About the Client:

Established in 1957, Sonabend provides custom tailoring and garment services for military bases in San Diego. It processes about 5,000 alterations each week using an assembly-line type of operation and delivers the finished products back to the customer.

The Challenge:

Sonabend was using a paper-based process to keep track of all the alterations required by customers using a large 3' x 4' sheet of pre-printed paper. This was a tedious process, as it took several weeks to verify and re-enter the data into Excel sheets for generating reports and invoices. Moreover, human errors in data entry and pricing led to costly mistakes.

Solution Technology:

• Tablet: Windows-7 tablet/laptop for data collection
• Web client: HTML, DHTML, JavaScript
• Back-office: SQL Server, Microsoft .NET

Bytes Approach:

Understanding the workflow precisely was critical to ensure the client's success.

From the first meeting through project completion and beyond, Bytes documented the workflow carefully and used videos to capture the process and set the bar for clear and consistent communication through all phases of the project:

• Requirement Gathering: Bytes product managers worked closely with Sonabend to establish the project's business and technical requirements. Core business processes the solution would need to support, platform preferences, and the in-house skills of Sonabend and its customers were all factored into the preparation of the software requirements specification (SRS). After review and agreement on the SRS with Sonabend, Bytes was able to quickly move forward to the design phase of the project.
• Design: Design engineers from Bytes and our partner ITegrity worked with Sonabend to lay out a user experience on a tablet that would be sure to meet its business needs. At the same time, Bytes architects performed technology feasibility studies to ensure the final design would meet all the requirements outlined in the SRS. Bytes provided a design recommendation that enabled the implementation phase of the project upon approval.
• Implementation: Bytes experienced technology team worked with Sonabend to implement the ultimate solution that involved a tablet interfacing with a backend relational database and web portal to view various reports. Senior engineers and expert database programmers worked with the client using an iterative engineering and release model to ensure the solution's efficiency.

Result:

Bytes & ITegrity successfully delivered the right solution, on time and on budget.