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IBM Solution Partnership Center
IBM Solution Excellence Award earned by e-ASG
for the Envision Series
Highlights
Using IBM’s VisualAge Pacbase and WebSphere to re-engineer an existing ERP package, e-ASG offers Envision Series, a state-of-the-art, fully Web-enabled, highly customizable and affordable solution to public sector organizations. For using IBM technology to help public sector organizations transition to e-Government, e-ASG was awarded the IBM Solution Excellence Award in the “Born on the Web” category.
Implementing e-Government solutions—the counterpart of e-business for public sector organizations—offers tremendous potential for improving public sector service and efficiency. However, public sector organizations often cannot afford the high cost usually associated with the implementation of these solutions. The sector needed an inexpensive solution that eliminated the need for costly and lengthy implementation projects and one that utilized existing skills and IT infrastructure. With this approach in mind, e-ASG created Envision Series, a VisualAge Pacbase®-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software application specifically designed for public sector organizations.
e-ASG was founded in October 1999 as a spin-off of Alternative Resources Corporation, a supplemental staffing organization that acquired this division in 1997 from IBM. e-ASG has rapidly established itself in the e-Government marketplace leveraging its strategic partnership with Systems Consultants Inc.® (SCI), a software publisher in the public sector market, and IBM’s VisualAge Pacbase technology. e-ASG, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, re-engineered Envision Series to address the needs of the upper and middle public sector market.
Envision Series helps public sector organizations
According to e-ASG’s President and Chief Operating Officer Gianfranco Moi, public sector organizations are behind the times technologically. “The existing legacy systems in most public sector organizations,” he says, “are outdated and not integrated, causing serious productivity and inconsistency problems. To illustrate this point, in many public organizations, data has to be entered an average of seven different times before it filters throughout the system.” Moi continues, “Many government or non profit organizations choose to make the best of their existing systems rather than deal with the hassle of trying to integrate them. ERP applications for private industry are also not an answer because they require extensive reprogramming to comply with public sector accounting and management procedures, thus driving the implementation costs way up.”
e-ASG responded to this challenge by introducing Envision Series—an integrated and fully functional suite of Web-based ERP modules specifically designed for public sector organizations. Envision Series integrates Human Resources, Payroll, Budgetary Accounting, Procurement, Inventory Management, Property Management, Fixed Assets, and other public sector-specific functions, allowing these organizations to dramatically increase their productivity levels, improve customer service, and optimize the use of tax dollars. Envision Series also tracks numerous other multifaceted processes and approval cycles within the system, making reporting simple.
e-ASG uses IBM technology to speed development
e-ASG selected IBM’s VisualAge Pacbase and WebSphere™ development environments to re-engineer an existing ERP suite from its partner company SCI to create Envision Series. According to Moi, “We achieved tremendous productivity in re-engineering and Web-enabling the product when we chose IBM’s VisualAge Pacbase and WebSphere. We brought a suite of 1,500 programs to a production-ready level in less than two years.”
Envision Series has a three-tier architecture: It is based on a Web-browser client, a middle tier Web server, and a back-end application server. Since Envision Series is written in VisualAge Pacbase, it is portable across all IBM platforms and a large selection of non-IBM platforms.
User-friendly Envision Series deploys quickly
“Financially restricted organizations cannot afford the cost of lengthy implementation projects and the impact of a lengthy learning curve,” says Moi. “Envision Series works seamlessly on top of existing hardware and databases, and integrates very easily with legacy systems. This allows our customers to continue to meet the needs of their community without interruption or significant infrastructure investments. ”Understanding the inability of public organizations to compromise operations with downtime, e-ASG prides itself on quick deployment. e-ASG’s implementation approach, coined “LightSpeed,” allows immediate access to Envision Series over the Internet. While setting up the client’s environment, employees can immediately start using the application and begin training, data conversion, and other implementation tasks.
“And while it is instantly functional,” Moi continues, “Envision is also completely customizable, thanks to its modular architecture and underlying development environment. So, whenever an organization feels that it needs the budgeting module to work differently, or perhaps, they would like to change a security-check tracking feature in the human resource module, we can do that quickly without compromising the long-term evolution of Envision Series.”
Moi also praises the user friendliness of the system. Many small public organizations shy away from big ERP vendors because of the high cost and learning curve associated with deploying and mastering their systems, he says. Envision uses a familiar Web interface and extensive hypertext help files to keep users comfortable upon implementation, so improvements in productivity, such as the elimination of data redundancy and fast assimilation of the application in the daily routine, can be seen immediately.
e-ASG earns IBM Solution Excellence Award
By taking advantage of IBM’s partner resources and leveraging its niche as an ERP provider for the public sector, e-ASG earned the “Born on the Web” IBM Solution Excellence Award for 2000. Each year, IBM selects commercial members of PartnerWorld® for Developers that have gone the extra mile to create innovative e-business solutions using IBM hardware, software, and technologies. Winners are selected by a panel of judges—including IBM technology experts, industry press representatives, consultants, and analysts—and are announced at the annual technical developer conference presented by IBM, Lotus®, and Tivoli®. In addition, winners receive up to $30,000 in marketing/publicity assistance, technical support, and IBM products. For more information, visit: http://www.developer.ibm.com/welcome/showcase.html
“IBM is a model for how to support business partners in this industry,” says Moi. “We are thrilled to have won this award and look forward to working more with IBM in the future.”
PartnerWorld for Developers provides support and services to software developers worldwide who build solutions using IBM technologies. The program helps developers reach broader markets, lower their costs, and get products to marketfaster. Developers can take advantage of software and tools, hardware discounts and leases, extensive online technical support, cross-platform porting and testing facilities, marketing vehicles that reach a global audience, and more. To join, visit: http://www.developer.ibm.com
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