Choose a book on the internet, place the order, make your payment, and get it delivered at your doorstep. That is e-commerce. But that is only the front end of e-commerce. What happens behind the scenes? How does a company effect the delivery, integrate it with its warehouse management, track it in its inventory, assimilate the financial transactions, ensure its delivery.in short, fully integrate the entire operations?
Enter Scala.Solutions from Scala Business Solutions. Scala.Solutions is a specially developed suite of e-commerce solutions developed by Scala Business Solutions NV, through which a company can extend its reach via the Internet to its customers, vendors, bankers and dealers, enabling them to transact with the company on a 'self-service' basis. These would include order placement, checking on order status, inventory details, tracking time, expense and similar tasks, via the internet.
"Scala.Solutions is a cost-effective internet-based application. We see web enabled business applications as fundamental to delivering global strategic solutions to our clients," said Chris Houle, president, Scala Business Solutions, speaking to domain-B. "On a scale of one to 10, the commercial world has achieved a 2.5 level of globalisation. The web will accelerate the pace because it lowers barriers to entry to expand globally."
Scala Business Solutions NV, a $100 million tier-two enterprise resource plan provider, has been in the business of providing business management solutions since the early 80s. Scala has provided business-to-business management solutions to multinational companies such as Alfa Laval, Astra
Pharmaceuticals, Buhler, Labs Systems, in all their global operations. It has offices in 63 countries.
Scala offers software and services that enable closer relations with customers, business partners, employees and suppliers. Its solutions add real-time, dynamic multi-language internet functionality to its existing business management applications running on Microsoft platform.
Scala.Soluitons was named the "best e-commerce enabling application" at the Gartner e-commerce competition in New York in April last year. The product won due to its cost effectiveness, availability in multiple languages (30 in all), multiple currencies, (all the major currencies of the world -- also EMU accredited), use of XML technology, allowing real time data transfer, compatibility with Microsoft Office, EDI enablement and wireless application protocol (WAP) capability for use in hand-held devices.
All this helps business organisations that have distributed operations. "Scala primarily works in sectors with business-to-business distribution of some sort -- moving goods, fast moving consumer goods, consumer electronics, industrial and heavy electronics, industrial equipment, telecommunications, both services and equipment providers, and pharmaceuticals," explains Houle. Scala.Solutions find apt applications in these sectors.
Much of the design and development of Scala technologies in recent times have emerged out of Scala Mindworks P Ltd, Scala's fifth and most promising global R&D centre located in Pune, set up in October 1995. "We concentrate a lot on future technologies," says Milind Thosar, managing director, Scala Mindworks. "Much of the web-based evolutions are finally driven from this office."
Scala Mindworks have also helped develop the time-tracker/time-sheeter, developed initially for Sandvik. The application put forward helps individuals out on the field working on projects to log in the time spent, which would get integrated into Scala's project management systems. On that basis, the client can get an invoice report, further processing, tracking and billing, while he is still on the move.
The application is not just for Sandvik, who is like a prototype client. This is actually going to be an application in itself, a standard process application package on the web.
The Pune centre was also involved in engineering several projects on making Scala products Y2K compliant. "This has helped Scala gain global acceptance," said Houle. "A lot of development work comes out of this centre. Pune operations are key to Scala's success."
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