Company

WorkforceGrowth was launched in the Fall of 2010 with a vision to help companies and teams work better not only by sharing tasks or documents but also by helping each other grow. WorkforceGrowth fosters a culture of recognition, support and feedback. They are not in the business of managing talent or resources rather enabling people in companies to do amazing things, together.

Situation

Before WorkforceGrowth.com, very few online especially SaaS (Software as a Service) based appraisal systems were available in the market. It took a large amount of time to setup other appraisal systems and customization was a big problem. There was a big need for such a system that is equipped with easy and simple to use interface for companies to carry out their appraisal process. This paved the way for WorkforceGrowth.com to answer all such difficulties with its revolutionary design and interface.

Challenges

Some of the most important challenges were:

• To make such a system that will get the company started in a matter of minutes rather than days or even weeks.
• To enable a user to perform her/his tasks the way s/he prefers rather than what's already decided during the system development.
• To assist a user in formulating the appraisals and reviews in such a manner that such a dry task may feel the exact opposite of its usual boring experience.
• To devise a way through which a user may be able to store her/his observations, thoughts or notes about any issue, colleague or event so that during the time of the actual review, s/he may not forget any important thing.
• To enable company executives and management to analyze the company's performance through visually interactive analytical tools in order to make better and informed strategic decisions.

We are pleased to say that all such challenges were met with success and today, WorkforceGrowth.com is one of the best employee appraisal systems in the market.

Solution

• Organization setup has never been easier or simpler: Organizations can quickly add departments and sub-departments. Each department can be assigned single or multiple department heads. Users can easily visualize your organization from our interactive org chart. HR managers can also create different job titles across different departments and manage their life cycle.
• One upload way: Get started instantly! Use the "Bulk Upload" feature to create multiple employee accounts with an ease. Just import all employee accounts through a single file, select a manager for an employee and assign them their job titles.
• Invite everyone from your company: Based on the number of licenses, HR managers can add all your employees easily. HR managers can always edit their information, assign managers, reset passwords, etc. that makes employee management more convenient.

Results

WorkforceGrowth.com is already launched and the initial trial results have been really prosperous. The companies that used WorkforceGrowth.com on trial bases were really pleased with its innovative design and easy-to-use interface.

Company

Trial IQ is a clinical trial management system (CTMS). The application is available through a browser as Software as a Service (SaaS), but also supports offline mode and can work when the internet is down or unavailable. Trial IQ uses the latest technological advances and their customized rules and workflow solutions to provide this flexibility which has until now been unavailable.

Situation

Before Trial IQ, half of all trials were still run using paper with most of their data collection through customized methods using Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel. Customers were frustrated with investing in systems that didn’t meet their needs or having to make customizations for each clinical trial in order to provide the needed flexibility.

Challenges

• The system had to be web-based to be accessible through Internet browser.
• The system also had to have offline support in case of no access to the Internet.
• The user experience of the system had to match Windows Form-based Application but without having any limitations.
• Implementation of dynamic forms with a completely automatic communication between database and graphics to develop a dynamic form for a user.
• Synchronization of offline and online data storage.

Solution

The development team used Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) for the server-side and Microsoft Silverlight for the client-side implementations. WCF is one of the most secure application programming interface and is much faster than its counterparts. The system was developed on the basis of service-oriented architecture (SOA) with WCF handling the business logic and Silverlight communicating between the user and the system. Additionally, Silverlight was used to give offline and out-of-the-browser support along with an overall desktop feel.

Results

With all the challenges met, Trial IQ is now one of the most robust and efficient applications in its market. All the paper work and reporting, which was manual and paper-based before is now computerized and automated. This to an immense satisfaction of our client, increased its efficiency to a great extent.

Company

HappyCruiser is a web 2.0 application for cruisers. Its a community-based web application offering rich social networking features.

Situation

Many cruise ships offer huge discounts for group of people traveling together. To get the full benefit of these deals and travel in a group a global platform was needed.

Challenges

• Providing video and image gallery in one slide show.
• Handling of large videos and converting various formats to one standard format.
• Providing users with variety in a unique form.
• Pre populated sailing and itinerary so that group is created with just only one click.
• Developing a platform that returns efficient feedback for companies.
• Developing separate blogs and discussion board for each group.

Solution

Zigron Inc. adopted agile software methodology. Three major builds were given in three months along with weekly iterations. Stating with initial requirement, we developed a skeleton of the PHP based application, than developed various modules which successfully conquered all the challenges and requirements.

