International Leader in Biotechnology Selects QAT Global for Custom Application Development

Modernizing the Software at the Core of the Business to Better Serve Users

Customer Snapshot

PIC is the international leader in the provision of continuous genetic improvement in swine breeding stock and in world-class technical support to the global pork supply chain.

Solution Snapshot

• New .NET custom application development project (deployed to Internal PIC servers and Azure Web Services for Development)
• Original solution developed in 4 months (three 3-5 week sprints) from concept to production with 4-person offshore development team plus a US-based Delivery Manager/Solution Architect
• Brazilian resources used for development and testing
• Highly intuitive with a streamlined workflow
• Leverages open-source technologies
• Highly cost-effective

Technical Details

• Utilize agile project management methodology
• Transition source code and project to Internal IT Development Team
• Complete technical manual providing details on coding and business logic
• Responsive Web UI (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)

Key Differentiators

• Brazilian Offshore capability
• Multi-location team
• Agility RPM
• Agile-Scrum Methodology and Project Management
• Established .NET Coding Standards, Tools, Architecture, Training, Best Practices, and Processes
• nDaptive Application Framework
• Small consulting company focused on the success of the customer

Skills Needed:

• .Net
• .NET 4.6.1
• .NET C# REST Services
• Angular 1.6.0
• Angular UI
• Bootstrap CSS for Responsive Web UI
• Dapper ORM
• Enterprise Library 6 Exception Handling Block
• Enterprise Library 6 Logging Application Block
• Enterprise Library 6 Unity Application Block
• MS Visual Studio 2015 for REST
• QAT nDaptive Framework
• SAML 2.0
• Team Foundation Server (CI Build/Deployment)
• Team Foundation Server (Visual Control)
• Trello for SCRUM & Project Management

The Client & the Challenge

Headquartered in Hendersonville, TN, PIC (Pig Improvement Company) is the international leader in the provision of continuous genetic improvement in swine breeding stock and world-class technical support to the global pork supply chain. PIC combines quantitative analytics with leading-edge biotechnology to develop breeding stock that helps its customers maximize profitability. PIC is a division of Genus plc – a for-profit organization that is dedicated to the responsible exploration of innovations that benefit the well-being of animals, farmers, and ultimately consumers.

The Solution

The primary purpose of PIC’s Health Assurance area is to monitor health conditions for the whole supply chain, which includes PIC farms, customer farms, transportation, and the external environment in general. PIC Health Assurance works closely with several HTV (Health Team Veterinarians), which in turn provide services and advice to farmers and their veterinarians. As soon as PIC Health Assurance detects a cause of concern, HTVs are notified and subsequently take the necessary steps to evaluate possible health issues related to the cause of concern.

The core application in their portfolio is their Vet-to-Vet (V2V) application, which allows the PIC HA team to submit and track requests directed to the HTV. It included a low level of integration with several third-party applications and was developed internally by Genus in 2003 using Java/JSP – version 1.7 in, supported by an Oracle database.

PIC wanted to modernize the Vet-to-Vet (V2V) application in an effort to manage veterinarian communications associated with orders better and improve functionality and reliability of the tool. Tool owners determined that the application was no longer effective in providing a robust platform for Veterinarian and Administrator communication in a user-friendly online environment.

QAT Global’s Approach

PIC desired to use current web-based technologies and a more effective tool design to redesign, develop, and implement a new version of the custom application that would provide their vet-to-vet stakeholders with more information, a more user-friendly environment, and provide better stakeholder collaboration around health requirements and issues to be communicated to customers’ veterinarian.

What We Did as a Part of the Solution

QAT Global’s browser-based solution utilizes the latest web-based technologies so Veterinarians and Administrators can access the system from mobile, desktop, and laptop devices.

The new solution is user friendly, aesthetically pleasing, provides detailed information about veterinarian requests, provides filterable lists of all PIC’s vet-to-vet requests, manages workflows, manages access via user roles, notifies users of updates to the system and progress of activities, and is secured against intrusion through SAML integration with PIC’s security solution. The site design incorporates the latest functionality for party-to-party collaboration (Internal and External Users) and a notifications system to drive the vet-to-vet process and update stakeholders on progress.

In addition, the solution employs consistency of design across all pages/sections of the solution, adheres to Genus IT development standards and best practices, has source code that is managed and saved in Genus IT source code repository. It is compatible with all current web browsing technology, can be easily upgraded, and is compatible with the Genus IT environment. We utilized an agile project management methodology during the custom application development.

The result was a solution which:

• Introduced the concept of a PIC portal capable of hosting several PIC applications, starting with Vet-to-Vet
• Includes a user dashboard upon login with, request status counts, aging requests, and other relevant information
• Is accessible via single sign-on (SSO) for internal (PIC) users and via a login page for external (nonPIC) users
• Allows users to create and update requests with easy to use guided forms
• Allows users to attach documents/pictures to requests, regardless of status
• Allows users to filter request lists to see those important to them
• Notifies users via email and/or text about requests directed to them
• Provides users with the ability to export filtered lists