Horror stories eliminated
McLane turned to Microsoft’s AX advisors with their challenge: how to transform the McLane software in time for a product launch in just nine months? How could it be done efficiently and effectively? According to McLane, Celenia was the first name on their lips.
Past horror stories
When it comes to outsourcing software development, however, Greg Trollip, Product Director at McLane Distribution Systems and his team are cautious buyers. In the past, companies they used for outsourcing this work promised much yet delivered little, simply acting as order takers implementing requirements. Celenia’s reputation for going beyond the expected and its strong references made the company stand out immediately.
“The endorsement from Microsoft was so important,” explained Greg. “The first project for Celenia was a small, isolated bit of code development as a test before we moved on to the bigger projects. We were very happy with those first results and it proved that Celenia’s teams are not just order takers.”
Celenia shines for clients
That’s where Celenia shines for clients like McLane: stepping beyond merely collecting requirements and coding mindlessly, and taking on the role of advisor, guide and educator. Using its proven SureBuild and SureDeploy methodologies to get McLane’s project moving in the right direction from Day One, the Celenia team (including one of its best Solution Architects) plunged into shaping the scope of the project and its implementation via in-depth discovery sessions and planning. They tapped into one of Celenia’s three international software development centers to start the production process, keeping up a rapid pace by “playing” time differences: one team in the United States would work while the Ukraine team was sleeping, and vice versa. Constant project reviews and consultation meetings handled unexpected problems, and kept the project from becoming bogged down.
10,000 hour project completed in just nine months
Celenia showed to be able to radically scale up to meet the challenge of completing a 10,000-hour project in just nine short months. With the final product (including code testing and training) fully completed during summer 2010, McLane was able to debut the system at the Microsoft Convergence conference and begin making early sales. Not only that, but McLane’s internal software team was fully trained and certified in Dynamics AX.
The transformation of McLane’s software products continues today – with Celenia as partner and guide – promising continued industry dominance.
Press Release published by McLane Advanced Technologies, May 5, 2010:
Temple, TX – McLane Advanced Technologies (MAT) showcased the next generation in warehouse management – MDS Warehouse 3G – at the Microsoft Convergence conference in Atlanta, GA. Designed for and embedded in Microsoft Dynamics AX, this new warehouse management system provides enhanced functionality to fully optimize a company’s supply chain operations…
>> Read the full press release here
>> Read more about Dynamics Sourcing Services
