Sig6 IT Solutions
Our Project - Extranet BigBen
BigBen is the third largest drugstore chain in Brazil. It has more than 250 branches spread all over the North and Northwest of the country. With revenues of more than U.S.$.500 millions per year, 6.000 employees and hundreds of suppliers. The group was in great need for a powerful internet platform to share stock, sales and business information across its suppliers, employees and managers alike. This information is extremely relevant to improving operations management, B.I., replenishment methods, reduce stock shortage, distribution, logistics and other operational and managerial aspects which are used by suppliers and BigBen alike to support decision-making. And these aspects are important in order to surpass competition by avoiding waste and perfecting the use of resources in an ever-changing market.
Why DevExpress?
Initially, we just develop in-house software. We always focus on quality. And since our clients were demanding more and we began to deal with larger databases. We needed strong, reliable and tested web components to help us to reach our goals. And time was limited too. Fortunately for us all DevExpress controls worked as expected from the very beginning of the project. That paved the way for a smooth development cycle.
How did you choose Developer Express Components?
We want to use only the best. So, DevExpress tools looked like a pretty much natural choice due its strong market reputation for delivering .NET award-winning controls. When we started out we had the evidence that the components were in fact reliable products.
Describe a specific project challenge you overcame using Developer Express tools
Performance was paramount. As we said earlier, we have to deal with very large databases. Monthly, our client generate more than 33 millions of rows of sales data for its more than 70.000 SKU's. The secret to design fast and reliable systems is the balance between optimizing database access and queries. So for the front end, we also needed powerful web controls which can work easily with such a large amount of data without causing any performance problems.
What benefits have you experienced from using Developer Express tools?
We experienced all the benefits that a good product can deliver on it’s promise. The DevExpress tool just delivered on our wishes and paid for itself very quickly. And in terms of time-saving, response, performance and reliability, it was up to the task 100% of the time.
How has Developer Express saved you time?
Saving time is easy when everything works well. The project, as a whole, started to give a feeling of success from the beginning. Things went smoothly and we got what we expected from DevExpress products.
How has Developer Express saved you money?
Time is money. In our business, software development services, time is crucial and the turning point to failure or success. Our expenses and production capacity are measured in time (hours). When we save time, we save money. When we save money we increase projects profitability. And DevExpress has helped us do that.
How many project hours have you saved with DXperience?
We estimate we saved more than 25% of our earlier forecasted development time with DevExpress.
What qualities of DXperience really helped your project?
The DevExpress ASP.NET web controls are great. We used the DevExpress ASP.NET GridView and we are quite skilled with it now. This control is powerful and fully documented. I think it's the best grid control for ASP.NET in the market out there. It`s excellent all around.
How Impressed were the users with you for delivering this solution?
We have a high level of acceptance regarding our products. We use to retain our clients for more than 12 years on average. It's achieved by offering services with excellence. Our customers do not expect less than the best for them which means: fast and reliable solution from us. And using DevExpress, they were impressed with how fast the web app responded and functioned.
What features did you get compliments about?
DevExpress lightweight ASP.NET web controls helped us to build a very fast website. And on the Internet, speed and easy-to-use interface are paramount. Our users love the easy and fast web sites that we build with DevExpress ASP.NET.
Sample Screenshots
What would you say if you were recommending DXperience to a friend?
Use it. Get addicted to it. Pay for it and afterwards enjoy the results of a productive partnership.
Marcos Sá
