on Excel spreadsheets and in her head.
The Solution
Entrance Software met with our client to create a detailed scope document which outlined the major functionality and development methodology to be used in developing EDS: The Employee Data System. Key requirements of this project were:
- Store critical employee details to replace an existing Excel spreadsheet
- Maintain a history of employment for each employee
- Track the current status and assignment for each employee
- Record vacations, visa and passport status, and other details to ensure proper management of employee legal status
- Help managers verify training and eligibility for each employee based on job-specific requirements
- Based on the scope document, Entrance Software worked to build software based on our client’s requirements. Once development was complete, Entrance and client management collaborated to make changes and additions that could not be foreseen during the scope-development process.
Development
In order to keep costs down, management requested that Entrance Software use the built-in security model provided by ASP.Net and Windows 2003. All database access is via SQL Server stored procedures secured via Active Directory integration. Access to the user interface is secured using ASP.Net site maps and automatic page-trimming based on Active Directory group membership.