Trilliant Provides Data Integration Solution for Petrochemical Companies
Providers of specialty chemicals are often challenged with the management, coordination and communication of product order entry and shipment information with numerous clients. This process is usually dependent upon phone calls to place orders, confirm fulfillment and track deliveries made by rail, truck, pipeline or barge. Staff may find themselves constantly bombarded with special requests for information, charting and legal documentation related to customer contracts, orders and invoices. Typically these requests are met through the use of time-consuming manual processes including hand-generated reports, manual faxing and significant time spent on the phone. Compounding the issue is that many of the source systems that provide pertinent information are not integrated, requiring personnel to duplicate data-entry or search multiple systems to fulfill customer requests.
Trilliant Technology Group utilizes its Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) expertise to help clients develop successful eCommerce solutions that address the important customer service needs of the petrochemical industry. Our clients benefit from improved processes and increased responsiveness to customer needs while reducing an already over-burdened staff. This is accomplished through a professional evaluation of current processes and systems, followed by the design and development of a customizable system to address these specific needs. Key issues addressed include:
Functional Issues
A successful system should provide an array of information spanning numerous
functional areas and departments within the organization, including customer
service, accounting, order-fulfillment and process lab.
The customer portal should filter data provided to customers based on the unique requirements of each customer, accounting for numerous parameters including company, plant location(s), product type(s), ability to view financial information (invoice dollar amounts, etc.), flexibility to allow some level of customization for the users access to charting analysis data.
Integration / Data Issues
The system should provide support for data coming from myriad dispersed
sources; cross-platform, cross-department (business and scientific applications),
cross-application and cross-enterprise (internal and external sources
for shipment tracking).
Security Issues
Paramount to today's petrochemical company is the security of data to
be presented. The information is of direct value to the organization,
but also is sensitive and proprietary to each client.
The customer portal should provide security by not allowing access to internal applications and confirming data displayed on the site is not accessible by unauthorized users.
In collaboration with petrochemical organizations, Trilliant Technology Group has conducted investigations to understand current processes and systems that handle placement, fulfillment and tracking of orders to customers. Trilliant has also worked with customer service departments to understand the demand for information requests, including requests for specific order information, quality analysis charts, legal bills of lading, current status of orders in transit and invoicing data. A customized customer portal provides petrochemical organizations with a reliable and secure way to allow their customers to place orders and gain access to important information related to their orders and invoices.
CASE STUDY: The eCAST System and Texas Petrochemicals
LP
Trilliant Technology Group worked in conjunction with Texas Petrochemicals
LP (TPC) to develop and implement a customized solution, called the TPC
eCAST(SM) System. The completed product provides a fully web-enabled application
built within the following framework:
- Active Server Pages deployed on Microsoft IIS Web server
- COM/DCOM components for the business logic layer
- Use of Firewall DMZ to house the TPC eCAST(SM) application and protect
TPC's computing environment
- SQL Server as a backend database
- Data interface with core TPC applications is handled via a "Push"
of data from TPC applications out to TPC eCAST(SM) in the DMZ
- SSL 64-bit Encryption
- FTP and custom protocols for integration with Bourque Data Systems (shipment
tracking)
The finalized system meets TPC's requirements addressing
all the issues identified in the three areas of functionality, integration/data
issues and security. Functionality included:
- Access to Invoice History for up to 12-24 months
- Access to Volume and Purchase history from OTIS (TPC's Order Entry System)
- Access to Shipment Tracking information from Railtrac.com (Bourque Data
Systems) including shipment method, actual ship date, expected arrival
date, car/truck number and P.O. number
- Access to Bill of Lading data
- Access to product certificate of analysis information
- Ability to view future scheduled shipment data including dates and quantities
- Access to product MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) information
- Functionality to provide positive confirmation (e-Mail, Fax, Web, etc.)
based on client preferences.
- Ability to view SOQ Graphs
- Ability to view Certificate of Analysis
- Specific product specifications for each customer by customer or product
site.
Conceptually, the TPC eCAST(SM) system architecture
is as follows: (select link to view graphic)
http://trillianttech.com/case_studies/tpc1.html
EAI Benefits
TPC has realized significant benefits from Enterprise Application Integration
(EAI) provided via their new TPC eCAST(SM) system. With the initial release
of the customized TPC eCAST(SM) System, TPC was able to reduce the workload
on the Customer Services staff for tracking down status and other information
on customer orders. This information is now available online and/or via
fax or email to the customer based on their user-specified requirements.
The system provides a safe environment for customers
to access their information and to place orders for products at their
leisure. The TPC team now has a single source for accessing customer order,
shipment, invoice and product information.
