Daffron & Associates, Inc.
Daffron
& Associates, Inc. offers application software and
services for the utility industry. They serve over 150
utilities and 3.65 million consumers across electric,
water and gas utilities in many states and countries.
With emphasis on robust application functionality, leading-edge
technology, enterprise integration, and outstanding service,
Daffron provides a complete solution for the information
technology needs of their customers.
Challenge
In response to utility market
demands, Daffron developed plans to transition from a
CIS product vendor to an enterprise solution provider.
This required a strategic solution, based on an open technology
strategy and one that enabled enterprise integration.
This plan led them to rewrite all of their existing applications
and provide tools that allow customers to integrate third
party applications. This new enterprise solution was branded
Integration X Platform (iXp) and represents Daffron’s
next generation thinking.
Solution
Daffron used PlanetJ's Web
Object Wizard (WOW) as the framework for much of their
iXp suites of utility focused applications. By using WOW
to rewrite existing applications and develop new ones,
Daffron has saved many hours of development time and completed
the new software much faster than using traditional coding
methods.
PlanetJ staff has been working with Daffron developers in customizing their WOW applications. Bruce Jones (senior developer at Daffron & Associates) has been involved
with leading a good portion of these projects. "In our business relationship with PlanetJ, we have been able to provide a suite of applications to our clients in a very short
time frame with added functionality over an existing product line. The WOW framework has allowed us to focus on the business problems and not with technology problems."
Requirements Details
It was essential that the iXp solutions help Daffron customers achieve an integrated operating environment and enable existing software to synthesize with non-Daffron
applications. Due to WOW's flexibility and platform independence, this was an easy task to match. Using this open strategy, utility customers have the choice of databases,
operating systems, and hardware platform in which to deploy iXp.
How It Works
As stated by Paul Kluba (Chief
Operating Officer of Daffron & Associates) "PlanetJ has
provided Daffron & Associates, Inc. with a development
environment that we feel positions us for the future very
strongly. PlanetJ and the WOW tool have allowed Daffron
& Associates, Inc. to move into the JAVA world from RPG
in steps, rather than a complete rewrite. The support
we have received has been top notch. We've had access
to great staff and a world-class product allowing Daffron
to exceed our customer's expectations for our next generation
of software."
Daffron & Associates, Inc., along with developers
from PlanetJ collaborated using the WOW tool to create
iXp which encompasses the following applications:
CISiXp: This suite of Customer Information applications
includes consumer accounting & billing, cash drawer,
miscellaneous accounts receivable, outage tracking and
reporting and others.
FMSiXP: This suite of Financial Management applications
provides customers access to robust accounting functionality
– general ledger, accounts payable, payroll/human resources,
fixed assets, payroll, others.
MMSiXp: This suite of Materials Management applications
offers software tools that support work orders, units-to-material,
inventory and transportation.
ToolBoxiXp: This suite of enterprise integration
tools are based on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
utilizing SOAP, XML, WSDL, and Web Services and enables
customers to integrated third party applications.
Summary
By providing utility customers
leading edge, open strategy software solutions, Daffron
& Associates continues to be a leader in their industry.
PlanetJ's WOW Enterprise Edition is the foundation for
iXp and allows Daffron to be quick to market with a next
generation solution.
"The flexibility of the WOW framework has allowed us the
luxury of our rewrite in stages - rather than jumping
right into a huge JAVA project that would have taken years
to complete. WOW enabled us to provide a higher quality
product, faster time to market, and overall application
satisfaction for our customers. We currently have several
projects in the works with PlanetJ and envision more over
the next few years. The technical expertise we have received
is invaluable." ~ Bruce Jones, Daffron & Associates, Inc.
References