Freight Company Makes Return Trip for Modernization

Prolifics’ extensive analysis seals the deal for Azure Cloud move

This large shipping company (LSC) provides domestic freight and import/export services in six U.S. states. They became our client based on the successful solutions and services we provided to their sister company throughout a continuing long-term relationship.

Our Client

Challenge

In our first success story with this client, “A Simple First Solution Clears the Road for this Freight Company,” we described how our client ran a 15-year-old visual basic (VB) application against local databases that were literally sitting on desktop computers in various shipping offices. Our first simple step was to move all of those databases to Azure Cloud. The “lift and drop” of the databases from the offices to the Azure Cloud gave LSC a number of immediate, important benefits, such as cloud back-up, central accessibility, and report running with a consistent view across the company. It was an important first step to modernization.

LSC realized they needed a modern web-based application – the “Proposed Stage Two” in the original success story cited above. The client, however, pulled back. Their concern was cost and the potential problems in changing the current, albeit outdated, application that in reality housed their entire business operations.

Eventually, LSC talked to, and received a quote from, another tech provider. However, the price seemed low for the amount of work LSC thought needed to be done. LSC was encouraged by their sister company – also a Prolifics client – to look at us again, based upon the success of the original LSC “lift and drop” project.

Action

We proposed, and LSC accepted, that Prolifics perform a low-cost, fixed-price analysis of the modernization. We would produce a deliverable that would be a complete documentation of all of the requirements.

We spent a total of approximately six weeks in daily meetings analyzing their visual basic (VB) application. It was a deep dive set of discovery sessions and documentation as to what the application currently did and what it needed to do. Over time and usage, the application had sprawled into a complexity of hundreds of screens, dozens of component modules, and thousands of different functions and business logics.

Our goal was to give LSC what they needed, which was an analysis generating a fixed-price contract that would guarantee implementation of the requirements – all to greatly improve their business through the modernization.

Result

Prolifics produced an extensive report that documented every single one of the business functions in the old application. LSC saw that we had a real understanding of what it did. Unlike the other provider, we didn’t take guesses based on a high-level design. We showed that we had a real plan for modernizing that moved LSC to an Azure Cloud-based, web-based application.

LSC saw our professional approach, and how we invested the time to understand their needs, allowing us to offer them a better solution. So, even though our ultimate quote was higher than that of the other provider, LSC engaged us to do the work. The modernization project is currently underway.

Andy Blank is Prolifics’ Head of Technical Sales, North America, and works with LSC. “Application modernization is a sweet spot for Prolifics. We have a team with solid expertise in Azure, cloud and the net Microsoft application development. Some of the Azure skills are newer, while the net development skills have been around much longer. The bottom line is that we know Microsoft and cloud-based development.”

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About Prolifics

Prolifics is a digital engineering and consulting firm helping clients navigate and accelerate their digital transformation journeys. We deliver relevant outcomes using our systematic approach to rapid, enterprise-grade continuous innovation. We treat our digital deliverables like a customized product – using agile practices to deliver immediate and ongoing increases in value.

We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas – Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity – at any point our clients need them. Email solutions@prolifics.com or visit us at prolifics.com to learn more.