Case Studies

Pilgrim's Pride
SMS 2.0 Project Summary
NewData Strategies (NDS) was asked to help implement SMS 2.0 at Pilgrims Pride in January of 2000. The scope of the project included the preparation of an SMS architecture document, implementation of the SMS central site, two primary SMS sites and one secondary SMS site. The project also included the mentoring of Pilgrim's Pride IT staff throughout the project. Using the configuration documents prepared by NDS, the Pilgrim's Pride staff will have completed the rollout of SMS at other sites. The project was completed in less than three weeks, considerably under budget and time projections.

In summary, the following were accomplished during the scope of this project:

• SMS architecture design document was prepared and accepted.
  
• A method of excluding certain machines from receiving the SMS client has been implemented in the NT logon script.
  
• Implemented the SMS central site at the Dallas Plant.
  
• Implemented two primary SMS sites at the Dallas Sales office and at the Pittsburgh location.
  
• Implemented one secondary SMS site at the Arlington DC.
  
• Hardware and software inventory have been tested.
  
• Remote control of workstations and servers have been tested.
  
• Three packages have been sent out to SMS clients at all SMS sites.
  
• An inventory report was created using Crystal Reports, containing information requested by the manager.
  
• Techniques on extending the SMS hardware inventory were discussed with the IT staff.
  
• A conflict was discovered between the SMS client and the McAfee Virus Shield program. A workaround was implemented.
  
• The SMS Administrator console was installed on the Terminal Server to allow IT staff access to SMS from Windows 98 workstations and from remote locations.

United Way eDonations Web application
Solution Concept
NewData Strategies (NDS) was engaged to design, build, and deploy a Web-based application for online donations. NDS decided to use Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition. This application, named eDonations, is designed to lead the user through a series of simple, wizard style, pages to determine the proper information to gather for an error-free pledge. If errors are encountered, the user is able to make corrections immediately and retry. Credit card donations are processed using a CyberCash pipeline component. All data is stored in Microsoft SQL Server 7 databases.

There are several benefits with the system including: overhead cost of data entry services is completely eliminated, the actual process of contributing is much easier, hopefully increasing donation amounts, a higher percentage of donations can go straight to the agencies as opposed to paying for data entry services, and UW personnel formally handling data entry errors will now be able to serve in more productive ways. Through this type of work NDS is also helping its community and donating some of the consulting time required to make the solution more cost effective to the United Way.