Kable News leverage J2EE to improve business processes

Kable News Company, a distributor, publisher and direct-marketer of magazines and periodicals, is dependent on a complicated, multi-level supply chain.  That complexity makes it difficult to deliver “just enough but not too many” copies of hundreds of periodicals to hundreds of wholesalers across the United States and Canada.

Plain and simple, streamlining distribution is a key to Kable’s operational and cost efficiency.  So the company began a project to create a J2EE-based solution (using Borland®’s suite of tools) that would give its wholesalers and account representatives a greater ability to control the distribution draw.

It was Kable’s first attempt to create a J2EE application, and they asked Dunn Solutions Group to help, starting with training in J2EE tools and methodology.

Dunn Solutions provided formal training in Java/J2EE, JBuilder®, Borland® Enterprise Server, and Mercury Interactive’s LoadRunner and TestDirector, plus instruction in Dunn Solutions’ own Assurity™ interactive software engineering methodology.  This intense “bootcamp” was the first step in transforming Kable’s information services department from a mainframe-focused, COBOL-centric group to a cohesive team of J2EE application developers.

Following training, Kable asked Dunn Solutions to assist in the requirements-analysis phase of the project.  Dunn Solutions mentors helped the IS team gather the right information at the proper level of granularity.  The result: detailed use cases, a preliminary data model and the company’s first architectural diagram of its system subcomponents.

Beyond training and consulting, Dunn Solutions provided true mentoring services to Kable. Dunn Solutions mentors made a conscious effort to impart the critical knowledge and skills the Kable IS team needed to work independently to design, construct, test and release the key software components.

And once the first phase of the project was completed, those same Dunn Solutions mentors were available for consultation, providing expert advice and direction, helping the Kable IS team discover the differences, benefits, implications and suitability of various design choices.

In the end, Kable’s IS team, with the help of Dunn Solutions, became largely self-sufficient in J2EE application development, and was able to create and successfully implement a critical business application.