Results

• HappyCruiser.com is completed in three months. Currently it is going under various QA process and will be soon open to public.

Company

Interfun Networks Inc. was founded in early 2007 as a platform to launch Rich Internet based consumer facing properties that are both fun and useful for consumers. Our customer centric development approach will enable our consumers to have a great user experience on our properties.

Situation

Current dating sites are very boring, and the process to find ideal match is very long. One has to fill lengthy questionnaires and that makes the whole process dull and boring. Ourlikes.com wanted to bring innovation by making matchmaking a fun.

Challenges

• New approach to online social matching, both User Experience and Technology.
• Make one-click process to match making and avoid long questionnaires.
• Make a quick application in a shorter span to out pace other players in the social matching market.
• Make a scalable and efficient application to produce high quality match from thousands of profiles in seconds.
• Introduce innovative ways to make quick introductions.

Solution

Zigron developed a unique J2EE & AJAX based application to give a desktop like feel to the entire site. Users can rank different images on the homepage and as they continue ranking Ourlikes.com, matching engines shows potential matches instantly. Users are also given a tool where they can find other users based on specific interests and compatibility level. Zigron also created new approaches to social interaction by creating in-built games like Mystery Crushes and Image Match games.

Results

• Ourlikes.com was built in short span of time with rich set of features and interactivity.
• User Experience team was able to give Ourlikes.com a completely unique look and feel compared to other dating sites.
• Ourlikes.com due to its unique approach was nominated for open Web Awards.
• Ourlikes.com was also mentioned in famous blogs like Mashable.com, VentureBeat.com and KillerStartups.com.

Company

Zebate.com is the product of Zigron Inc to create an online debating environment for users, where they can argue over everyday issues and find similarities and differences among themselves.

Situation

Web 2.0 has marked the beginning of user generated content but the next step of this evolution is the seamless integration of user expression on a focused content. There is not a single online destination, where users can go and find out what the world thinks about a particular topic or news. Also, the users should be able to start a competitive argument contests on any particular content, invite their friends for support and contribute comments. Last but not the least, they should be able to vote for others to determine the timed contest winners.

Challenges

• New approach to find not only the similarities but also the differences among users based on their perspective and reading.
• Make an online property, which can foster discussions on conflicting issues to get all the perspective.
• Create a new set of User Experience to make online discussions exciting and rewarding.

Solution

Zebate.com was created with a unique set of features and User Experience. Unique features like Clashes and Differo Meter were created. Clashes allow two users to argue and clash with each other and then the community decides who is the winner. Differo Meter allows the users to find how similar or different they are from eachvother. There is Credability Ranking system, which identifies each user's command in different areas.

Results

• Zigron Inc. was able to transform Zebate.com to a reality with its unique features.
• Zebate.com, with its Use Experience, was adored by many alpha users and currently its in the Beta phase.

Company

WhereverTV: a new startup venture in Pittsburgh region. Formed by a former Managing Director of Greater China for Everse corporation, where he led software development efforts for Fortune 500 and Global 2000 clients.

Situation

Need a proof of concept for the idea we went to develop. The application was divided into 2 halves. First was targeting the Web portion and the other targeting the hardware portion.

Challenges

Proof the concept that users can view channels on their TV sets using internet. The idea is very new and has a lot of difficulties.

Solution

Zigron accepted the challenge and attacked the situation aggressively. The managers divided the application into 2 halves. First one is web part and the next part is hardware part. In web part Zigron developers developed the complete web application in which users can register them; they can make their own channel guides; they can view channels and they can recommend the channels. The second part was to develop the embedded system on the hardware. Despite of all the difficulties Zigron Team was able to develop the Demo application in a very short span of time.

Results

Application was demoed to the investors to show them the proof of the concept. WhereverTV demo went successful and all the hard work by them team paid off. WhereverTV got the funding. Bad news for the developers now they have to complete it.

Company

Zigron, Inc. is a software consulting and outsourcing company specializing in Web 2.0 Application Development, Enterprise Architecture, Software Integration and Custom Software Development.

Situation

People visit and work in different companies and they have certain experiences there, either positive or negative. Sharing being the human nature gives inner satisfaction, while the same may help others to select a good place for them. In case of professional concerns this sharing helps other individuals to select a better place to work at and companies to improve their week area, and all this needed a global platform.

