Keen Research, a San Francisco based software consulting firm successfully completed the first phase in the development of a customized system for managing and tracking shipments for DW Morgan, a global supplier of supply chain and transportation management services.
The new Transportation Management System (TMS), a database driven Web application written in Java, effectively integrates support for operations, accounting, and management and is used internally across the entire organization. The implementation leverages cutting-edge technologies (Java, Spring framework, Hibernate, Ajax, Jasper Reports), relying as much as possible on open source components that do not require third-party license fees.
The project initially started as a one-developer contract, but it soon became evident that it could benefit from additional resources Keen Research had to offer: a decade of hands-on experience in agile development—an iterative methodology that combines rapid prototyping and user feedback—backed by a flexible team of highly skilled developers.
In January 2006, after just three month of development, the first release went into production with the centerpiece focusing on operations support. After several iterations, the team began work on the accounting module in March. In May, DW Morgan's accounting department switched over to the new system, while the Keen Research team continued working on the remaining management and reporting modules. The additional modules were deployed in early July.
A year later, the phase II extension of the project is well underway. The goal is to add a number of enhancements to increase overall system efficiency and to provide external application access to DW Morgan clients via web services. In addition, Keen Research is providing ongoing technical support for the system's operation.
"Keen Research really goes into understanding the process and previous system set for the company as well as for our customers," says Maria Guerrero, Controller at DW Morgan. "This really helps out when trying to create a customized system." Ms. Guerrero has nothing but praise for Keen Research's customer service and response time. "With your resources in Europe, it's a convenience to submit changes throughout the day and see the changes implemented in the morning."
Ognjen Todic, founder of Keen Research, is excited about the value-add his team continues to provide to DW Morgan: "We came in, understood what the pain points were, and fully revamped the system. What DW Morgan gained, in my opinion, is a system that enables them to do their work faster and more efficiently, thereby increasing DW Morgan's overall capability to better serve their own clients."
Mr. Todic attributes his company's success to both the strength of his team and the flexibility of their methodology. "The key in agile development is maximizing stakeholder involvement and producing tangible results very quickly. You put something out there for people to look at and play with, and then you figure out how to tweak the details based on their input. You talk to a lot of people and you learn a great deal about how they do things and how some of the things could be done better. Along the way you iron out some of the glitches in the process, and everybody gains a much better understanding of what they are doing and why, and what other people in the company are doing. With such high levels of user engagement, you do end up building a better system. It's a win-win situation for everybody."