Samples of Pilot Projects

Hotel Booking Module for Travel Planning Web-site

Arcadia's team developed hotel reservation search and booking module for e-tickets purchase and travel planning web service. The module can connect to different booking adaptors (TransHotel, AcademService, etc.) thus providing the most wide range of offerings for the clients. Besides, the system allows online payments through Assist system.

Technologies & tools: MS Windows, MS .NET, MS SQL Server, Kentico, C#, JavaScript, Transact-SQL, XML/XSLT, ASP.NET WebForms, AJAX, CSS, jQuery, WCF, MSMQ, ADO.NET, LINQ, NHibernate, Reactive Extensions, Unity Application Block, jQuery UI, MS Visual Studio/2010, ReSharper, nUnit, MS Visual SourceSafe, Subversion, NAnt

Custom software development | Web applications | .NET | Online services | Travel

Invoicing System for a Courier Company

The client provides car courier services. The costs of delivery services are invoiced to the customers. As every delivery usually amounts to a small sum of money and courier customers usually request them several times a month, the courier services invoices its customers once in a fixed period of time instead of sending invoice for every delivery. According to the client's request, Arcadia's team developed a Windows application for facilitates the process of invoicing with the following main functionalities:

reading the invoicing data from files in CSV format
generating invoices based on the data
monitoring payments
handling reminders
printing
exporting to Finvoice (an XML standard format for electronic invoices).

Technologies & tools: MS Windows, MS .NET, MS SQL Server, C#, Transact-SQL, XML/XSLT, ADO.NET, WinForms, MS Visual Studio/2010, MS Visual SourceSafe

Custom software development | Desktop applications | .NET | Financial

Multiple Hotel Room Reservation

The client is a hotel offering to it's guests unusual pricing options which are not available in standard hotel room reservation applications: price of the room rental is not strictly linked to the number of guests; additional services are not included into the price but are ordered as separate items instead. Thus, the hotel developed it's own online reservation system matching its unique offerings. Still, the system needed improvement. The client's web-site allowed reservations of one room at a time. According to client's requirements, Arcadian team implemented the following new functionalities:
1) Multiple room reservation for one customer. This feature required changes in user interface, business layer, database structure and communication protocol with Amadeus Property Management System.
2) Possibility for registered users to log in and make a reservation without paying it online. Instead, they receive invoices later.

Technologies & tools: MS Windows Server 2003, MS .NET, C#, MS SQL Server, ASP.NET, ADO.NET

Implementation of new functionality | Web applications | .NET | Online services

Software Re-Engineering Consulting Project: Insurance Automation System

Since foundation, in-house team of the client developed 19 applications to work with different kinds of insurance which became out-of-date and difficult to maintain. The client needed to decide whether to re-engineer and continue maintaining internal application or migrate to a ready solution. For that, the client needed to estimate possible budget for moving the system to a new platform. Arcadia’s consulting deliveries included:

Description of software architecture of a would-be new system
Description of how different modules of the system will interact in transition period
Project plan with estimations of cost and time for every stage of the project.

Software consulting | Desktop applications | Insurance automation

How to Start Outsourcing with Minimal Risk

“A good start is half the battle”

Through the long history of working with our clients we elaborated a number of simple common steps for setting up the distributed software development process with minimum risk for the client.

Sign NDA

Arcadia undertakes the commitment to preserve the confidentiality of customers' information and source codes. In many cases NDA is signed before the start of negotiations.

Start with a small pilot project (2-6 person-months)

Starting with a small project minimizes risks for the client. We are ready to show quality of our work in solving real tasks and bringing real value before we start long-term and costly large projects. For example, it can be

a small software tool
a module or a feature of the application which can be developed separately
drawing detailed technical requirements for the would-be system.

Don't know what to start with? Call us, our experienced consultants will help you to define the right scope after a preliminary study of the system on-site.

After the scope of the pilot project is defined, we make project estimation, draw project plan and commercial proposal. I.e., we define how much time and money will be spent for the project.

Define model of project organization

distributed team with daily communications
project model with once-a-week reporting

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