Challenges

• Innovative approach to develop a professional community.
• Making the UI compact yet simple.
• Providing users with variety in a unique form.
• Developing a platform that returns efficient feedback for companies.

Solution

Zigron Inc. developed a PHP based application, giving users with a simple interface to interact in more effective way. The interface is simple yet compact, i.e. covers almost all possible bases of company rating. Users can rate different companies, i.e. whether they like or do not like a company and why. The summed up updates on PingMyCompany.com can also be used by other sites either through Hello xxx,a widget or by calling API functions. These functions can work anywhere but job portals and HR sites and blog can entertain their users more through these.

Results

• PingMyCompany.com was developed as one page application in a very short time.
• By testing its beta version, it got a very good response from end users and so more and more features were added, again in very short time spans.
• Mashable.com, Greenwhite.org, KillerStartups.com and a lot more blogs highlighted PingMyCompany.com as an interesting and effective company rating tool.

Company

Pondera Group is a Limited Liability Company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that was formed in 2007, by three students from Villanova University and one from the University of Dayton.

Situation

Persontation (a product of Pondera Group) goal was to develop an online presentation system, which can be used as a marketing tool, where users can register and build their own custom designed presentations using existing templates and publish them to their own domains or to Persontation system. Users can also manage different libraries of images, videos and files to be used in different presentations to minimize effort in creating new presentations.

Challenges

• To create professional online media presentations within minutes, as a matter of clicks and give Web 2.0 feel to user during presentation generation.
• Persontation had to accurately reflect the brand image of the well-established company.
• Publishing user generated presentations to their domains.
• Sharing presentations.
• Managing the highest quality videos.

Solution

Zigron made a state of art web solution for Pondera Group, by enabling users to create and publish instant presentations with an easy to use interface. Users can manage video, image, and file libraries. They can then add these library items and text to existing presentation templates. Users can preview the presentation anytime during the presentation generation process. Once they are done with the presentation generation, they can save their presentations on the server and a new link can be created to access that presentation. Users can also forward their domains to the created presentation. Last but not the least, users can send this published link to their email address for further distribution and marketing.

The online presentation system used Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to provide user web 2.0 like feel during presentation generation. FFMPEG library was used for managing high quality video.

Results

• The entire online presentation system was developed using open source technologies, minimizing the total cost.
• The online presentation system helped users to promote themselves and their businesses by making their reports, sales & marketing campaigns, resume, and meetings etc online.
• The online presentation system helped users to save huge amount of time, as they only have to customize pre-build web templates and can publish them to their own domain even with very basic computer knowledge.

Company

Local Knowledge LLC is privately owned Pennsylvania Limited Liability Company organized in 2003 by Connor M. Cogswell, an attorney based in Pittsburgh. The company’s mission is to bring greater transparency to the tax costs of owning Pennsylvania real estate. Local Knowledge LLC is an affiliate of Loan Closing Corporation, a licensed title company.

Situation

Property tax system in Pennsylvania is complicated and involves a number of entities including county, municipality and school district. Due to a large number of municipalities and school districts, local tax information is not easily available. In addition, calculating total tax costs at closing involves a series of complex calculations. The immediate purpose of Local Knowledge Information Management System is to develop a web based solution that will enable users to compute property taxes and closing costs in minutes from anywhere and anytime. The long-term goal is to accurately project buyer’s cost to close at time sales agreement is drafted.

Solution

Zigron developed a web based solution for Local Knowledge, a system that holds all the information of large number of counties, municipalities and school district along with their tax rates, tax due dates and their tax collector information. The system allows the user to maintain counties, municipality and school district information along with their tax collector information. The system also generates numerous automated reports for the users, show all information of taxes due dates and tax collector by providing minimum set of property information, a report for tax burden comparison based on assessed and market value, and a report for Escrow accounts.

Results

• The online tax calculation system was developed using state of the art Java/J2EE technologies including Struts/Tiles, Hibernate and AJAX, which provides rich user experience, and robustness.
• The online tax calculation system helps user to save huge amount of time by calculating annual county, municipal and school taxes in minutes.
• The system also helps customers to view related tax collectors for each tax and due dates for each real estate tax.
• The system shows the tax burden comparison based on assessed and/or market value. System also shows the tax Pro-rations, in the case of purchases.
• The system allows real estate professionals to provide good faith estimates for properties.

