Case Studies

We have enjoyed long-term business relationships with a large and varied group of training services clients for over twenty years.

Independent Container Line

Data Directions has assisted Independent Container Line Ltd, a multinational company that transports containerized cargo via ship between the USA and western Europe, with transition of its antiquated in-house software applications to modern technologies and platforms.

ICL’s Compass application, a significant portion of which was designed and developed by Data Directions consultants, helps ICL personnel in the USA, the United Kingdom and Belgium manage the movement of containers, cargo and ships. Automated interfaces between the Compass application and ICL business partners streamline business interactions, while saving time and reducing communication errors. The bilingual (English and German) website www.icl-ltd.com, which was designed and developed by Data Directions, leverages Compass information and allows registered ICL customers to quickly and easily track the progress of their containers from pickup to delivery. DDI consultants continue to provide help desk and Compass maintenance support, allowing ICL to focus on its core business and Compass to evolve with it. 

CWD Kids

Data Directions took over maintenance of the CWDKids commercial web site in 2007. Aside from keeping the CWDKids website running smoothly, Data Directions has implemented several changes designed to enhance the customer experience and increase sales. In addition, we have worked with CWDKids to explore additional sales channels such as Google and Yahoo, and have employed various security measures to protect the company and customers from cyber attacks.

However, at Data Directions we see ourselves as more than mere caretakers of our client’s websites. Therefore, we actively partner with CWDKids to suggest ways to leverage technology to increase sales and decrease costs. Our goal is to use technology to make CWDKids more successful.
 

ColorTree

For ColorTree, Data Directions bridges the gap between the commercial software packages and ColorTree's internal management reporting needs. Ancillary reporting and applications were provided to assist with ColorTree's Theory of Constraints management philosophy allowing them to plan their sales techniques and production scheduling to maximize resources, revenue, and customer satisfaction. While the scheduling package is accurate, it is less accommodating for last minute schedule changes so we developed a method to allow supervisors to make manual changes rearranging and customizing the schedule as needed.

Where appropriate, areas of automation have been identified to improve efficiency and reduce errors. For example, an account manager might provide the customer with custom package labeling, and to prevent standard labels from being created in the plant we can provide this additional information on the custom scheduling application. For standard labels, we created a labeling process that pulls the necessary information from the order configuration database so the employee no longer needs to key this information. When gathering materials for a particular day's jobs, in the past the supervisor needed to compile this information for every job and every machine on the schedule by manually looking at each job in the scheduling package. We created a report that lists it together in a concise manner all jobs for the day by resource, and the materials needed making it more accurate and efficient for the employee to prepare the machine.

Cadmus Communications

Cadmus has entrusted Data Directions with support for two of their mission-critical applications: the PDS Payroll System, and the CMS Print Scheduling System. PDS is a SQL Server-based package that runs the payroll for the entire company. Support services include generating ad-hoc reports and managing database archive and retrieval operations, as well as installation of patches and upgrades from PDS. Most recently, Data Directions has assisted in the migration of the payroll system from PDS to ADP. The migration required extensive data extract and conversion support.

CMS is an ASP-based custom software created specifically for Cadmus. It is used to automate the process of scheduling assets (printers, binders, etc.) for specific print jobs. Data Directions has taken over maintenance of the system and is currently engaged in fixing some serious bugs and enhancing the system to make it more accurate and easier to use.

Massey Energy

For Massey Energy Company, Data Directions created a custom Sales Information System (SIS) application to manage orders, tracking shipping, and creating invoices. Additional functionality tracks accounts receivable and all sales accounting including interfaces to ERP systems. This application replaced a legacy AS400 Mainframe system taking over 8 hours to produce month-end reports and provides real-time reporting from cradle to grave. The new system streamlined data entry of shipping information by electronically interfacing the data from shipping points, creating real-time month-end reports to facilitate a more efficient month-end close and provides more reporting and trend analysis than ever thought possible.
 

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative

When Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) was looking to establish an intranet web site using SharePoint, they turned to Data Directions to provide them with web development expertise. Data Directions consultants installed and configured a SharePoint 2003 intranet site to offer the company’s employees, consultants, and business partners a higher level of web-enabled collaboration than was possible with their previous simple Windows-based network shared folders. When Microsoft released their enhanced Office SharePoint Services platform in 2007, Data Directions also migrated their intranet to this new environment. Seeing the value in the community-building and enhanced team dynamics that SharePoint-based sites can provide, ODEC also looked to Data Directions to help implement a public internet site (http://www.memberzone.coop) based upon Sharepoint MOSS 2007 with a completely customized look-and-feel to provide ODEC’s business partners with their own web space to use for collaboration, and in many instances, as an alternative or even replacement for their own internal intranet sites. And when ODEC realized that their public web site (www.odec.com) needed a facelift, they also looked to Data Directions’ programming and graphic design strengths to update their primary internet presence with the latest Web 2.0 technologies.