VTD Billing Support System

Client

Västsvensk Tidningsdistribution (VTD)

Year

2009

Web site

http://www.vtd.se/

To keep track of what to bill each month, newspaper distribution company VTD used to rely on spreadsheets emailed back-and-forth between the regional managers and the billing department. The process ment a lot of manual work for everyone involved, and was also very prone to errors. To fix both of these issues, eLabs developed a simple web application where the regional managers report their billing data each month. The billing department then has access to all the data in one location.

Using an agile approach and test-driven development allowed us to discover and verify the complex business rules. If we had tried to map them all out beforehand, some would inevitably have slipped through the cracks. The automated tests made sure that the end result - the billing data - was always correct and consistent.

Are you currently managing one of your important business processes by manually sending around Excel spreadsheets? We can help you automate the process to cut down on errors and save time. Contact us.

Mittpostnummer Hyperlocal Portal

Client

ICE House AB

Year

2009

Web site

http://41104.se/, et al

On behalf of our client ICE House we developed a platform for hyperlocal portals. The portals are accessed through nearly 7000 domain names, one for each Swedish zip code. Visiting the portal for your local zip code will show you all kinds of things available near you, such as classified ads, houses on the market, current offers of local companies, etc. Think of it as the common bulletin boards at your local grocery store, on steroids.

The sites use Google Maps to give the visitors an intuitive interface to browse the site. The posts you see change as you pan and zoom around the map. The sites’ content is mainly provided by agents - people local to each portal’s area. We also created a simple API that the developers at ICE House can use to post things that their spiders find while they crawl around the web looking for geocoded data.

This was also the first project where we used CarrierWave, a Ruby on Rails plugin for handling file uploads developed by our very own Jonas Nicklas. We’ll talk more about CarrierWave in an upcoming post on this blog.

ICE House has created a film describing Mittpostnummer (in Swedish). Check it out below. The sites are currently in a public beta while ICE House tune their spiders and agents to fill the sites with content.

Hemmalivs Online Store

Client

Hemmalivs Skandinavien AB

Year

2009

Web site

http://www.hemmalivs.se/

Hemmalivs is an online store letting people in the Helsingborg area of Sweden do their grocery shopping from home. In addition to being very convenient for the customers, the efficient deliveries are also more friendly to the environment than if people were to drive to and from the supermarket themselves.

When the developers of their original system went out of business, Hemmalivs asked us to help them design and develop a brand new system to replace to old one.

We simplified the user interface and made the design feel more open and welcoming, while still being familiar to old customers. We used Javascript and Ajax to streamline the shopping experience for customers.

The Ruby on Rails-based backend integrates with the payment gateway Netgiro to allow customers to pay with credit card or direct payment from their Swedish bank accounts. The backend also integrates with Hemmalivs existing order and logistics system.

Mediatec Group Web Site

Client

Mediatec Group

Year

2008

Web site

http://mediatecgroup.com/

In cooperation with our parent company, Edithouse, we created a web site for Mediatec Group, one of Europe’s largest corporations working with technical solutions for event and television productions.

We developed a simple CMS that automatically gathered products, news and case studies for their different business units.

The power of Ruby on Rails allowed us to quickly develop this custom solution that was specifically tailored to their needs, instead of trying to shoehorn them into a complicated off-the-shelf solution.