Magic Software Ltd have recently released version 2 of their new software integration tool iBolt. As a Magic Software Partner SIS have implemented an iBolt solution which has proved a resounding sucess for all parties involved. Magic case study elaborates... SIS Solutions is an established UK developer of business management software, providing integrated database marketing technology with data management, order processing and accounting procedures. Although only a small company SIS has an impressive list of clients including John Menzies Distribution and Realtime Distribution, both of whom use Genesis, a business management system designed specifically by SIS for the sales distribution industry. Genesis uses Magic as the underlying development and deployment technology. SIS has been building its products and integration solutions using Magic Software's technology for many years and plays a key role in the Magic community. iBOLT increases customer satisfaction When Magic first introduced iBOLT Integration Suite, SIS was unsure as to how their particular business would benefit since Magic eDeveloper appeared to satisfy all of their application development needs. But as SIS Managing Director, Nick Barfoot and his colleagues started to consider it for specific aspects of projects, SIS found that iBOLT offered them further opportunities of providing added functionality that increased their customers' perceived value of the work and therefore customer satisfaction. iBOLT is an easy to use system integration environment. It provides developers with all the tools required for architecture design, prototyping, development, mapping, testing, deployment, monitoring and management. iBOLT's unique separation of the business logic layer from the integration technology layers enables changes to be made in prototype business models without affecting the actual business or the integration process. Fully integrated reports In one of its latest installations SIS has used iBOLT to automate the report running for one of its customers. Currently in the testing phase, the report scheduler allows for reports to be run on demand or prescheduled, depending on the individual need. As Nick Barfoot explains, this would have been possible without iBOLT, but with a significant disadvantage, "iBOLT has enabled us to completely integrate this functionality into the programme. Although we could have managed to complete the task without iBOLT, it would have taken significantly longer and without iBOLT might well have caused issues for the customer later on as the client version of the programme would need to be re-loaded if the server was re-started for any reason. We could picture the scenario that someone would come in early to run a report for an important meeting only to find the servers rebooted and they need to wait for the IT department to come in before being able to access their reports. It was not a satisfactory solution to us, and it would not have been acceptable to the customer either." iBOLT has an extensive library of connectors and adaptors that allows developers to quickly and easily integrate applications and interfaces into an assortment of business systems supplied by a wide range of vendors. In addition, customised connectors and adaptors for proprietary applications can be quickly created using industry-standard development frameworks (.NET/Java). This functionality takes away one of the most complex, and also one of the most expensive, parts of an integration project. By enabling this, iBOLT dramatically simplifies projects and substantially reduces the cost of implementation. Nick Barfoot concludes, "I think initially we hadn't appreciated the value that iBOLT would offer the business, we were extremely satisfied using Magic eDeveloper and didn't see that iBOLT would offer us any significant advantage. However, now that we have started to use iBOLT in earnest with a variety of projects, we can see that it will become a true work-horse for us widening the scope of projects we can take on, whilst ensuring fast and comprehensive delivery of more complex integration projects. I would thoroughly recommend that any software developer take a look at iBOLT. You don't have to be familiar with Magic to use it as iBOLT requires minimal training, that's one of the great things about it. The other is that the results will give you and your customers such a fast RoI, you'll wonder how you ever managed before." [<<Back to news stories]