Solving a real business challenge with technology
Global Container Terminals
Case Study
Design & Discovery
Strategy & Support
Web + Mobile Development
The Need
The Need
"We needed to replace an end-of-life system with unique business rules and ADP payroll integration."
GCT, a shipping terminal operating company, needed to replace their old timesheets system. They had a number of unique business rules, specific UI requirements, and legacy ADP payroll integration.
Q.
Why didn't GCT just buy an off-the-shelf solution?
A.
They could not find the right solution to satisfy the business.
They were being sold a solution that would help the vendor, but not help him achieve the results he needed
GCT needed a system that would handle a number of site, department, shift specific business rules and have minimal impact for union members transitioning to the new timesheet system.
The key work was working collaboratively to customize a UI and business flow to resemble a process similar to the old system for easy onboarding, while having new functionality baked in to help the Finance team run more efficiently. This required a technical partner strong in listening and
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The Build
Replacing a highly available, core piece of operational flow required carefully identifying and building the right set of UI / business flow changes to support the future.
The timesheet system impacts users across different sites, departments, and roles differently, and a big piece of the challenge was ensuring that all key impacts the system may have to operations was understood. To succeed we needed to ensure union members could learn the system quickly as their skillsets are primarily focussed on other aspects of the job. We built a componentized custom interface that resembled existing UI flows / elements with a refreshed look to facilitate an easier user adoption cycle.
A web applicaiton approach was chosen for varied UI screen sizes, availability and deployment considerations.
The Build
The new system prepares GCT for the future as it is far more flexible in its ability to extend, update, and deploy the application easily.
In building a configurable business engine, the finance team can self-administer adjustments and work far more efficiently as their business evolves.
By using a majority of existing functionality used across multiple user groups was preserved in an effective format to ensure no operations could be disrupted after the transition. Modules were built with the future in mind to allow for long-term investment and operational improvement into the system.
The Relationship
The Relationship
GCT felt our collaborative team would lead to the "right" solution being built.
Listening?
One key challenge was all the business rules baked into the existing prcess. At times as we worked with the user groups, we uncovered many items that were not originally captured or considered. Our team worked to incorporate the new feedback into the system to ensure we could preserve in some form the important existing functionality.
Operational testing and review discussions across multiple departments, roles, and sites were done to ensure core details were not missed.
High touch immersive relationship
During the entire engagment there was continued effort in improving our collaborative process and working relationship. The complex nature of the project required us to listen to our clients and adjust processes on different phases so that both sides could benefit and get to the right solution.
The Transformation
The project accomplished the main goal of maintaining the payroll operations without disruption, and decreasing the risk of technological failure after moving off their legacy system.
The amount of overall work the Finance team has had to do relating to Payroll and system downtime has also decreased due to some of the improvements the new system has. All user roles were able to transition fairly smoothly.
In the end, GCT was able to deploy their custom solution and hundreds of their union workers are being paid properly without disruption. It was one of their quietest go-lives for a project, and things just worked.
The Transformation
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