Customer story
A global marketing communications organization, deployed for a Fortune 100 entertainment and media company, needed a systematic application management system to computerize its customer data analysis for network advertisement placements — replacing a manual spreadsheet process that cost about 4 man-days per report, with no accuracy guarantee. We built Chronos, an application on ASP.NET, MS IIS, and MS SQL Server, that reads directly from the client’s existing spreadsheets and processes the data through embedded business intelligence logic.
Engagement facts
Client
Global marketing communications organization, deployed for a Fortune 100 entertainment & media company (not named)
Industry
Media & Entertainment / Marketing Communications
Region
Not specified in the source article
Service
Custom Business Intelligence & data warehouse application (network ad placement tracking)
Stack
ASP.NET
MS IIS Web Server
MS SQL Server
Aspose
Cells
man-days of manual reporting effort eliminated per report
key data entities modeled — Budget, Chron, Pods, and Tracking
Fortune 100
entertainment & media company served through the client’s marketing organization
10+ years
of software development experience Star Knowledge brought to the engagement
The client
A global marketing communications organization serving a Fortune 100 entertainment & media company
The client is a Global Marketing Communications Organization, deployed for a Fortune 100 Entertainment & Media Company.
The need
Replacing 4 man-days of manual spreadsheet work with a real BI tool
The client required a systematic application management system — a solution to computerize its customer data analysis for network advertisement placements. This required developing a Business Intelligence tool with data warehouse capabilities. Until then, the client used spreadsheets to manipulate the data manually, which induced 4 man-days of tedious effort and delay for every report, with no accuracy.
The challenge
Four key data entities, with no room to change how data was maintained
- Spreadsheet manipulation wasn’t acceptable to users — it couldn’t account for multiple constraints and conditions, and there was no proper process documentation.
- The solution needed to work without changing how the client maintained data in spreadsheets, while handling very limited inputs imported from those spreadsheets.
- Budget: all the information about a movie advertised for the week.
- Chron: detailed networks used each day.
- Pods: points maintained by the network for each day.
- Tracking: points tracked for each day.
The solution
A Chronos application built on ASP.NET, IIS, and SQL Server, reading data straight from spreadsheets
The Star Knowledge Technical Team developed an application management system named ‘Chronos’ with ASP.NET, MS IIS Web Server, and MS SQL Server as underlying components, using Aspose.Cells for reading Excel data. The application took all its input from the client’s spreadsheets, and the data was processed based on embedded business intelligence logic. Testing included both a development environment and a staging environment, to ensure production readiness and user acceptance.
Budget data population
Source data files were analyzed to populate the Budget entity for however many weeks of data were uploaded.
Chron data population
Source data files were analyzed to populate the Chron entity for each day.
Pods data population
Source data files were analyzed to populate the Pods entity with points for each day.
Tracking data population
Source data files were analyzed to populate the Tracking entity with points for each day, from all sources.
Benefits
What changed for the client
Eliminated manual reporting effort
Removed the roughly 4 man-days of manual spreadsheet effort previously spent on every report.
Built-in business intelligence
Processed spreadsheet input using embedded business intelligence logic, rather than manual manipulation.
Structured, no-disruption data model
Delivered an application that worked from the client’s existing spreadsheet-based data, without requiring a change to how data was maintained.
Tested for production readiness
Verified in both a development and a staging environment to ensure production capability and user acceptance before go-live.
Technology
What we used
See how our custom application team scopes a BI-driven reporting tool like this one.
Your application
Have a custom business application to be developed?
Star Knowledge is a bespoke software development company with over 10 years of experience in mobile, web, and cloud solutions. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we’ve delivered custom, industry-specific software to clients across Engineering & Construction, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Public Sector, Real Estate, and Finance. Partner with Star Knowledge today for a highly customized, business-specific solution.
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