TRI-S

Overview

The flagship product for TRI-S is eXcelans, a framework containing several separate modules. These modules include, TRIACC, TRIPLAN and TRIPROJ.

TRIACC, is a task-based management tool for accountants. This module allows predefining tasks, and binding these tasks to workflows. The deadline of these tasks can be a fixed date, or can be calculated based on variable elements like the closure date or general meeting date of the customer. The basic idea is to give management the power to quickly overview the outstanding tasks and to manage the workload of its personnel.

A second module is TRIPLAN that offers an Microsoft® Outlook®-like calendar that allows the users to register their appointments, create meetings with several users or simply check another users' planning. The system also allows creating other resources, like meeting rooms, for which appointments can also be created. TRIPLAN can be bound to TRIACC (tasks can be bound to appointments) or can be used separately.

The third module is TRIPROJ which allows bundling the tasks in task groups, which in turn are bound to phases, which are bound to projects. These projects can be created based on predefined templates or can be created on the fly. When tasks are not completed in time (or ahead of time), this will reflect in the projects' deadline.

Situation

TRI-S initially decided to build the application based only on native .NET components (those that are supplied with Visual Studio®) along with some freely available controls. However, as customer demands for basic functionality increased, they quickly found themselves in a difficult situation. They were spending too much time building this functionality and not enough time in real added value.

For example: Filtering in the grid. Initially they were just providing a couple of fields above the DataGridView that allowed the users to query certain tasks. But as the user wished to query on more and more fields, they found ourselves adding almost each field in the grid to that query pane. The user then wanted to query the fields that were either empty or not.

The Solution, XtraGrid to the Rescue

Eventually, TRI-S decided on DXperience Professional and to replace the DataGridView with the XtraGrid and get rid of the query pane with all its fields. Now, the users can build any filter they want (they can even save it, along with the grids' settings) and they no longer have to spend time in providing this functionality.

DXperience Professional Helped in Yet More Ways

For the TRIPLAN module, the users wanted to have synchronization functionality with Microsoft Outlook to give them the time to get acquainted with the new system. Thanks to the built-in synchronization features of the XtraScheduler it was quite easy to implement. The XtraScheduler provides enough flexibility to granularly control the synchronization process.

For the TRIPROJ module, they wanted to be able to display the project and the item groups in a user-friendly and understandable way, and not just a treeview or a grid. They were already thinking of building some component themselves, when they browsed the XtraCharts demos and fell upon the Gantt chart, which is exactly the kind of chart they wanted to present to their users. They found the solution, even before it became a challenge!

TRI-S is an ISV in Belgium that has been providing their eXcelans framework for the financial and bookkeeping markets since 2007. With such a high quality of numerical precision that is required for the financial markets, TRI-S chose Developer Express's DXperience Professional Subscription to ensure their UI has the same high quality precision and is also up to their demanding customer's standards.