Development Case Studies

Bespoke Solution Type

Shoe Manufacturing System

Customer Industry

Established Shoemaker

Business Challenge

The customer already had Sage 200, and an elderly bespoke which duplicated many of the standard features of Sage 200 (orders, stock, Bill of Materials, etc).  The solution was also written inside Sage 200 which restricted users to those with Sage 200 licences.

Custom Software Solution

To develop a web-based solution to pick up data from a Sage 200 sales order and expand this into a full shoe definition by adding a significant number of variables concerning shoe type, size, manufacture, etc.

The “Ticket” would then track through the production stages acting as a Works Order until such a time as the finished pair could be booked into stock, at which time standard Sage 200 functionality could be used to despatch and invoice the order.

Technology Used

SQL and Blazor

Results and Benefits of the Bespoke Software Development

As well as replacing the slow and cumbersome old bespoke, this approach allowed the customer to upgrade their very out-of-date Sage 200.  The ease of access to the web application opened up reporting and access to a wider range of staff, and the new application generates emails to notify staff and customers of significant events saving on a lot of previously manual administration.

Bespoke Solution Type

Multi-link EDI system

Customer Industry

National Office Furniture Distributor

Business Challenge

The customer already had Sage 200 but wanted their network of dealers to have access to their stock list, availability and pricing.

Custom Software Solution

EDI solutions already exist for Sage 200 off-the-shelf, but this customer did not want the ongoing charges for new connections or transmissions that can be involved with secure FTP or mailbox arrangements. By approaching Paradise for a bespoke solution there is no limit to the complexity of any given EDI feed or the security and technology involved, and once delivered each EDI feed is free to use (provided no external 3^rd parties have to be involved).

The system started with just a few EDI links but has grown over 5 years to accommodate over 50 different distributor connections.

Technology Used

SQL and C# together with a variety of file transfer protocols, such as FTP, SFTP and others.

Results and Benefits of the Bespoke Software Development

The similar and repetitive nature of the feeds mean time from request to delivery is frequently less than 48 hours. The platform provided has proved extremely reliable and once running is cost and maintenance free. The customer is in the position to offer their distributor any level of sophistication regarding information feed provided one party or another is happy to fund the initial development. 

Bespoke Solution Type

Just-in-time product delivery to site

Customer Industry

International Builder of Medical Establishments

Business Challenge

The customer wanted to drive purchasing of building materials from Project Management software so that changes to detailed dates would impact just-in-time product delivery to site.

Custom Software Solution

Sicon Projects was used.  In place of the more typical Bill of Materials approach, Paradise worked with Sicon to enhance the Projects module so that each Stage (i.e, Building) was made up of Activities and those Activities had Operations which contained Stock.  In this way the requirement for Stock was controlled by the Activity dates and these fed through into Sicon MRP so each Suggested Purchase Order run worked on the most recent Activity dates and could therefor adapt to changing deadlines.  This took a considerable period to set up and test, but once operational was a smooth and seamless process from Project Management to stock delivery to site.

Technology Used

SQL, Sicon modules and Oracle P6

Results and Benefits of the Bespoke Software Development

This used Sage 200 in a unique way and turned out to be a cost-effective and robust system, giving a great deal of flexibility and also reporting opportunities to the customer.  The customer has since indicated they may move from P6 project Management to Microsoft Project and the system developed can be migrated with little effort to the new situation.