Budget Management System

Business challenge

Our client had most of their business processes supported by SAP R/3 family system. One of the most important business functions of any complex organization is financial management and in this particular case our client's employees were not satisfied with SAP R/3. They sometimes even had to use Excel spreadsheets to track expenditures and remaining funds. Eventually, the company requested an easier to use, more efficient solution, with more functionality/features and better performance, which we helped them to develop.

Solution

Using the .NET development platform we developed an Intranet application to set, manage, and track budgets. The application imported purchase orders and invoices from SAP R/3 sub-system. The budgets were set at the beginning of a financial year through departments and projects hierarchy in the application. The application allowed instant tracking of expenses, adjustments to the budgets whenever necessary, and extensive reporting capabilities. A complex security hierarchy was supported in the system to reflect the organizational structure. A project manager for example, had access to only his/her project financial information, while a department head was able to view all data at all levels, from the department overall big picture and drilling down to any particular invoice. Another important function that we implemented was automatic e-mail notifications, triggered by certain events (For example, when a particular budget was nearing its end or an invoice could not be correctly identified with any project). Monthly status reports were automatically e-mailed to the users of the system as well. Our team also optimized the database and added data export capabilities at the end of the project for better performance usability and reliability.

Software and servers: C#, VB.NET, .NET Framework, MS SQL Server 2000, MS IIS 5.0, Crystal Reports.

Benefits

The system was deployment in 2.5 months after the day the technical proposal for the project was completed. Our customer enjoyed significant costs saving as compared to any other solution. We also helped the customer to pick up the right technology: even without programming cost benefits, the .NET development prices are much lower than SAP R/3 development. Client's existing Microsoft infrastructure and experience was leveraged leading to low cost of ownership and maintenance - no additional software or servers had to be bought, Windows network and MS SQL database administrators were already employed by our client.

A classical multi-layer architecture that we have chosen allows easy and inexpensive system extension. For example upon the completion of the system, the client requested a number of new reporting capabilities, which were implemented with the effort of fewer than 30 hours per each report type.

The system allows for more efficient and accurate budget management process. Because Windows security was used, administrators can easily manage access to the system. End users loved the new system with its easy to use Graphical User Interface which replaced terminal-like screens they used to see every day.