Company

Maham Enterprise specializes in providing varying degree of different products in many different product categories including toys, video games, internet games, puzzles, stuffed animals etc.

Situation

After running their toys and games store for a long time, Maham Enterprise wished for an ecommerce solution so that they can spread their business by allowing the customers to watch and buy their toys and games online.

Challenges

• Maham Enterprise had to plan for unknown demand.
• Maham Enterprise had to accurately reflect the brand image of the well-established company.
• Maham Enterprise needed to capitalize on the initial wave of customers by delivering an easy checkout process along-side affinity building ecommerce features.
• Add more information about inventory control, recommendation system, user feed backs about the products etc.

Solution

Zigron developed a comprehensive e-Commerce product for their B2C markets. Customers have the opportunity to view all products and accessory information, pricing, delivery, and service agreements as well as purchase the products online via the e-Commerce transaction engine.

Results

The Maham Enterprise e-Commerce site:

• Resolved the number one customer dissatisfaction area by providing all accessory information and purchasing options online.
• Increased sales.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction.
• Increased profit margins.

Company

Needle Dezigns is a family owned and operated business located in Irwin, PA. They offer competitive pricing, excellent quality, and strive for fast turn-around times when completing an order. They have a wide variety of gift ideas and a continually expanding line of baby items.

Needle Dezigns offer over 25,000 embroidered designs that can be sewn on products ranging from business casual clothes and sports uniforms to laptop computer bags and blankets.

Situation

Needle Dezigns wanted to sell its embroidery on products online. They wanted the customers to also customize order, where the customers can select the designs and apply customized words on the products.

Challenges

• Redesign the site to increase the ease of use for the customers.
• Increase the usability of the site.
• Increase the sales the site generates.
• Facilitate the users to customize the products according to their preferences.

Solution

Zigron developed a customized online selling system that allowed customers to pick designs and products with any customization of words embroidery. It was integrated with PayPal for credit card payments. The system automatically sent emails to customer and the company, when the order is placed and processed. The system allowed the company to maintain designs, products, and customization online through the easy and comprehensive admin module.

Results

This industry-first, completely automated, customized embroidery system:

• Increased efficiencies saving time, labor and valuable resources.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction.
• Increased profit margins.
• Increased sales.

Company

Informed Client is a leading provider of multimedia consumer education tools to help you manage and grow your relationship with customers in the real estate, mortgage broker, and other markets.

Situation

Informed Client needed a web based system that can help their clients to demonstrate value to their customers by giving them the information they seek in one spot, using the very latest multimedia tools available.

Solution

Zigron provided an innovative web solution for Informed Client. The solution enabled the customers of different clients to view real estate related videos, advertisements, images, and FAQ’s at one spot. It also helped the clients to manage all the above mentioned functionalities and to create and manage agents as real estate sales personals. The system also generated automated reports for the clients that consist of many complex reports like Most Viewed Videos By Agents/Customers and many drill down features.

Results

• The online multimedia system was developed using Java/J2EE technologies including Struts, Hibernate, Tiles, which provided rich user experience, and robustness.
• The online multimedia system helped customers to save huge amount of time by watching the desired real estate video instead of traveling to the real estate location.
• The system also helped customers to view related documents and FAQ’s for accessing the real estate related information.
• The system helped clients to view the reports of the most viewed videos (real estate locations), FAQ’s, Documents to analyze data in order to make smart decisions.

Company

Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) was formed in 1996 as a grassroots federation of 35 academic libraries. PALCI is a membership organization of private and public academic libraries. The primary mission of the group is to spur the development of library cooperation within the Commonwealth and surrounding area.

Situation

PALCI had around 100 pages of existing static website. PALCI wanted to introduce Content Management System to the static part, so that the systems administrators can take care of the content management.

In addition, PALCI wanted to sell subscription to the libraries, but it didn’t have that data online. It didn’t know which libraries have what kind of subscriptions, and whether they paid the annual dues or not. In order to cover these scenarios, PALCI wanted to introduce dynamic functionality for the administration and its libraries.

Challenges

The Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) needed to sell subscriptions to different libraries and increase the efficiency of their ecommerce operations. To do that,

• PALCI wanted to bring all ecommerce operations in-house.
• PALCI needed to integrate the existing site with online library management system.
• PALCI needed to increase the speed of development of revenue generating features for the online library management system.

