ennovate critical and timely fixtures helps curtail major losses to the client and makes product a market success

The Client :
Our client is a leader in innovation for interactive presentation products and collaboration tools. From traditional whiteboards and chalkboards, to interactive whiteboards and presentation tools for the education, corporate, government and military markets our client's products are widely accepted globally.
The client has developed a Room Scheduler product which can be used to reserve meeting rooms, schedule meetings and invite attendees through its web interface as a stand alone unit or in conjunction with server.

The Challenge :
Our client developed two Ethernet based meeting-room capture products that allowed the capture of whiteboard notes to a built-in web server. Users can then return to their office and download the notes from the web server onto their local PC for archival purpose or for later use. There was still a consistent problem that users had to remember to download the notes when they returned from the room or the notes would eventually "fall off" the web site. After a meeting, it is easy to forget that the notes need download.

Also, previously the Room scheduler's room booking web interface allowed e-mail addresses for the host and attendees to be entered, but only the email addresses could be entered and not the names of the individuals. This limitation inhibited addition of unknown email ids.

The existing connector/driver which enables communication between exchange server and the product possible was limited to work locally. The client required a connector which communicates remotely in clustered environment and also works with and without SSL.
Also, on task was complete Product maintenance and Testing.

The Solution :

• Design & Development
  ennovate implemented a feature which eliminates the need to download the notes. Now the Room scheduler automatically e-mails the notes to the meeting participants following a meeting (or during a meeting). In this way, the requirement to download the notes is effectively eliminated, making it easier to jump to the next task without worry of losing the notes.
  In order to solve the problems arising out of unknown email IDs, ennovate implemented a feature that allows system administrator to specify an LDAP server during setup. When a valid LDAP server is specified, partial names or e-mail addresses are looked up in the LDAP database in a similar fashion to many popular e-mail programs.
  The product's Clustered Exchange Connector was developed to support communication between the product and Exchange server remotely on clustered environment.


• It also supports SSL, Caching mechanism and Exchange Server 2000/2003/2007

• The software supports English, French & Spanish languages

• The Software lends support to an integrated camera that senses the number of attendees in a meeting room. This number is displayed on the external Unit as well as to all attendees paged by the software. The meeting time commences as and when the number becomes non-zero. This feature is called Room Sensor.

• Information transmitted through the software utilizes the medium of internet, rendering it vulnerable to malicious acts. To ensure information fidelity and security, SSL has been introduced which enables data encryption and decryption at transmitter and receiver ends.
 

• Testing
  ennovate Testing Team created Test plans and executed test cases before release. The following tests were performed on the system:
  
  - Functional Test
  - UI test
  - Regression Test
  - Compatibility Test (to ensure software compatibility on two different hardware units)
  
  For exchange server tests, we developed test plan and generalized test cases to test Exchange Server 2000/2003/2007 in simple and clustered environment.
     
• Sustenance
  ennovate is responsible for solving client issues and enhancing/adding features as per client requirements related to
  - Room scheduler product application (software related issues / feature enhancements with front panel and web interface).
  - Exchange connector (interface between Room scheduler and Microsoft Exchange server (standalone or cluster) to retrieve and/or schedule meetings from Microsoft Outlook).
  - Lotus Connector (interface between Room scheduler and Lotus Domino server to retrieve and/or schedule meetings from Lotus Notes).
  - ennovate has been maintaining this product since January 2005 during which 10 major releases have been undertaken.
   
• Release Management
  ennovate proposed a unique solution to automate the process of firmware tarball creations through cvs. We conceptualized a script that generates full tarball for the desired tag. Initially user had to run the patch manually by ssh/telnet to Device unit. With automation in place, user could now use the web interface for patch upgrade apart from firmware upgrades.

The Technology :
Core Java, Servlets, Linux, Lotus Script, ASP, Asp.Net 2.0, C# 2.0, Exchange Server 2000/2003/2007, XML

The Benefits :

• ennovate team was able to drastically cut down team size as required by client to enable smoother coordination and task handling despite the project being technically diverse. ennovate offered fewer engineers who were able to support the range of technologies at ease.
• The client faced grave problems when one of their customers threatened to return a bulk quantity of purchased units if a persistent problem was unresolved. Team ennovate sprung into action and resolved the issue in record time to save the deal and large losses to our client.
• Team ennovate worked round the clock and proposed innovative solutions to enhance the product and give it an edge in the market ultimately making the product a Market Success.
• Our clustered exchange server solution enabled remote access, improved performance with caching and enhanced security for the product. Also, with .Net based development, deployment can be done instantly as opposed to configuring the connecter with a large instruction set.