Caterpillar, a Fortune 100 company, is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment, mining equipment, gas turbines, and diesel and natural gas engines.
Needs Analysis - Caterpillar needed assistance in installing, configuring, and deploying a Web content management system that would allow each department to create and manage their own Web sites, based on standardized templates and forms. Additionally, there were several legacy, in-house applications whose functionality need to be exposed via a Web-based interface. Finally, Caterpillar wanted to leverage its in-house commitment to the Lotus Notes groupware platform.
Web Content Management Development - b-i assembled a team to deploy a Web content management system based on Lotus Notes/Domino, running on Windows. Our template engineers and creative designers redesigned the entire look-and-feel of the site. b-i systems analysts and software engineers staff built a solution supporting the content storage and management in local departmental Notes databases. We also developed functionality that included workflows for content validation and template customization. The system is entirely manage-able via a Lotus Notes client application.
Legacy Migration - As part of the project, we also needed to upgrade the functionality of a legacy in-house application. Our business analysts analyzed the current systems and produced detailed requirements for the new solution, which included the need for a new common development framework. Our database developers and application engineers developed a new IBM DB2-based centralized application database, which implements business rule processing via stored Java procedures.
Support - As part of our support commitment, we fully documented the system and trained the staff on how to use the new Web content management tools.
Additional Projects - As with most of our customers, the Web content management system that we delivered to Caterpillar was just the beginning or our longer-term partnership. Additional solutions that b-i has delivered to Caterpillar include the following:
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Career Management System - b-i built a career management application for Caterpillar's Human Resources department. Among other functionality, the application manages job qualification and promotion processing. |
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Document Management System - b-i developed a custom Document Management System for Caterpillar's Purchasing Department. The system stores and manages information related to Caterpillar's hundreds of suppliers. |
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Project management - b-i delivered a custom Lotus Notes-based task management tool that allocates and tracks task and project progress, including status metrics. |
