Bridging Software Applications

You may have heard the term "legacy application" thrown around in technical circles. A legacy application is typically a software application that is outdated, yet heavily relied on by a company. This software application may have pre-dated many current software improvements that many of us may now take for granted such as browser-based interfaces, usable reports, security standards, scalability, etc. At some point during the lifespan of this legacy application a company realizes that they are now being limited by that applications functionality. In many cases the software application may be doing exactly what was intended that it do but for reasons such as changing company requirements, changing customer needs, having to adhere to certain industry or regulatory standards, etc. the application needs to be replaced. For most companies this is an extremely expensive undertaking both functionally and financially. The alternative is a "Bridging Software Application".

A Bridging Software Application is a custom software application that is created for the sole purpose of increasing the functionality of a legacy application avoiding the need to upgrade or replace the application. In most cases this saves the company both money and time and significantly extends the life of the legacy application because the core of the legacy system is leveraged and currently owned software platforms are utilized. Depending on what functions are added will determine if this bridging software application is transparent to the end-user. Functions that can be added include: a web interface or portal for your customers or employees, web or internal reporting, security enhancements, connectivity between two stand-alone software applications, etc. The following is an example of results that can be achieved by creating a Bridging Software Application:

One of our clients is the owner of a public warehouse and fulfillment business who faced challenges common to many small and mid-sized entrepreneurial companies:

  • An aging line of business system which offers limited functionality and prohibitively expensive upgrade and maintenance costs
  • Paper-based business processes that are slow, error-prone, and which ultimately limit the ability of the company's key knowledge workers to serve clients with speed and effectiveness
  • Despite these challenges, clients and business partners constantly demanding more and more information and services, accurate and in real-time: chief among them, self-service data entry, and real-time inventory and shipment history information.

Our client's core business system is a legacy warehouse management system (WMS) which our client feels might be nearing the end of its useful life. It performs most operational tasks sufficiently, but it has several key shortcomings. As our client continued to investigate, several options were considered, as follows:

  • Pay for the limited-functionality upgrades of the existing WMS, adding some functionality but not really addressing the key problem areas
  • Invest in an entirely new line of business system or ERP solution to offer the needed capabilities
  • Customize the existing WMS by directly modifying its source code, thus adding most of the needed capabilities, but making the system unable to be supported or upgraded

Our client met with several product vendors representing the various alternatives above, but none of the solutions seemed to provide a reasonable return on investment or to appropriately address the necessary business issues. So they invited AcuityPoint to assess the situation.

After a brief series of discussions, AcuityPoint was able to understand the client's business challenges, their understanding of available solution alternatives, and the resource and financial constraints the company faced. Without any specific allegiance to a particular technology platform or line of business product, AcuityPoint was able to assess all available solution alternatives without bias or quota pressure. As a result, AcuityPoint was able to envision and design a solution that offered all of the needed functionality; even more importantly, the proposed solution was lower in cost than the other solution alternatives, because it utilized many of the capabilities of systems and products already owned and licensed by our client. We call this solution approach "Return on Legacy Investment", which consists of squeezing the maximum value and lifespan out of existing platforms and programs by utilizing powerful, low-cost enabling technologies like Microsoft's .NET and Office technologies to integrate and extend them).

The proposed (and implemented) AcuityPoint solution consisted of the following elements:

  • A Microsoft .NET web application which provided secure customer access to their inventory and order history data from the existing WMS application. This allowed us to "re-purpose" this operational information in valuable ways for our client's customers, while also allowing secure, real-time access to that data. Clients can even track their UPS and FedEx consignee shipments with a single mouse-click.
  • Web-based self-service for scheduling shipments to consignees. A .NET application module was developed allowing clients to provision their own shipments automatically, specifying the line items, quantities, and shipping instructions in a manner of seconds. Automated email confirmations are sent when the order is placed and when it is shipped. Since these orders are placed instantly into the WMS application just as if they had been manually entered, inventory and order history status is updated instantly.
  • The WMS application only stores information about current inventory and warehouse activity – historical data mining and reporting is not possible. Using the automated data transformation capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server, AcuityPoint was able to create a new historical database which stores daily inventory and warehouse information. This warehouse will serve as the basis for an ever-expanding suite of capabilities for our client to really analyze the trends and performance of its organization.
  • Using the new historical database created above, we were able to automate the creation of client-specific billing detail reports which are based on actual warehouse activity. These reports were previously created manually and consumed significant time to produce; they were also subject to error which would result in under-billings. Now, the reports are produced automatically in a matter of seconds; further, they are delivered to the user in ready-to-print Microsoft Excel format, where they can be printed or re-designed for specific needs.

This solution was developed and delivered in a matter of weeks, on time and on budget. Customers and trading partners now have access to their inventory information in real-time, eliminating phone call and email inquiries. Shipments are validated and processed automatically; eliminating paper-based processes and the error and costs they create. Billings are more accurate, as they are based on actual daily activity, not just ending balances. Planned enhancements, at an absolute minimum of cost, call for additional historical and trend reports, allowing our client to really analyze its performance on key business metrics.

By leveraging AcuityPoint's capabilities, the client's existing technology, and the power of Microsoft's application enhancement platforms (.NET and Office), we were able to truly transform our client's operations on a modest budget. After creatively defining this unique solution, AcuityPoint was able to manage the project to a complete implementation, including client rollout communications and internal user readiness and training. Consistent with our philosophy, we were able to selectively use our network of partners to provide specialized resources and skill sets, offering our client best-of-breed capability without being locked in to any single provider. A total solution, previously available only to larger enterprises due to budget and complexity... now available to smaller entrepreneurial organizations thanks to the unique capabilities and approach of AcuityPoint.