Visual WebGui Case Studies

"Using form visual inheritance, we quickly developed about 50 end-user forms in 2-3 months with 3 developers while the original estimation using traditional ASP.NET was over 6 months. Visual WebGui is an amazing time and budget saver"

Overview
Informatec was founded in 1992 to create practical applications that focused on the emerging needs for telephone system controls. Since then the company has been developing and sophisticating theses telephony system control solutions and nowadays it designs, develops, manufactures, sells, installs and maintains Call Account Management Systems (local and remote call accounting systems) and Voice and Fax Systems, including software and hardware developed and produced in-house.

The Informatec development team includes graduate and post-graduate Engineers, Systems Analysts and Programmers from the main universities. As it dominates the technology for manufacturing its own equipment and software Informatec can offer flexibility to customize its products and speed when developing solutions for its customers' specific problems, at extremely competitive prices.

Informatec's customer list includes the following manufacturers and distributors: Avaya, Damovo, Ericsson, Monytel, NEC and Siemens.

Business needs
Informatec looked to replace its existing application UI with a new end-user interface which would be more suitable for today's corporate world. The existing application interface was developed in Delphi 6, Win32, using Microsoft Active X technology. As a result, it could only run in Internet Explorer and required users to have enough security privileges that allow them to download and install a certified control to run the application.
 
Therefore, Informatec needed to create a new application which can provide all users with a quick access to application via a web browser from anywhere, with minimum client software and hardware requirements. It was also important that the new interface is user friendly and intuitive and includes at least the same functionality of the existing application, while performance especially with database access should be improved.

The Solution
The project originally started with the traditional ASP.NET approach and work estimate was for over 6 months. After a month the team discovered Visual WebGui, and since not all of the team's developers were familiarized with ASP.NET and web applications it was decided to star over the project with Visual WebGui because the WinForms approach of Visual WebGui meant that the team could utilize their existing skill set.

The WinForms-like approach of Visual WebGui was crucial to this project as it brought much improved development productivity. "Using form visual inheritance, we quickly developed about 50 end-user forms in 2-3 months with 3 developers while the original estimation using traditional ASP.NET was over 6 months. Visual WebGui is an amazing time and budget saver" said Sergio Gomes.
 
The unique approach of Visual WebGui to developing web applications allowed Informatec to be 100% conformed against the original requirements of creating a responsive, intuitive thin client application which is pure DHTML and accessible via firewall and proxy (Port 80). Visual WebGui also allowed to create a base framework of common facilities (data access, data navigation, logs, etc.) and then to focus development basically on end-user interface experience.

Benefits
Choosing Visual WebGui for this project shortened the development cycles by more than half of the original ASP.NET estimations. Instead of taking over 6 months, the project was completed in less than 3 months with 3 developers granting it the same functionality of the former application. In addition to the quick and easy development with its Visual Studio Integration and the WinForms-like designer, Visual WebGui also presents simple deployment and maintenance which all leads to a remarkable ROI.

Furthermore, Visual WebGui applications are true thin client which means that there is no need for any specific browser installation on the client in order to run the application and it can now run on other browsers as well. The Visual WebGui runtime also allows a responsive and secure interface with the database.

Web application demo:
www.hotbill.com.br
User: webgui
Password: webgui

Screen shots
Standard report parameters interface. Visual form components built dynamically at runtime, based on a Crystal Reports definition file (.RPT)

User’s telephony usage graphic dashboard - third-party ASP.NET graphic components inside a VWG form.

User’s Data edition form. A standard basic edition form was made and then, created specific visual inherited forms, like WinForms. inside a VWG form.