BusinessCraft
Based in Newcastle, Australia, BusinessCraft Pty. Ltd. provides commercial accounting and mission-critical software systems to the manufacturing, service, and building industries. Builders, manufacturers, and engineering shops across Australia use the Synergy/DE-based BusinessCraft Corporate Management Software (BusinessCraft) to manage all aspects of their daily operations, including job costing, estimating, contracts, workflow, financials, and much more.
BusinessCraft uses XML to import
work order requests into their accounting
software.
One of BusinessCraft's clients, Machine
Monitor, provides machine monitoring and plant
maintenance on a contract basis for mines
and manufacturers. They use the BusinessCraft
application to process the high volume of
incoming job orders they receive on a daily
basis.
Recently, Machine Monitor created a Web application that enables site engineers to enter maintenance work order requests via the Web. To integrate their accounting software with this Web application, BusinessCraft decided to implement an XML solution. Work order requests are now transmitted from Machine Monitor's Web application to the BusinessCraft application via e-mail messages containing XML documents as attachments. Upon receipt, the BusinessCraft application uses the Synergy XML API to extract and process the XML data and creates a new job in the BusinessCraft Job Costing/Order Entry module.
Prior to this integration with BusinessCraft financial modules, Machine Monitor site engineers were required to fax work order requests to Machine Monitor, requiring cumbersome data entry and often resulting in inaccuracies.
"The XML parser was one of the main reasons we decided to upgrade to Synergy/DE 8.1.3. XML enables us to streamline processes for customers such as Machine Monitor and save them tons of time," said Steven Parish, president of BusinessCraft.
Other ways BusinessCraft is using
XML
(Note: The following projects were
completed before the Synergy XML API was available.
As a result, BusinessCraft created their own
XML output routines to meet their customers'
needs.)
- BusinessCraft is using XML in their Sales Automation software. This software is used by new homes sales consultants to help customers select household options via an ASP Web page. Whenever a customer selects a checkbox for the option that he wants, the Sales Automation software stores this information as XML data. Synergy/DE xfServerPlus enables BusinessCraft's Sales Automation software to update this information, while Synergy/DE xfODBC enables the software to download the XML data.
- BusinessCraft has also implemented an extensive set of interfaces to Crystal Reports, enabling BusinessCraft developers to report on XML data. As a result, users can now view reports with the Crystal Viewer, publish reports as PDFs on an intranet, send reports via e-mail as PDF attachments, print reports directly to a printer, or fax reports through Windows NT Fax Server software—all without requiring customizations by BusinessCraft developers.
- BusinessCraft is currently developing a new Microsoft .NET client application, which will provide an entirely new user interface to their existing legacy application. To accommodate the disconnected nature of the client/server design, BusinessCraft has decided to integrate XML into this new client application for business-to-business data transport. Now when a dataset is updated on the client, an XML packet is sent via an xfServerPlus call where the data is updated in the Synergy ISAM files. This allows all of the new .NET Framework features to be used in the client user interface, while still leveraging the extensive business logic that has evolved over the past 20 years.
Users of the new BusinessCraft application will also be able to view Executive Information Summaries. When the client application requests such a summary, routines on the server read and summarize key data stored in Synergy ISAM files (such as Overall Debtor Aged Summary, TopN Customer Sales Figures, and so forth) and then return that data to the client, where an XML/XSL transformation is used to present it as HTML.
For more information about BusinessCraft, visit their web site: www.businesscraft.com
