Customer Successes
Dedicated to providing solutions that solve real business needs
LANSA Professional Services offer unique competencies in the areas of business solutions, application development, integration, Business-to-Business (B2B), client/server, Web and Wireless deployments, and are designed to assist organizations – in diverse industries – to build and adapt mission-critical applications using the LANSA suite of products.
Some customers that we have partnered with to deliver technology solutions, include: IBM, Shell, Porsche, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Music Publishing Association, Dean Foods, Apria Healthcare, Morton Salt, Scholastic Books, and many more. The case studies below represent just a few of LANSA’s Professional Services success stories.
Nationwide
Nationwide Accident Repair Services is the UK’s largest vehicle repair group with relationships with all major motor insurers. They have 71 body shops and also deliver innovative mobile repair services for minor damage and window replacement throughout the country.
Their core systems consist of heavily modified software packages and custom applications running on an IBM i platform, coded primarily in RPG and Synon.
As a rapidly growing organization, Nationwide sees its IT strategy as a key competitive differentiator. They needed to ensure their core application supports current business, while being agile enough to deliver new Web and Mobile functionality for their emerging markets.
When considering their systems from a business perspective, Nationwide chose LANSA Managed Application Services as its outsourcing partner because LANSA specializes in the support and maintenance of applications on the IBM i platform and the delivery of new multi-platform systems.
LANSA’s multi-year fixed-rate contract with Nationwide provides:
- Help Desk functions and preset Service Levels
- 2nd and 3rd line support for core applications with a team of experienced RPG and LANSA specialists
- Application maintenance to deliver bug fixes, enhancements and system documentation
- Flexible support contract, enabling unused support time to be used for new developments
- Agile development methodologies and rapid prototyping to deliver new applications
- ROI models and accurate estimates for each development to set project priorities
In addition to Nationwide’s core systems, Mobile repair technicians now use hand-held devices linked to the control center to receive dispatch details and capture pictures at several stages of the repair process. At repair completion, the customer's signature is captured on the mobile devices as well. A partner portal is provided for customers to look at the photographs and monitor job status – all in real-time.
The integration project was completed on time and budget – and in line with the original vision – and has been working successfully since 2010.
"In order to fulfill our growth expectations, system development and integration across the Nationwide Mobile Business is critical. I have been impressed by LANSA’s ability to develop quick, robust system solutions and work closely with us on our future strategic needs."
Gary Nicholls, Operations Director, Nationwide
Blackmer
Blackmer is the world's leading manufacturer of positive displacement pumps, centrifugal pumps and compressors for the transfer of liquid and gas products. Through a global network of distributors and OEMs, Blackmer serves a wide variety of industries.
LANSA Professional Services implemented LANSA's Commerce Edition for BPCS, a B2B self-service framework solution for account, price and inventory inquiry and order entry and tracking, using direct integration into their BPCS ERP system. The framework was then extended with a Web configurator module for placing custom orders.
"LANSA Services were always fast to respond and helped to push along any project that hovered too long in user acceptance stage. Also, we never had to spend time explaining how BPCS works."
Christopher A. Kanous, Information Technology Director at Blackmer
NMHG
NACCO Materials Handling Group, or NMHG, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of Forklift trucks under the brand names of Hyster and Yale.
NMHG and LANSA worked on a complex project to design and develop a Demand Flow manufacturing system, using Visual LANSA, with a team comprised of NMHG representatives from North America and Europe and LANSA consultants.
NMHG has now deployed Flowbase400 in three languages – English, Italian and Spanish – and to worldwide plants in North America (including Mexico), Scotland, Northern Ireland, Italy and Holland. NMHG is continually enhancing the system on their own.
"It was very helpful to get real-life hands-on development experience under the guidance of LANSA Professional Services. There was a tremendous knowledge transfer. Our internal staff now supports and maintains the system."
Ron Duffett, Manager of Global Manufacturing Systems
Maronda Homes
Online Home Portal
Maronda Homes is a leading home builder, operating in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Since its inception, Maronda has built over 20,000 homes. With more than 50 models and an ever-growing list of communities to choose from, Maronda delivers the Easily Observable Better Value they promise their customers. MISG Software Solutions Inc., a LANSA Business Partner, built and maintains Maronda's core line of business application – a 100 percent LANSA application.
LANSA Professional Services has worked with Maronda to deliver www.maronda.com, which allows consumers and Maronda staff alike to view models (floor plans, 3-D panoramic views, options), communities (maps, directions, sales contacts), as well as dynamically cycling information on Maronda Homes.
Continued Innovation
Maronda has also leveraged LANSA Integrator to dynamically generate and deliver complex 20-page contract documents in PDF format. These contracts automatically include customer and model information, pertinent addendums, and financial information pulled directly from the iSeries database. Instead of hand-crafting each contract, Maronda sales associates in remote model home locations can immediately receive a printable PDF to be handed to the home buyer on demand.
To ensure that Maronda executives have real-time Web-based access to sales and profit information, Maronda is once again leveraging LANSA Integrator to dynamically build a dashboard of charts and graphs – showing sales by region and community, which can be drilled down upon to show information related to a single home sale. A security module ensures that sales managers see only their own data, while executives have access to all company information.
"Please be advised that I was completely satisfied with every facet of the engagement and every individual."
Maronda Homes