Modernized Web Service to Boost LVI-numero Ltd Business

November 2009

LVI-numero Ltd is a company owned by the association Suomen Putkikauppiasyhdistys ry. The acronym LVI is the Finnish counterpart to HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning), also including plumbing. The company keeps a register of the LVI numbers of products and produces services related to this register. The register holds products from nearly 400 suppliers. This means more than 115 000 active titles, with some 10 000 new items registered every year. In co-operation with LVI-numero Ltd, Ambientia modernized the entire business model of the company. The customer received a web service package containing a public web service, search functions for product information, and a comprehensive product information management application. In addition to this, the company got ”a facelift”, and an electronic newsletter was introduced for its customers.

At first, the company wanted to find an image bank solution for managing product images. However, in their opinion this would not bring enough new value for their business. A better long-term solution would therefore be to attach the images to the products and to easily manageable product information, and to make it possible to use all this data for further purposes as well. After requirement mapping and concept design, a set of applications were implemented, handling the production and management of product information, the process and procedures related to granting LVI numbers, extensive search functions for product information as well as interfaces and additional services related to sharing product information.

The LVI product information bank replaces the former LVI number bank. It offers more detailed product information which is also easy for, e.g., contractors and engineers to use. The maintenance of the product information of some 240 000 LVI products is now taken care of directly by the suppliers or wholesalers with the help of a self-service product information system.

Innovative and user-friendly features

The system was implemented using service-oriented SOA architecture. This allows using the information from the product database in the development of new service concepts. The application for managing product information is implemented using the Grail application framework. The search functions and the platform of the public web service are based on Ambientia Content Manager, which is an application platform for content management built on Java EE technology.

The technological architecture of the system allows integration at different levels, so that it is possible to share product information with, e.g., the ERP systems of wholesalers, the product information databases of construction planning applications or contractors’ systems. The implemented solution is very versatile and includes many features to help users manage and publish product information. The solution includes a lot of user interface functionality and is much more innovative than the previous one when it comes to usability.

The server solution used is Red Hat Application Stack, including the JBOSS Application Server and the Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server operating system. Ambientia is responsible for the functioning and monitoring of the service in its entirety. Ambientia is partners with Red Hat, and nearly all environments managed by Ambientia run on their commercial Linux operating system.

More than just technological modernization

We started to develop the system in autumn 2008, and it was ready in spring 2009. Ambientia's iterative development model was followed in the project. In the first phase, we worked on the development ideas with a clickable model. The customer was also able to test and comment on the functioning of his own ideas in practice. We managed to implement some of the conceptualized functionalities quite quickly, and the first pilot version was presented three months after the project launch. The first production version was released at the end of 2008, and the final release of the product information management application took place in spring 2009.

For the customer’s business, the new system is only one part of a larger change process. The company got an almost completely new brand. They wanted to extend the change from the business idea to concrete changes in marketing as well. Therefore, the company look and logo as well as its electronic communication solutions were modernized as their own separate project in co-operation with Ambientia's visual and user interface designers.

In this customer relationship, Ambientia has been able take advantage of its know-how in many areas, and Ambientia’s goal of being one of the key partners in the digitalization of the customer’s business has also proven its value.