Development and maintenance of corporate sales support applications for GE Medical Systems

GE Medical Systems is a world leader in the field of medical diagnostic imaging technology, services and healthcare productivity and operates in more than 100 countries. 

 The Challenge

Outsourcing development and maintenenance of corporate and commercial applications. GE Medical Systems (GEMS) had been using an outsourcing scheme for several years, mainly relying on suppliers in India. In search of alternatives, in 1999 the European head office launched a tender among Russia's leading IT companies. Aplana Software, before 2001 known as I.T.Co Software Development Center, was selected primarily for its integrated quality system and a proven technological process of software development.

The Solution

Since 1999 I.T.Co/Aplana has been providing to GEMS outsourced development and maintenance of corporate applications, mainly in the area of client-server and Web development. Services have been provided on a per-project basis and involve application design and development, interface module development, product localization, legacy data transfer, testing and documentation services.

Cooperation Highlights

Cost Effective Delivery Model. The services delivery model involves about 70% off-site work with on-site activities focused only on design and delivery. A dedicated team works permanently on long-term projects. Resources are expanded as required. The on-going familiarity drastically reduces the initial phase of new projects and hence the overall cost.
Single development and support team. Products are supported by the development team which provides quicker feedback, rapid co-operative problem-solving and lower maintenance cost. Risk management resulted in reduced costs. Work is planned six months in advance to reduce project risks and enable efficient resource allocation. Thus, additional risks are not budgeted.
Adoption of customer corporate standards. The key factor of success in optimizing GEMS’ business processes is the tailoring of Aplana’s existing software development process to GEMS’ standards (Six Sigma industry quality standard, internal GE software development standard (IMPRD) and GE standard for Web GUI).
Meeting business requirements. Aplana employs visual modeling tools to produce detailed descriptions of the future system functionality in order to better define the requirements. Prototyping is also used to provide intermediate versions for user interface, functionality and business logic of the system.
Results:

Three years of cooperation resulted in over 20 projects in 3 project areas delivered within time and budget frames. Two most significant projects are related to the maintenenance of corporate Sales Support systems used in about eighty GEMS offices in Europe and Asia. The projects involve regular release planning and updating in accordance with needs, further product development, and daily maintenance and support.

“We are satisfied with Aplana/ITCo services and have been for the past several years.” GE Medical Systems

Tools and Technologies involved

Trilogy, Oracle 8 server, MS Visual Basic, MS Access; Rational and Microsoft software engineering support tools and methodologies.

Cooperation Details

• Duration (months): 36 month
• Total effort (person/months): 150 man/month