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SilverSwitch Consulting has successfully completed projects for companies of
different sizes. Listed below are a few recent projects.
1. New York University - NYC, NY
2. Screening for Mental Health – Wellesley, MA
1. New York University (NYU) – NYC, NY (back
to list)
Business Need: The Deans and higher administration at the Faculty of
Arts and Science at NYU were frustrated with the difficulty in obtaining
current and historical data relating to their students, faculty and financial
outflows. Since current and historical data was extremely tough to obtain and
analyze, it made projections more difficult and less accurate. A new solution
was needed.
Situation: The desired data was stored on two different main frames
computers and several MS Access Databases. The main functional need was to get
all the data into one centralized database. Once the data was centralized, we
developed tools to update the data, generate reports and do projections.
Solution: In the design stage of SilverSwitch’s methodology, the
following factors were weighed before the technologies were decided on.
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available development time
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budget restrictions
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scalability
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security
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reliability
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manageability
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target audience and their connection speed
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staff ability and desired functional goals
Based on their desired functionality/goals/budget, SilverSwitch architected a
browser-based application that utilizes the following technologies.
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Microsoft ASP – Development Technology
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Microsoft IIS 5.0 – Web server
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Microsoft SQL 2000 – DB backend
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Flash/HTML for Presentation Tier
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Windows 2000 Server
The application is three tiered. Listed below are each tier and the respectable
technology used in that tier.
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Presentation Tier – HTML/FLASH (MS IIS Web Server)
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Business Logic Tier – Visual Basic
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Data Tier – SQL, Store Procedures (MS SQL DB Server)
Results: Deans and higher administration are excited as they now have
the tools available to collect new data, accurately mine the existing data and
do projections which greatly enhance their abilities to do their jobs.
2. Screening for Mental Health (SMH) – Wellesley,
MA (back to list)
Business Need: SMH’s main business is to collect, analyze and report on
data obtained through their national mental health screening programs. They
desperately needed a fast and highly reliable relational database/application
to replace their slow, cumbersome and non-relational MS Access databases.
Situation: SMH had over 7 MS Access databases that contained years of
data. The applications were very slow, poorly designed and non-relational. The
non-relational aspect of the applications caused a lot of redundant data,
unnecessary data entry, and made reporting across screening programs very
difficult, if not impossible. Additionally, the applications were difficult to
manage and improvements were complex and costly. SMH hired SilverSwitch to
architect, develop and deploy a new relational database application that would
meet their business needs, be scalable for future growth and be easy to
maintain and upgrade.
Initially, SilverSwitch’s main focus was to meet with each department/program
to assess their business needs and to look at their current databases. After
gathering all the functionality needs we started architecting the database
model. This model included methodologies for how the new application would
integrate with the legacy data and the newly developed on-line screening
functionality.
Once the database was modeled and developed, an interface was needed. A
browser-based interface was decided upon for cost, ease of rollout, and
business goals. Additionally, a MS Access interface was setup for the
administrator to enable her to do free-form viewing and analysis of the ‘raw’
data.
Results: The application has been a huge success. Queries to the
database return in a split second versus multiple seconds. New reporting tools
have been created and the new results enable SMH to apply for more Federally
funded grants. Additionally, ROI on the application has increased as the number
of hours to enter data and the cost to manage and update the application has
been reduced.
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