A German IT Company needed to develop
a business applications suite (P4Suite)
for Groove™, a new peer-to-peer platform
by Groove Networks, Inc. Groove™ is
a platform for building collaborative,
decentralized business applications.
P4Suite for Groove™ was to include:
P4CRM (customer relationship management
system)
P4Info (document management system)
P4File Manager (file management
tool)
P4Favorites (set of shortcuts to
mostly often used Groove items)
P4Services (technical support center)
Key Problems
The Company needed a team of software
professionals that would promptly acquire
the knowledge and skills in the new
technological area of Groove™. To hire
and train the team in Germany was not
the best solution since the Company
had a strict budget for this product.
So, the Company asked several offshore
software development companies to complete
a pilot project. Having compared the
results of different companies, the
Company selected Arcadia because of
its high professionalism and quality
of work. Arcadia's team surpassed all
expectations: it demonstrated the abilities
to be creative, to quickly learn and
adopt new technologies, and to work
independently in a situation where the
requirements were not strictly defined
at the beginning, but rather were evolving
in the process of development.
Arcadia, Inc.
Solution
The first task of the Arcadia's team
was to develop P4CRM, the new customer
relationship management (CRM) system
for Groove™. Arcadia worked on the new
CRM system throughout the whole product
development lifecycle. This included
defining and clarifying the customer
and software requirements, designing
and implementing the product, and testing
and documenting the product. The first
version of P4CRM was released on time
and on budget and is now available to
customers. Now Arcadia participates
in providing the customer support and
is developing a new version of P4CRM.
The Company was extremely pleased with
Arcadia's services and ordered development
of two other P4Suite applications: P4Favorites
(a set of shortcuts to mostly often
used Groove items) and P4Info (a document
management system). P4Favorites was
released before the due date. Now Arcadia
is working on P4Info in close cooperation
with the Company.
CONCLUSIONS:
1. Arcadia, Inc. can add a great value
to the development of new technologies.
2. Companies from different countries
can successfully overcome business cultural
differences and establish mutually beneficial
relationships.
Employed technologies:
Platform: Groove Workspace 2.1.
Tools and technologies: GDK (Groove
Development Kit), COM, ATL, XML.
