Overhaul of Critical Business System Positions Manufacturer for Future International Growth
Project At a Glance
RDA developed a state of the art product and accessories selection program for Evapco’s sales force. The application represents a mission-critical function for Evapco that positions the company for strong international penetration and future growth. Using this tool, sales representatives work with engineers to select the correct HVAC or industrial refrigeration unit from Evapco’s extensive product catalog. The seamless interface with Evapco’s Order Management System enables the company to more efficiently process orders, eliminating delays and improving customer satisfaction.
About Our Client
Evapco is a global, employee-owned manufacturing company offering solutions for worldwide heat transfer applications.
Background
Evapco decided to overhaul their existing equipment selection system (iES). Evapco sales representatives around the world use iES to help their clients select the appropriate equipment and accessories (cooling towers, condensers, evaporators, and closed circuit coolers) for their clients’ office buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping malls, and other facilities.
Evapco was looking for a complete redesign of their selection software. They wanted to create a tool that placed an emphasis on supporting the role of their sales force. They wanted to make it easier for sales reps to work with their customers to find the right product. Powerful features such as product comparisons, ability to use the software when disconnected from the Internet, and product catalog synching were just a few at the top of their list.
Solution Detail
As a first step, Evapco engaged RDA to help conduct analysis to document requirements. Given that the IT team was responsible for current activities they would have been stretched thin to also take on the entire requirements assessment, so Evapco requested the assistance of an RDA Project Manager to assist in drafting the requirements
Once the initial requirements phase was completed, the next step in the process was to create the design and prove out the riskiest aspects of the project with prototypes (or vertical slices) for one or two of the product lines.
RDA faced a hard and fast deadline to meet for the construction phase of the project. The program needed to be completed, fully tested and ready to load on the laptops of all participants for Evapco’s annual worldwide sales meeting.
The new application, named evapSelect, was created to improve upon the previous generation selection software. In the new software, sales reps are given access to more information in a format that makes it possible to compare multiple products at the same time. They are able to compare unit dimension, motor horsepower, energy usage, water usage, sound levels and other product attributes. Improvements to the user interface provides easier access to information.
evapSelect supports disconnected scenarios, such as when a sales rep travels to remote geographies with limited Internet. For example, a sales rep can still be productive when working on a train.
evapSelect was created with the future in mind. New products or new services can easily be incorporated into evapSelect’s modular technical design.
Benefits
The application represents a mission-critical function for Evapco that positions the company for strong international penetration and future growth.
- evapSelect enables Evapco sales reps, HVAC consultants and customers to access the system from anywhere in the world to select or research HVAC and refrigeration solutions.
- The seamless interface with Evapco’s Order Management System enables the company to more efficiently process orders, eliminating delays and improving customer satisfaction.
Technically Speaking
The evapSelect application leverages Microsoft’s WPF Composite, C#, .NET 4.0, SQL Server 2008 R2, and Sync Framework technologies.