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Case Study

HeadStart VMS Application

Published On: 05-04-2010

HeadStart VMS (Vehicle Management System) Application

The Client

R. Hollenshead is a wholesale automobile business in Philadelphia. They are normally selling 1000s of cars every week through their dealer network or through various auctions like Manheim Auto auction.

R. Hollenshead Auto Sales, Inc
www.rhollensheadautosales.com
1373 Lancaster Road
Manheim, PA 17545

Challenges

Client has been using access application currently to manage their day to day business processes and reporting requirements.

- They have been doing business at various places and team working remotely

- They have a huge dealer network selling and purchasing cars through them and would like them to access the system and see their activities

- More control on Car lifecycle, when it is available for Lane and when this should go for Auction

- Better and flexible reports to meet their day to day needs

- Automatic commissions calculation for their Buyers

- Integration with Chrome (www.chrome.com)

- Reconciliation of checks and bounced checks

- SMS and Emailing upon new car arrivals

- Bulk Check printing

- Integration with their accounting system

- Integration with Auctions (Manheim Auto Auction – MAA, Pennsylvania)

Solutions

MetaOption proposed and developed a web based solution (www.headstartvms.com) (IP Protected) to meet all client challenges and needs.

Following technologies are used as part of this solution:

- ASP.Net 3.5

- C#

- SQL Server 2005

- SQL Server Reporting Services

- Peachtree SDK (accounting system)

- Web Services

- Microsoft Access Client Application

Following are the major highlights:

Integration with IT department

Once contract is signed MetaOption has successfully integrated/discussed the need at different levels at Hollenshead IT and Non-IT departments to clarify their needs.

This includes

- Management

- Accounting

- Lane and Auction users

- Clerk and

- IT

Chrome Integration

One of the biggest challenges they were facing to include valid data in the system. Chrome provides a list of all valid Auto Vendors, models and their style. They update data on their FTP server on nightly basis.

MetaOption has successfully automated this entire process, downloaded the Chrome data (20 MB) on nightly basis updated the main system database using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and Windows Services. This ensures that when they adding an Inventory (Car) in the system it is valid.

Another big advantage they have is they just need to know the VIN# and based upon VIN# we pull all data from Chrome database and populate rest of the fields like Make, Model, Body, Color, AC, Power Windows etc. This saves a great amount of Hollenshead staff time in data entry.

Automatic Commissions Calculation

Their accounting department used to calculate commissions for each buyer on several hundred cars every week, which consumes much of their time and there were mistakes some time.

MetaOption has automated this entire process and embedded the entire commissions’ rules in a Windows Service and SQL stored procedures. This process calculates all commissions every night and post announcement in the system and send emails to accounting team regarding commissions’ calculation.

Now, their accounting team has to just generate the report next day morning and create checks. This saved many hours of their time.

Check Printing and Accounting Integration

Hollenshead accounting team used to spend many hours in creating several hundred checks every week to their Dealers, Buyers, and Vendors

MetaOption has provided them the function to print checks directly from the website. A new check entered in web system automatically flows to their accounting system using the program we created utilizing Peachtree SDK.

This helped them enter just check in one system and not to re-enter in their accounting system Peachtree.

SMS and Emailing

With the new system MetaOption has developed the functions for Bulk SMS and Emailing upon arrival of new car in the system.

This helps them sell the car quickly even without going in the auction.

Data Migration

One of the challenging job MetaOption did is migrated their existing data from Access database to the new web based system.

This has done using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and by translating and mapping all their existing data to the new system.

Manheim Integration

One of the biggest problem client has been facing was registering the cars manually with auctions like Manheim every week. It was a nightmare and extremely time consuming to register 1000s of cars through Manheim Registration Department.

In most of the cases cars ready for the sale but could not get registered with Auction because of manual process and it has to wait for another week or so, which was not good for client business as sooner they sell the car better for them.

MetaOption has worked directly with Manheim Pennsylvania IT department and come up with the solution of developing bi-directional web services to send registration to their system and receive sales data every 15 minutes during the auction.

Client is extremely happy and pleased with the solution. They can even register the cars with auction at 9 AM in morning while auction is starting at 9:30 AM. They receives the sold information about car nearly in real-time in their system as soon as car gets sold in auctions which helps them close their sale day much quicker.

Approach and Project Management

MetaOption has taken following approach to execute this project within 10 weeks.

- User Interface (UI) Design and approval

- Database design and approval

- Implementation, demo and feedback

- QA Testing

- Final Delivery

Following tools used as part of the project management:

MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server)

This helped centralizing all tasks, data, information, documents at one location and accessible by distributed team across the world at the same time.

PMS (Project Management System and Bug Tracking)

This helps development team to breakdown module in smaller tasks and tracks the progress on them. When a module is completed this gets updated in MOSS.

Timesheet

This helps us track exact time team has spent on the project and what exactly they have worked upon.

SVN (Subversion)

SVN is a configuration management system to manage versioning and allows check-in Check-out over the internet.
We provide login to the client in SVN environment, so, they have more control on the code written by us.

Client Control

A login can be provided to clients in all the systems. This gives a strong control and enables a remote project manager, business development person, or client to manage and execute project efficiently and timely manner.