The Need

Sweet Chariot is a three decade old leading bakery brand headquartered in Bangalore with branches across India. The traditional house lacked an online presence and wanted to start selling its bakery and confectionary products online to enable customers to order from anywhere. The need was to create an online shopping cart where customers could purchase the products and an integrated payment gateway to make payments online. The requirement was also to provide a facility wherein the customer service executive would be able to chat with the customer online who is visiting the website for any related support.

The Solution

Chimera built a custom store front for Sweet Chariot which enabled the Sweet Chariot staff to track and process orders from all around the world. Chimera also ensured that the site is Search Engine Optimized, the highlight being that the site got its first order in its first day of operation after google indexed it with no online or offline marketing efforts. The site also allows the customers to configure reminders of all special events. It also allows the administrator of the site to track visitors across pages in real time and provides support to customer visiting the site. The site could be accessed at http://www.sweetchariot.co.in.

Technologies

Microsoft ASP.net, SQL server 2005.

The Need

The client a leading print retail company recognized the need to improve and enhance the current systems due to their rapid growth and expansion which increased the complexity of their enterprise. The need was to have a storefront that could integrate with their backend inventory and process management server and enhance their existing applications. The inventory items primarily consisted of print collaterals and the challenge was to provide a storefront that needs to enable the customers to view their document as well as provide them the flexibility to customize the document as per their requirement. The application was to also provide the facility wherein the customer could print their document as well as pay for this service via a storefront.

The Solution

ASP Dot Net storefront is a leading .Net based off the shelf storefront, which has thousands of installations worldwide. Chimera zeroed in on using ASP Dot Net storefront because of its flexibility and the multiple features it provides while developing the application. With the help of the storefront's powerful skinning engine we had to clone the public site for several of its customers. Multiple storefronts with several skins were created as per the customer needs. Once the skinning was completed the inventory was integrated to the existing backend XMPIE system. The storefront also had to be customized to write back orders into the existing databases. Finally the storefront was integrated with several payment gateways based on the needs of the client. Chimera leveraged its knowledge and vast experience on the Print Domain combined with its technology expertise to develop a highly scalable application to keep pace with the client's rapid growth and expansion.

Technologies

ASPDotNet Storefront, XMPIE Web services, Microsoft Team Foundation Server

The Need

The client is the premier photography experts in India since 1910. To further increase its presence in the country the client had to diversify their range of services. To boost their online presence the client provided their customers with the facility of uploading their pictures online and the prints would be taken at a designated outlet and delivered to the customer. Since the photo printer and the website were at different locations tracking and printing the orders posed as the biggest challenge. Moreover there was a need for a centralized system for the customer support representatives who could provide support to their customers to track individual orders.

The Solution

Defining the requirement was a challenge hence to start of this project Chimera took up a detailed study of the existing proprietary system to understand the existing printing process. After a lot of brainstorming we came up with a solution wherein a windows installable client (A Winform based thin client) which would have a Microsoft Outlook like interface would be installed to display and track the orders of the customer. The thin client was to be installed in several locations with a centralized database (MySql) on the Internet. There was a need to build a solution that would enable all the customer support representatives to view and track orders of their customers and streamline the entire order processing system. Chimera had to write several integration routines to centralize a fairly complex order processing system which had to retrieve data from multiple databases stored at various locations which was one of the biggest challenges of this application. In addition we had to process heavy image/photo files that are used for printing hence a third party .Net based FTP component was bought to reduce the effort and improve the schedules.

Technologies

C#.Net, MySql, FTP component from DART (dart.com)

The Need

The client is a leading IT solution provider for online software solutions for K-12 school districts in the US. The need was to upgrade an existing product which enabled parents to make payments to the school. This was a hosted SaaS product that required a significant upgrade in terms of the functionality. The product consisted of a two parts - The first module being a customized Dot Net Nuke solution and the second module being a customized version of BV Commerce. To meet this initiative they found it appropriate to leverage Chimera's technology and prior expertise in handling similar applications, and outsource the upgradation of their product to us.

The Solution

The initial challenge was to understand the existing functionalities of the product before proceeding to upgrade the system. Multiple remote meeting enabled the team to quickly define the requirements for the upgradation. Import export modules were written in Dot Net Nuke(DNN) as user controls and new menu items and modules were added to the existing DNN framework. The BVCommerce software had to be customized to showcase the special product categories added to the existing product. Additional business logics were created to validate the items added to the cart and new pages were created in the storefront to add special kinds of payments. In addition to demonstrating Chimeras' capabilities in handling new technologies it also further demonstrates our adeptness to executing software projects offshore, especially with an organization experimenting offshore for the first time.

Technologies

BV Commerce, DotNetNuke, .Net 3.5