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| Igenti |
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Igenti Family
of Products-
Web-Centric Marketing & Assessment Toolset
To implement
a B2B & B2C strategy, Igenti Inc. required
a Web centric marketing and assessment solution
for its clientele, including - restaurants, automobile
outlets, and corporate houses. The objective was
to provide an interface that clients could use
to market their services and allow customers to
shop online, without incurring extra costs in
setting up a dynamic Web portal and managing its
operations. Igenti teamed with DevelopmentIndia
to develop the Igenti Family of Products, entailing
Web marketing, assessment, online shopping, and
other modules. As a complete package of customizable
plug-in modules, the Igenti Family of Products
brings cost-effective Web marketing for Igenti’s
clients to explore and manage their customers,
globally.
Customer Profile
Igenti Inc. is a marketing consultancy organization,
based in Florida, USA. It is a member of the Igenti
Group, which started operations in 1996. The group
has ventured with Fortune 500 companies to provide
Web-centric marketing, hiring, and career counseling
solutions.
Business Requirement
Igenti Inc., observed
the need for effective marketing of services for
owners of restaurants, automobile outlets and
restaurants. As a marketing consultant, Igenti
wanted to provide a solution that its clients
could use to attract larger number of prospective
customers, while incurring minimal costs. To capitalize
on this concept, Igenti conceived the idea of
a Web-based solution that would allow clients
to communicate with their customers and facilitate
customer interaction. The solution had to be developed
as a comprehensive set of interoperable modules
with in-built capabilities to identify prospective
customers, generate and send customized newsletters
to customers, process orders online, and monitor
online transactions. These modules would provide
Igenti clients with an online presence, where
they would be able to highlight their services
and allow customers to interact with the online
system for shopping and other services.
Solution
Benefits
Flexible plug-in
modules to suit Igenti client requirements
High-end tools for customization of the
interface as per client requirements
Streamlined administration and management
of Igenti-to-client-to-customer relationship
Increased scalability of operations driven
by a 3-tier architecture setup
Technologies
Used
ASP.NET
SQL
Server 2000
XML
SOAP Web Services
Requirements
Igenti Inc., required
a solution that would provide its clients with
a cost-effective solution to manage their marketing
operations and generate higher sales. They intended
to develop a three-way solution to manage marketing
operations for clients, who in turn, manage their
customers, proactively. The entire cycle was highly
sensitive because Igenti needed to meet the requirements
of its clients and the market they were targeting.
A customized Web-based application was required,
using which clients could market and support their
products. In addition, the application required
features to allow clients to customize the interface
as per their business requirements. The solution
would prevent costs, usually incurred on setting
up and maintaining expensive Web portals, to carry
out marketing operations. Additionally, it provides
features such as, online assessment, shopping
cart, and order processing capabilities.
Igenti teamed with DevelopmentIndia, to develop
this solution with business-oriented features
to meet the requirements of Igenti clients and
their customers.
Business Driven
Solution for Effective Web Marketing
Igenti and DevelopmentIndia required a solution
that would effectively exploit Internet-based
solutions for marketing the services of Igenti
clients including restaurants, automobile outlets
and corporate houses. There were two facets to
this project - Business-to-Business (B2B) and
Business-to-Customer (B2C).
Due to the complexity and vastness of the project,
we prepared an extensive prototype for Igenti.
The prototype helped us in establishing the requirements
for the project and understanding their perception
of effective Web-centric marketing.
Once Igenti approved the prototype, we designed
the backend database using SQL Server 2000. Thereafter,
the development of the first front-end module,
the Igenti Manager™ began, followed by Igenti
Suite™ and Igenti Order™ modules. The
entire development process underwent rigorous
testing based on parameters such as defect detection,
adherence to market standards and client requirements
along with time tracking techniques to meet the
specified timeframe.
Igenti Manager is the administrator module used
by the Igenti staff and consultants to manage
client relationships and perform other functions
for the Igenti Suite module such as, enabling
the Igenti Suite for individual clients. The module
is responsible for managing Igenti client channels,
monitoring reports for client transactions, configuring
marketing policies, adding and removing customers
from the e-mail list of target customers. Igenti
Suite is a collection of sub-modules used by Igenti
clients and consultants to manage various activities
such as customization of marketing elements and
creation of target lists. One Igenti Suite system
or channel is assigned to each client. The sub-modules
available with Igenti Suite include the market,
assessment and Opt-in modules. Igenti Order is
a plug-in module available with Igenti Suite.
It is used to provide online shopping services
to customers. The focus of this module is to provide
target customers an easy shopping experience through
secure channels. Customers can purchase gift certificates
and pre-paid vouchers from an Igenti client. Gift
certificates and vouchers are marketed to customers
through client e-mail communication available
in Igenti Suite. The Igenti process model is displayed
below.
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The entire process
is explained using the following hypothetical
example.
A customer receives a newsletter from Pizza Hut,
an Igenti client, for purchasing a gift certificate
offering lunch for two people at Pizza Hut. The
newsletter contains a link directed to the Web
site where the customer can purchase the gift
certificate. The customer decides to buy the certificate
and places an order with Pizza Hut. This order
is processed and stored in the database. In this
process, the Igenti Suite will be responsible
for creating and sending the newsletters; the
Igenti Order is responsible for processing the
purchase order and Igenti Manager handles the
payment structure to be followed after the final
sale.
We developed Igenti modules over the .NET framework.
The architecture for the module is based on a
3-tier model. The technical architecture for Igenti
is displayed below. .
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The
Igenti modules are available on the front-end
and have been developed using ASP.NET. The backend
is developed using the SQL Server 2000 database.
XML Web services form the business logic layer.
The entire setup is integrated using .NET and
SOAP XML. This enables the system to work on a
common platform using Internet standards and services.
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Summary
The successful accomplishment
of the project with Igenti has been a milestone
for DevelopmentIndia. With this project, we upgraded
the skill sets of our team and also built a dedicated
team for developing solutions based on the Microsoft.NET
framework.
For the entire project, we at DevelopmentIndia,
focused on meeting the timelines, achieving service
level standards, and maintaining quality. Consequently,
Igenti Inc., was able to achieve its goals of
providing enhanced Web marketing services to its
clients with the Igenti Family of Products.
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| Technology
@ DevelopmentIndia |
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| Windows
NT/2000 server, Sun Solaris, LINUX Apache, Lotus Domino |
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| Offshore .Net Development