ERYMA – LINK FINANCE

Fund order optimization software

The project consisted in developing a decision-support software for cash dispensers in order to optimize the existing funds in the ATMs.

Total project duration : 12 months
The total cost of the project was 400 man-days.

Details of the project :

Problematic

The process of ordering funds was partially computerized (the usual office automation tools were used: e-mail, Excel files, etc.) and paper documents played a very important role in the process (forms entered manually, sending and receiving faxes). Given the diversity of events that can influence the amount distributed by an ATM, human appreciation plays a very important role in the heart of the process of determining the number of notes to be replenished.

The IT tool therefore had to assist the order manager in non-value added tasks, while at the same time allowing him a great deal of flexibility in the main decision – the determination of the amount needed for each intervention.

The main objectives of the project were :

To provide an easily accessible, unified work tool, gathering information on the activity of the automatons, the orders placed and the creation of new orders.
Continuously improve the results generated by the optimization algorithms, based on historical activity data.
Automate tasks with no added value for the manager, thus improving performance and reducing the risk of human error: document generation, verification of insurance and space constraints, etc.

Mission statement

Development of a complete system including :

Communication interfaces for the financial logs of the distributors (Windows services)
Engines for interpreting technical logs received under several protocols (Windows services)
A calculation engine generating command recommendations by several algorithms
A web application for the management of the PLCs, the evaluation of the calculation results and the complete management of the ordering process.

Organization

For the realization of the project, 4 persons have been allocated :

1 project manager and functional manager
3 development engineers

This contract was executed entirely with Tana Corp resources dedicated to the project.

Main characteristics of the client

Eryma Services (formerly Solymatic) is a high value-added services company for the banking sector based in the Lyon conurbation. It is one of the main players in the fields of electronic banking, IT services and banking maintenance.

With its 5 regional branches and 41 technical centres, it maintains more than 15,000 banking distributors throughout France and provides financial management services to more than 1,000.

Conduct of the project

Advice and support role provided throughout the project

A real force of accompaniment: The organization of the project gives a primordial importance to the quality of the accompaniment, to make the customer benefit from the expertise and the know-how capitalized by Tana Corp on its projects of the same type.
Consulting strength : Our solid experience on management applications in the field of distribution and fixed-price projects has enabled us to provide the customer with the best market practices in this field. Moreover, Tana Corp is a force of proposal in the highlighting of functional options likely to bring a strong functional added value.
Expertise on web applications: Interfaces for managing and exploiting results have been realized in the form of web applications to facilitate collaboration and access to information. We used our expertise in this field to create ergonomic and easy-to-use screens to maximize the productivity of technicians using these applications.

Proposed methodology to validate the project steps from a client’s point of view

Proposed project reporting
A monthly steering committee enabled us to steer this long-term project in close collaboration with the client.

Tools chosen for the project management

Project Management: MS Project
Incident follow-up : BugX (based on Mantis,http://www.mantisbt.org/)
Version and configuration tracking: SubVersion (http://subversion.tigris.org/)

Solution features

Business processes covered by the solution

Management of the park of automatons
Inventory management, distribution and refilling of vending machines
Recommendations of the commands by the calculation engine
Parameterization and configuration of the calculation algorithms
Order management

What were the most difficult features to implement ?

There are many factors that can influence the distribution of a PLC in one way or another. One of the challenges of the project was to design a system capable of taking all these factors into account in a realistic way when calculating recommendations. We achieved this by setting up very complete parameterization systems and powerful calculation algorithms that make intelligent use of the available historical data.

Technical platform elements

Software package, software or development languages used

After analysis of all the constraints, Tana Corp proposed the realization of a custom application, based entirely on a Microsoft solution:

Microsoft .Net Framework, C# language
ASP.NET with AJAX
SQL Server 2005 Express
IIS 6 Web Server

Reasons for the choice

Microsoft .Net Framework with C#: development platform allowing an excellent cost/delivery time/quality implementation ratio.
ASP.NET and AJAX: scripting languages allowing the development of WEB interfaces with a high level of ergonomics.
SQLServer 2005Express: free, high-performance database server, perfectly adapted to the target data volume.
IIS 6 Web Server: Microsoft’s web server for hosting ASP applications

Share of pre-existing developments used on which the Supplier has capitalised to complete the project

Libraries of AJAX interface elements already developed internally by Tana Corp.
Interfaces for communication and processing of financial logs of PLCs already developed by Tana Corp within the framework of the LINK Technique project.

Challenges and key success factor

Ergonomics: daily use of the application in a production context,
Accuracy: provide managers with realistic order recommendations, making routine tasks easier for them.
Technical complexity: several applications in the whole system (such as the Rules Engine or the Protocol Editor) have a high degree of complexity, which is why emphasis has been placed on their analysis and design phase.

Business result

Today, the tool has received excellent feedback from users, who have appreciated it:

the relevance of the results presented as well as their ease of use.
the ease of use and ergonomics of the user interfaces

ERYMA – LINK FINANCE

Fund order optimization software

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