Clients : Virgin Mobile

Project: v.Web

Company Introduction

Virgin Mobile’s E-Commerce website provides access to their range of Tariffs, Mobile Phones and Accessories. The existing implementation was constructed using a collection of static webpage’s and ad-hoc scripting contributing to a rudimentary ‘online shopping’ experience. The existing scripting loosely integrated to legacy ERP systems using a combination of PERL, Oracle Stored Procedures, HTTP/XML interfacing techniques

Problem Statement

The current in-house implementation suffered from usability, instability and scalability issues. I.e. Due to the static nature of HTML pages used to present the catalogue of products, the time taken to release either price, specification or product updates proved to be untimely and prone to error, e.g. broken HTML links, typos, etc. Also, the online purchase life-cycle required the Website scripting to initiate uncoordinated communication with the legacy systems, i.e. Strategix ERP (Back-end accounts and invoicing system) ORBIS Payment Manager (handles payment, Credit Card Verification & Validation) POINT CRM (customer contact tracking and sales order entry system) Often, during an abandoned purchase or communications failure between the Web server and the legacy system, the integrity of the data held in the ERP systems could not be guaranteed, requiring manual corrective intervention

Problem Solution

Mosaic was responsible for conducting a study detailing how to best solve these issues through the introduction of Content Managements Systems (CMS), eCommerce Platforms and Transaction Management Middleware. The study consisted of numerous ‘requirements elicitation’ stakeholder workshops, i.e. executive sponsors, end users and strategic partners. Each workshop resulted in a large number of functional/non-functional and legacy ERP interfacing requirements The findings of the study were recorded in a Requirements Specification Document detailing the 200, or so, individual atomic requirement statements. Considerable attention was given to ensuring that all Functional/Non-functional requirements could be traced back to the supporting Business Requirement/s. The reverse traceability process ensured that the ‘stated requirement’ reflected the true scope of the solution, to be procured/development, correlated with the vision held by the executive sponsors. Conversely, the process also ensured that vital areas of the ‘business mission critical’ functionality were not inadvertently omitted Following the Requirements Specification study, Mosaic was subsequently responsible for conducting a Product/Vendor selection study. The study involved researching the marketplace for a shortlist of suitable products closely meeting the ‘specified requirement’. The short listed vendors, i.e. Intershop BEA Systems Open Market were then invited to propose a solution against the ‘specified requirement’ stating their respective solutions’ compliancy to the requirement, with total costs of implementation and ownership The findings of the study were recorded in the Vendor Selection report, providing recommendation on the solution offering the best value for money, against compliancy with the ‘stated requirement’