| Case Study : | Product Management System |
| Industry : | Manufacture (Toy) |
| Client : | Vivid Imaginations |
Vivid Imaginations is the number one toy and gift company in the United Kingdom. Vivid manufactures and markets many of the most
successful toys in the UK including Bratz dolls, Spiderman, Teksta, and the Thunderbirds.
The Business Problem
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Vivid Imaginations had experienced incredible growth taking revenues from US$0 - $218 million in just 12 years. This had placed incredible strain on the companies existing IT infrastructure.
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The company had multiple systems and databases to manage manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of their toys and related products. |
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With multiple markets and offices around the world, Vivid needed a centralised management system that could be equally accessible from their head office in the UK, or their manufacturing facilities in China. |
 The Journey
The CIO looked at many existing systems in the market. He found that many addressed specific business problems, but:
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did not address the specific problems that Vivid Imaginations were facing.
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did not provide the necessary functional unity across the companies’ diverse divisions. |
The Decision
The CIO decided that a custom system would best address the business problems the company was facing.
Identifying a Partner
Vivid Imaginations had worked with Four Corners Interactive successfully in the past, and it was decided the companies proven expertise and specialisation in custom, web based system development made it the most appropriate company to approach.
Proposed Solution
Four Corners proposed that a custom, web based system would provide the company with:
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the most flexible and customisable solution, which would allow the system to grow along with the company.
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a system that could be easily rolled out to users, as there would be no software to install. All that would be required to use the software would be a browser. |
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a system where all support and maintenance would be provided by the Four Corners Interactive at their location as the systems would be hosted. |
Implementation
Four Corners Interactive worked closely with Vivid Imaginations on the business analysis, and making sure the existing systems were reproduced correctly. Four Corners provided Vivid with a visual workflow of the system to make sure that it would meet their functional and useability needs. The system was deployed on a development platform to facilitate testing and training.
The Result
The integration of the various systems, especially the UK and Hong Kong operations, and the elimination of redundancies, have brought major cost benefits and efficiencies to the Vivid Imaginations.
Staff embraced the system with vigorous enthusiasm and enjoyed participating in the process of developing and upgrading the system over time.
Vivid have been able enhance the functional areas, and new functional modules have been added as the company has grown.
Four Corners’s support and maintenance infrastructure has freed up the Vivid’s IT staff to focus on other IT projects. Four Corners provides engineers 24/7 and the companies’ proprietary online Client Request Management system has helped Vivid staff manage debugging, change and update requests.
Technologies
Windows 2000
MS SQL
ASP, .NET, XML, Java, HTML
Multiple clustered servers, firewall, VPN for secure access
Contact the company here to discuss your Application Development requirements with a consultant.
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About Four Corners Interactive
Founded in 1997 Four Corners Interactive provides advanced IT solutions and services to businesses and institutions. The company has proven success and expertise in multiple business domains including finance, travel, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. The company provides a range of services from application development, data warehousing, managed application delivery, middleware, web application development, to wireless application development.
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