The prime business need was to manage the massive databases located in different regions and present the information from the centralized data storage, the application provides performance graphs over a span of time, projected values on the basis of different levels (national, region, state, county, territory) etc.
The management needed an application that could provide better view of their transactions, revenues generated and the projected values.
As the data base is distributed over various data storages, the need for an application that would synchronize and manage the data was an essential requirement.
Application is structured as follows:
1. National Dashboard
- Summary Module
- Order Module
- Revenue Module
- Multi Dimension Reports
- Popup Graph Description Module
2. Region Dashboard
- Summary Page
- Productivity Page
- Search Page
- NEWS Page
- FSA Rules Page
- Campaign Module
- Productivity Page
- Sales Person Module
- Popup Graph Description Module
- Builder Module
- Revenue Wizard (356.aspx Page)
3. Admin
- Hook up Tool
- Canonical Tool Agent
- Canonical Tool Company
- Team Plan
- Security Management
4. Project Documentation
- Application Architecture Document
- Database Elaboration Document
- Lineage Document
- User Interface Document
- Setup and Deployment Document
5. Miscellaneous Functionality
- Sql Server Reporting Service
- AJAX Implementation
- Lineage Document
- Business Intelligence Services
- Data Warehousing
- Dundas Components
National Dashboard:As the business of the client is distributed all across USA, the client required that the application should help the management to drill down to the transaction level.
The data was also to be presented in such a manner so that analyzing performance at lower level is easier.
Information was to be used for decision making hence the accuracy of information being reported is critical.
Technically the application had to be architected as follows:
- Application designed based on N-Tier architecture
- Graphical presentation of reports using SQL Server Reporting Services
- Data migration technique using SQL Server Services were used.
- Performance and Security Issues were to be balanced.
- Easy to navigate through the site and see the performance at the different levels.
- Data Synchronization across distributed data bases
Summary Module This module represents information in the mode of KPI (Key Performance Indicator). STPL analyzed the Real Estate business and proposed the few key factors that helped in taking quick decisions.
The summary module page contains information for orders, revenue. The module represent comparison between different time period, status in current time frame, projected information for order or revenue against different levels like national, region, state, county, territory and thus multi dimension report were created.
Order Module
This is the one of the major part of the National Dashboard application. The order module divided in different sub-groups like open orders, closed orders, open vs. closed orders, last year vs. this year.
To present comparative/ projected information, application is using graphs
Revenue Module
The revenue module covers the sub-groups like revenue trends, last year vs. this year. The pages represent the data in the mode of graphs and tables.
Having the KPIs in sub-groups helped the user to quickly see the important data. The flag feature is incorporated in the KPIs. It helps user to easily visualize the comparison against last month, last year even for last working day.
Multiple Dimension Reports
The MDR has its own way of representing data. The information is presented in the tabular format. The multiple dimension reports are divided two major sections "Order", "Revenue". The reports are available at different level like territory, county and regions.
Pop-up Graph Description Module
The application has number of graphs to display information. The main objective was to create this graph to have better presentation (bigger size of graph) and provide more information (Tabular, Description of graph). On the top every graph has a question mark; once user clicks that question mark, new pop-up window opens with additional information.
Region Dashboard:
The application is similar to National Dashboard. This application has more features in respect of national level. Some of the features like search, news, multiple dimension reports, daily, weekly, monthly reports.
Few of the reports are common and available at different level like region, state, county and branch.
Summary Page This module represents KPI (Key Performance Indicator).
The summary module page contains information for orders, revenue. The module represent comparison between different time period, status in current time frame, projected information for order or revenue against different level like national, region, state, county, territory, multi dimension report.
Productivity Page
The page shows information surrounding the employee like order, revenue. KPIs are the one of the part of this page. Through this page only user can know the number of employees hired/ fired in current month. Total number of orders newly created/ closed. Most of the information presents in graphical way. User can edit the profile of any employee.
Search Page
The page provides the site search functionality. The filtration criteria are city, county, contacts, file number, company, property address, and employee. The page displays the employees, agents, companies based on the criteria chosen.
News Page
The page provides the WWW search functionality. This page has different real estate companies and returns latest news against the selected company by the user.
FSA Rules Page
This is the static page and describes the FSA Rules.
