Techmar, a company dedicated to providing Data warehousing
solutions, has started the implementation of a DW Project in the public
transport company Copsa, at the request of Melbilan.
The original project consisted in the implementation of
point of sale devices to support payment with contactless intelligent cards that
send information via GPRS to be later processed using GXplorer, ARTech's Data
warehousing tool.
However, the project was later expanded to incorporate a
request for the development of customized collection, pre-sales and statistics
systems. We had to adapt management programs to the reality of Copsa and their
billing system, explained Engineer Jorge Tocar, director of Techmar.
Copsa's fleet in Uruguay is currently equipped with
vending terminals that store, in flash memory, the different types of fares and
routes sold with different payment methods (free passes, prepaid tickets, ticket
books).
Copsa uses contactless intelligent cards that include
software that exchanges information with vending terminals for each sale made.
This information is stored in the terminals' flash memory and sent via GPRS to a
company FTP.
The sales data entered by drivers (or settlements pending
for the company) goes from the FTP to a SQL server inbox, and from there to an
application server where a GeneXus application provides an interface to the
collection and pre-sales systems as well as to GXplorer.
"We are confident that GXplorer and GeneXus will allow us
to offer a comprehensive Data warehousing solution, from capturing and updating
data to viewing it on the client," said Mario Guedes de Rezende, director of
Techmar.
Before the system was implemented, Copsa needed one month
and a half to enter one month's sales data. For this reason, they couldn't
monitor or analyze up-to-date information.
A collection system and the statistical analysis of
information with GXplorer are currently in production, while the pre-sales
system is in its final development stage.
The Web application (Collections and Backend, where Ajax
is used) was developed using GeneXus 8.0 for .NET. The Windows application
(Pre-sales) was developed in three tiers with GeneXus 8.0.NET. Both are
connected to clients in a Microsoft environment through a WAN.
http://www.techmar.com.uy