|
General Services Administration's
(GSA) Energy Center of Expertise
(ECOE) reduces federal utility
costs in the United States by
promoting optimal energy use. ECOE
has a nationwide program of
monitoring progress towards energy
reduction goals as they apply to
federal buildings, as well as
implementing energy conservation
projects through traditional and
innovative methods.
The ECOE utilizes the Natural Gas
Acquisition Program (NGAP), a
custom application, to track
energy usage in Federal
facilities throughout the United
States.
The
Client:
The Natural Gas Acquisition
Program (NGAP), an office in the
Energy Center of Expertise within
GSA, buys natural gas in bulk to
be used by various internal
government clients. NGAP used a
MS Access database to store point
of contact information for their
facilities and MS Excel
spreadsheets to record monthly
cost and usage data for each of
its accounts. As a part of the
process they charge a funding fee
per unit of natural gas from
government agencies.
NGAP contracted SAI Systems
International, Inc.(SAI Systems) to
develop a Master database system
capable of tackling the current
issues with the ability to
augment the existing
functionality.
The Business Challenge:
The database had major
disadvantages and was proving to
be quite a handful for the end
users. The major use of
spreadsheets for transactions was
hampering the workflow and also
proved to be quite time
consuming.
The major problems faced by NGAP
are summarized below:
- MS Access restricted the
number of users that could access
the application at one time
- De-Normalized Datastore
created duplicate data points
that were not kept in synch
- Disparate systems for Contact
and Usage information
- No Contract Information
- No electronic record of
Invoices
- No Workflow within the
systems
- Extremely limited reporting
required multiple joins of
systems on a frequent basis for
regulatory and management
reporting.
NGAP needed to develop a
multi-user database system to
manage the business end to end. The
challenge presented was to build an
online application which would
incorporate missing functionality
with flexibility for day-to-day
transactions.
SAI Systems
Approach
SAI Systems undertook a detailed study
into the nature of transactions
involved along with the type of
users accessing the data. After
conducting a thorough research
SAI Systems decided to develop a master
database system for NGAP. The key
to success was to build a
database system capable of
effectively managing various
transactions across the line at
the same time reducing the time
lag required to process these
transactions.
SAI Systems began by first selecting a
robust platform to build the
database system. SQL Server 2000
was employed to handle the data
load across transactions. An
important aspect for the project
was to build the website such
that it caters to various users
accessing the data with the
facility to generate reports for
the type of users accessing the
data.
SAI Systems built a highly interactive
website complete with user
friendly graphics and end user
logins. The website was developed
using C# and ADO.Net as back end.
Value
Addition
SAI Systems provided total end-to-end
solutions for NGAP. SAI Systems has a
vast experience in developing
websites with complex databases.
SAI Systems developed the website keeping
in mind specific client
requirements at the same time
introduced value additions for
future growth prospects.
SAI Systems build an interactive website
and introduced features such as
audit trail and cost benefit.
Audit trail was primarily
introduced to provide ease of
accounting and also generate
detailed audit reports. The
laborious task of preparing
spreadsheets for billing,
consumption, volume and pricing
are now taken care of by
user-friendly options on the
website.
A notable addition to the project
was the option to provide
accurate and detailed reports to
various types of users with the
provision to provide cost benefit
analysis for actual and projected
tariff.
Security of transactions was
ensured through authorization,
authentication, and audit logs.
The website facilitates multiple
entries and validations across
all screens.
Industry
Relevance
Many companies face the problem
of their information being
dispersed in different kinds of
databases and spreadsheets. In
such case it’s advisable to start
thinking of creating a
centralized database to
streamline work flow .A web based
interface development can be
considered to make access to user
easier and data entry to the
centralized database can be
moderated and also streamlined.
NGAP resolved their problem by
letting SAI Systems develop a
master database for them and
creating a web based interface to
access this database for
different types of users.
|