Andrew Carnegie was an American businessman and philanthropist of British origin. Born in 1835 in Scotland, Andrew Carnegie emigrated to the USA, becoming one of the most important opinion leaders of the American industry.

Carnegie was the owner of Carnegie Steel Company, the company that brought him a huge fortune. According to Forbes magazine, his fortune would equal 293.8 billion American dollars in 2007. Andrew Carnegie was an example of a man who succeeded in passing from the status of a mere emigrant to that of the richest man of his new country, and he is at the same time an example of leader for the American industry.

The application CarnegieWay, proposes a way of personal development using one of the simplest ways: motivational quotes.

Motivational Quotes on the Internet are transmitted through specially designed devices (CarnegieWay Device) connected to a computer's USB port, a detailed description about the device and the whole concept can be found on site: www.carnegieway.com

Also, a Windows application (Virtual CarnegieWay) allows you to display quotes on your desktop computer and personalization features offered by the program. A detailed description about the application found on the website: www.carnegievirtual.com

The Initial Situation

Diamond Mind wanted to develop an application capable to offer a complete support for the specific processes of this personal development instrument. "We wanted a modern applications, based on last generation web technologies which may automate all the processes specific to our personal development solution." specified Raymond Kirwan, CEO - Diamond Mind.

After testing several variants of development of the application, Diamond Mind chose ITCenter Company to develop the solution. "I appreciated very much the professionalism of the ITCenter Company team, as the project was developed very rapidly." said Raymond Kirwan, CEO - Diamond Mind.

The Solution

“At first sight, CarnegieWay seems a pretty simple solution. In reality, however, things are much more complicated and the solution includes over 10 functional fields. First of all, there is a database providing quotations and saving the entire information specific to the system. This is completed by an e-commerce solution ensuring the order processing for the devices sold by the site. In addition, there is a solution for the management of users and of subscriptions paid in this service.” Andrei Tesio, Executive Manager – ITCenter Company.

The solution also integrates a complete application for the maintenance of system back-office processes. The back-office application allows the easy management of registered users and of the quotations available in the database. Also, there is a facility for the management of purchasing orders for USB devices and for subscriptions to the CarnegieWay paid service.

“The solution integrated all the functions specific to an e-commerce port. The back-office module offers us an efficient interface for the management of orders and for the evidence of receipts for the offered products and services. Also, users have the possibility to make payments using various manners (bank card, PayPal, bank payment orders etc.).” specified Raymond Kirwan.

The back-office section ensures management and information storage functions specific to each user of the solution. The component “User Behaviour” saves the favorite quotations and other personalization functions for each user. Moreover, there is a module allowing the management of firmware versions specific to USB devices.

The front-office component is ensured by a Web port based on the ASP.NET. technology. The port provides access to user registration functions and access password management. In addition, functionalities are available which allow the undertaking of orders for USB devices and of services, as this component is integrated with a module for payment processing.

Benefits

The CarnegieWay solution was completely developed on Microsoft .NET. technology. “The Microsoft.NET technology answered very well our requirements. In addition, due to the Visual Studio .NET development environment, the development time of the application reduced by approximately 50% compared to other technologies (e.g. Java or PHP). ” declared Andrei Tesio.

Microsoft .NET allowed the implementation of a modern architecture for the application. For example, the back-office application is built on a last-generation architecture based on Web services.

The installation of the application, even in environments with many users, is extremely simple. This is a consequence of the integration of the ClickOnce technology, one of the most efficient technologies of application deployment. ClickOnce is a Microsoft technology for the implementation of software based on Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation platforms, also called Smart Clients. ClickOnce is available on.NET 2.0 platforms or subsequent. The basic principles of ClickOnce are the simplification and stability of web applications, for the development of client applications for Windows.

In short …

Company Profile

Diamond Mind , a Irish company, suggests an interesting career development manner.

The Situation

CarnegieWay wanted to develop an application capable to offer a complete support for the processes specific to this personal development instrument.

The Solution

The development of a personalized application, adapted to the processes of the personal development instrument. CarnegieWay was going to include an electronic commerce port for the management of purchasing orders for USB devices and for users’ paid services.

Benefits

• Reduction of the application development time by over 50%
• Support for web services
• Automation of the installation process by ClickOnce
• Flexibility in the development of the application

Technology

To achieve this solution were used Microsoft products:. NET Framework, SQL Server 2005, Windows Server 2003