Solution

Zigron made the online library management system to handle all the library management and subscription issues by offering a robust J2EE based solution. The content was handled by providing efficient and intelligent integration of open source Content Management System “Magnolia’ with J2EE application. The solution also generated “Jasper’ reports to present accurate and pr—cised information for decision making.

Results

• The online management system was deployed on a completely open source technology stack, minimizing total cost of ownership.
• The online management system helped PALCI decision management to present the desired data and reports accurately.
• The online management system was fully integrated with the existing system, freeing up marketing personnel to execute revenue generating activities.

Company

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American symphony orchestra founded by the Pittsburgh Arts Society in 1895. It is based at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is a non-profit organization, which offers 22 weeks of subscription concerts to its customers annually. In addition, the Orchestra offers free admission concerts in area parks and a series of year-round community engagement concerts throughout western Pennsylvania.

Situation

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was using different unstructured databases to store their everyday data. The data was in scattered and redundant form; therefore it was difficult for Pittsburgh Symphony authorities to run historical statistical analysis so they can make effective and intelligent decisions. It included customer subscription/ticketing information, customer donations and other customer related information.

Challenges

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was in a need to analyze the data stored in different systems, so that they can generate statistical reports to make calculated and intelligent targeted marketing decisions. To do this we innovated the following process:

• Normalize the huge unstructured database.
• Correction of redundant and duplicate data.
• Conversion of un-relational data of user subscriptions, Ticket info, Donation info to relational data.
• Structuring of data so that users can perform analysis and generate reports.

Solution

Defined rules for identification of redundant and duplicated data designed and refined relational database structure. Removed redundant and duplicate data by using define business rules. Then stored existing unstructured data into a structured database. Finally when the data shaped into a structured form we develop eight different parameterized reports for the user.

Results

• Combined scattered data into one place.
• With the relational database now the client can take effective targeted marketing decisions based on generated reports.

Company

The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) is a municipal corporation, formed under the United States Housing Act of 1937, charged with providing decent, affordable housing for lowincome persons.

The Authority is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors which establishes goals, approves policy and budgets, and provides general direction to the HACP Executive Staff.

HACP's purpose is to develop and make available affordable, safe housing and help families achieve the independence they strive for. A brighter future is always within reach thanks to the commitment of HACP.

Situation

Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) wanted its staff to be trained on J2EE platform in order to implement complex distributed enterprise applications.

Challenges

• The class had technical and non technical managers in it.
• The course had to be customized according to their skills, knowledge and the technology they were using.
• The course was based upon real life projects and not just the examples.
• The course had to be comprehensive, easy to digest but within the time frame.

Solution

Defined rules for identification of redundant and duplicated data designed and refined relational database structure. Removed redundant and duplicate data by using define business rules. Then stored existing unstructured data into a structured database. Finally when the data shaped into a structured form we develop eight different parameterized reports for the user.

Results

• Combined scattered data into one place.
• With the relational database now the client can take effective targeted marketing decisions based on generated reports.

Company

Quantum Gains, LLC was founded upon the premise of providing premier level of operational process improvements within the healthcare community.

Quantum Gains is comprised of a team of experienced healthcare leaders, Six Sigma and Lean practitioners, industrial engineers, systems analysts and technical experts who have demonstrated exceptional management and leadership skills. Their resources have executed successful training programs and improvement projects for multiple healthcare organizations. Their goal is to assist the clients in reaching new levels of operational performance and enabling them to achieve a customer-focused competitive advantage.

Situation

Quantum Gains needed a correspondence management system for managing the large amounts of correspondence (inward & outward) & related paper work generated on different projects in the organization.

Challenges

• Re-use corporate memory.
• Reduce processing costs.
• Decisions based on factual and quantified information.
• Ensure regulatory compliance.
• Effective and efficient communication/correspondence.

To meet these challenges, Quantum Gains needed a complete document management and correspondence management system

Solution

Zigron developed the Electronic Document & Correspondence Management System on a central repository, which holds all documents, metadata, rules and supporting information in a repository. Around this, process and disciplines were established that ensure day-to-day activities run smoothly and efficiently.

Results

• Quantum Gains was able to reduce paper work by 50% within 8 months of the production.
• Quantum Gains was able to enhance process efficiency by 20%.
• EDCMS helped Quantum Gains to minimize process lifecycle by eliminating redundant process steps.