Campaign Module
This module is made for Agents. Taking advantage of this module agent can create, edit the campaign.
Sales Person Module
The module is created for sales representative/ manager. The different roles are assigned to sales people. When they logged in control goes directly sales person module.
Popup Graph Description Module
The application has number of graphs to display information. The main objective was to create this graph to have better presentation (bigger size of graph) and provide more information (Tabular, Description of graph).
On the top every graph has a question mark; once user clicks that question mark, new pop-up window opens with additional information.
Builder Module
The module has four major sections like Agent, Builder, Real Estate Broker and SubDivision.
Almost every place user can see the reports, Builder Module is the functional area there user can create/ Edit functionality against each sub modules.
Agent Section
In this section user can create, edit agent. The section provides functionality to manage agent personal information and other tabs like
- Associate company with agent
- Associate subdivisions with agent
- Associate sales rep/ team/ escrow closers with agent
- Associate preferred closer with agent
- Associate employer company with agent
- Associate campaign
Builder Section In this section user can create, edit Builder Company. The section provides functionality to manage basic information of company also following functionalities incorporated:
- Associate employees with builder company
- Associate subdivisions with builder company
- Associate sales rep/ team/ escrow closers with builder company
Real Estate Broker Section In this section user can create, edit Real Estate Broker Company. The section provides functionality to manage basic information of company also following functionalities incorporated:
- Associate agent Roster with Real Estate Broker company
- Associate sales rep/ team/ escrow closer with Real Estate Broker Company.
Sub-division Section In this section user can create, edit sub-division. The section provides functionality to manage agent personal information and other tabs like
- Associate company with sub-division
- Associate agent with sub-division
Admin Two dashboard applications at national and region level are created; and application is used to present the information to user based on their access permission. The dashboard applications are created to display the information, now question was how to manage the information/ data.
STPL analyzed the needs of client and proposed the admin application that control relevant data. Following sections are proposed for admin application.
- Hook up Tool
- Canonical Tool Agent
- Canonical Tool Company
- Team Plan
- Security Management
Hook up Tool The admin user can access this tool, it has the futures to create a company, add agent, associate agent with sales team/ rep or escrow closer.
This tool is similar to builder module created for normal users in the region dashboard application. Database for the region decide when the user logged in.
Canonical Tool Agent
The main objective of the application is to remove the repeated entries and build the set of similar records. Currently we are using this too in the Real Estate Industries; but this tool will be helpful in the other industries where the same entity repeats number of time in different time span. And management wants to know the unique entity. The canonical tool is used to synchronize the data based on the similarity and other business logics. It creates fresh set of records.
This tool is used for the Agent participate in the Real Estate Industries.
Canonical Tool Company
The main objective of the application is to remove the repeated companies and build the set of similar companies depending on different criteria chosen. It is very helpful tool where chances of same entity repeats number of time in different time span like (hotel). Management likes to get the information of similar type of companies based on the different parameters and the records should not be repeated. The canonical tool is used to synchronize the data based on the similarity and other business logics. It creates fresh set of records.
This tool is used for the Company participate in the Real Estate Industries.
Security Management
The page is responsible to set the access permission to each user against the page available in the region dashboard and national dashboard. This is most powerful tool of the application.
Through this tool STPL tried to implement the security feature. Security is not limited to page only. This is implemented even at the section level.
Project Documentation:
The STPL used to create the necessary document for each project, few of them mentioned here,
1. Application Architecture Document
a. Introduction
b. User Cases
c. Logical View
d. Class Diagram and Description
e. Description of Third Party Tools/
2. Database Elaboration Document
a. Introduction
b. Data Model Diagram
c. Data Model Description
d. Stored Procedure Descriptions
e. User Defined Function Descriptions
f. Data Migration Strategy (Optional)
3. User Interface Document
a. Introduction
b. Screen Layouts and Extensions
c. Description of Business Rules
d. Sequence Diagram
4. Setup and Deployment Document
a. Introduction
b. Minimum Hardware and Software Requirements
c. Setup and Deployment Process
5. Lineage Document
a. Introduction
b. Page Description
c. Screen Layout
d. Page Elements (Table, Graphs, Info Box and KPIs etc).
