Arjo Wiggins Fine Papers PLC - Paperpoint.com
Client
Arjo Wiggins is the world’s leading manufacturers of technical and creative
papers. It’s Fine Paper division produces high-end prestigious products for
communication and creative use in the graphic industry, design, communication,
advertising and marketing sectors.
Project
Paperpoint.com – an
interactive website providing sampling functionality.
Project Objectives
AWFP (Arjo Wiggins Fine Papers) produces a wide range of prestigious fine papers
that are used by designers for many different types of projects. With over 4000
products combinations AWFP assists designers in selecting the best product for
their project by providing them with free paper samples.
AWFP wanted to use the power of the Internet to provide added value to their
service offering to designers.
The project objectives were to:
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To create a website that provided easy access to product information and sample
ordering for designers.
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To automate the sampling process so that samples are despatched as quickly as
possible.
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To provide additional facilities for AWFP’s key account executives to
communicate with their clients.
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To provide information on samples requested for analysis.
Business Solution
The development team from Metagy worked closely with business experts from AWFP
to create the Paperpoint website.
As well as making the site appealing and easy to use there were several
technical challenges to be overcome especially as there are literally thousands
of possible combinations of products available from AWFP.
Features of the Paperpoint site include:
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Interactive product selection allowing the website user to select suitable
products from the thousands of possible combinations.
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Members are greeted by name.
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Orders are confirmed by email.
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Questions can be sent to the designer help line team.
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Distributors locations and contact details provided.
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Rapid address entry using a postcode.
When an order is placed the order details, a covering letter, address label and
sample labels print at the distribution centre for rapid despatch of the
samples. Order details are replicated from the web server to the AWFP CRM
system and appear as part of the member’s history.
Top designers have additional facilities to:
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Order higher sample quantities each day.
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Forward samples to clients.
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Order collateral material.
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Send a SMS message to their AWFP contact requesting them to get in touch.
Technical Solution
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Three-tier client server architecture using COM+ and component services.
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Common business tier support for the Paperpoint website and the in-house
sampling system.
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The Sample Selector component is used by both the Paperpoint website and the
Merchant Selector.
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Replication from web server to the in-house CRM database.
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The system was modelled using Rational Rose & UML for solid architecture.
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Metagy Data Tier was used to provide object to relational mapping to speed
development time.
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SMS and SMTP component services are used by the website.
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The DSDM project methodology was used to ensure rapid project delivery and
dynamic team based development.
Project Outcome
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AWFP are able to provide additional facilities for their clients.
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Sample Requests received before 4pm are usually despatched that day.
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Paper advisors can concentrate on providing specialist advice rather than
processing standard sample requests.
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Order history is readily available to AWFP staff, this is particularly
important for staff who are the key contacts for designers.
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Management are gaining valuable information on the products designers are most
interested in allowing tracking of market trends.
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Feedback from designers has been good and the site is very active.
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