Dymanic order processing and resource allocation between Telenor and Flextronics Network Services for up-to-date status and easy cross-communication.

Background

With more than 95,000 employees and net sales of 13 million USD, Singaporean-based Flextronics, is the world leading vendor of electronic supplies. The company has offices spanning 29 countries. Flextronics Network Services (FNS) is a telecom installation service provider. It subcontracts to companies such as Telenor, Norway’s main telecom service provider.

The Case

In order to handle the growing number of orders, FNS needed a new system to handle their order processing and resource allocation. Ethos Norway designed a system to improve information gathering while keeping the same, user friendly user interface.

Through the new system, FNS receives orders electronically from Telenor. These orders are then categorized before being directed through the relevant work flow process making them easy to track. Telenor is updated automatically as information is processed.

Solution

The solution is built on a Microsoft platform and includes a database server (Microsoft SQL Server 2000), a web server (Microsoft Internet Information Services), and MSMQ Server (Microsoft Message Queue Server). It also includes tailor-made applications and components based on the Microsoft .NET framework.

The system consists of the following applications:

• A receiver/sender which communicate with Telenor through HTTP and HTTPS
• A client application. FNS chose to run the on a terminal server for 8 employees working with order processing and resource allocation.
• A server, which serves as the link between the database, the communication with Telenor, and the client application.

Technology

The client application uses Winforms, which, through .NET Remoting, has a two-way communication with the server. The advantage of this is that multiple users are able to simultaneously use and update the system. The server updates the client as soon as any change is made. The server also uses the same two-way communication to update the client applications when new orders are submitted.

The server is multi-threaded and can handle several orders at the same time, so that employees can work on related tasks without waiting. They can also continuously receive new orders.

The system uses MSMQ to achieve stability, high uptime and less wait time. The system is not reliant on Telenor, so the application will continue running irrespective of Telenor. With MSMQ, orders are received even if the server application is down for upgrade or other maintenance.