Middleware Development
About our client
Our client in this project is a large multi-national investment bank with headquarters in the USA and offices throughout the world
The Requirement
Internally our client used a procurement platform from market leaders Oracle – a product called PeopleSoft. This allowed employees of the investment bank to place orders for a variety of products from a number of suppliers, all from within their internal network and using common user interfaces. This leads to easier support and administration from their internal IT support team.
In approaching Full Metal they had a requirement to offer access to a new webstore from within the PeopleSoft platform.
Our Solution
The process began with a number of online collaboration meetings, which Full Metal hosted due to the international nature of the discussions. Using the API documentation from both software suppliers we put together a feature specification document. We actually do these for projects of all sizes, in fact we do 2 versions of our specification, one that is for internal use, detailing all the technical steps needed to complete a project, this is used for budgeting a project for our clients and also how long a project will take. The second specification is to take technical specification and turn it into a jargon free version so our clients understand what we are going to do for them.
The project manager then worked with the internal developers to plan and structure the project to succeed in supplying the necessary Middleware to talk to the PeopleSoft procurement platform and the intended webstore. With so many different systems in play, Full Metal had to navigate around a number of pitfalls, not least the ability to provide data to both systems when needed.
Testing and efficient handling of feedback were key factors in this project.
Outcome
With some big names involved in this project, a positive outcome could only be achieved if all aspects of the specification document were satisfied. With final sign-off the project was released to their respective live platforms, and the process of training employees at the investment bank took place.
Since release the software has been continually used with the partnership continuing today. As both PeopleSoft and the integrated webstore are in constant development, we provide maintenance on the middleware as new versions of the two platforms are released.
