BTWW Retail Application

BTWW Retail LLP
Dallas, TX USA

BTWW Retail LLP owns and manages several Western retail stores that have been satisfying western apparel needs of families across the United States. With 44 stores across New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and California, BTWW Retail continues to grow and maintain a deep commitment to customer satisfaction.

We knew that we needed to build a brand-new application that would combine multiple existing retail locations under one roof. Iron Speed Designer made this very easy! We were able to implement the Iron Speed Designer application seamlessly, flawlessly and almost immediately.

The application is used by internal company employees at both the corporate and retail management level. The application links several "inherited" databases and systems so that everyone can access company information in one place.

Our employees use the application for almost all managerial processes, including:

	Point-of-sale operations.
	Inventory control and tracking.
	Pricing, sales, and promotions.
	Customer management and marketing.
	Employee management.
	Customized reports.
	Information security.

This application helps us maintain accurate records. An employee in the accounting department may use the application when trying to reconcile payment on an inventory shipment. This application would allow him to verify his order against the goods actually received at the retail location quickly. We are able to quickly identify a discrepancy on the billing or receiving end of things.

Application size and scope

The application currently utilizes 11 databases and a variety of database packages including ODBC, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Access.

There are approximately 250 to 500 database tables. The largest is the "Inventory-on-Hand" table with over 800,000 records. This table contains the gross inventory for all 44 retail locations, with inventory valued at between $1 and $5 million dollars.

With anywhere between 30 to 60 corporate employees and 100 retail employees using this application each day, there are countless transactions running through the application each day. Company employees can access the application through one of 56 web pages (eight primary, 16 secondary, and 32 tertiary). We would not be able to conduct business today without the functionality this application provides; it has become an invaluable tool to the success of our business.

The project

A small team of six developers created the application in one month. The Iron Speed Designer portion of this project and completed in two weeks by single developer.

Code extensions and customizations

We did not need to add any code customizations. The application built with Iron Speed Designer met our needs entirely.

Page layout customizations

We customized the generic page layout slightly adding a tree view to many of our pages. We also implemented small changes to the aesthetic look and feel of the application by customizing the design theme so that it remains consistent with corporate branding.

Iron Speed Designer impact

Iron Speed Designer shaved at least one year off our development time, saving us between $90,000 and $100,000. That's a whole lot of money!

Based on what I've heard from other small groups of developers working on similar hand-built applications, I believe it may have taken six times as long to create this application by hand. In fact, I really don't see how this project would have been possible without Iron Speed Designer. We do not have a dedicated team of developers on staff, as we are a small, growing retail shop. This would have been a nightmare on our own without Iron Speed Designer.

Next steps

BTWW Retail is growing rapidly; we are currently acquiring additional retail divisions and as a result, will need to continue modifying the existing application to suit our changing needs. When you understand the basic framework of the tool and how the end user wants to view his output, it is very easy to rebuild your entire application in minutes!

Visit www.btwwwretail.com.

About the developer

Phil Henson is an Iron Speed customer working for BTWW Retail.