 
 
 DevCast 5: Provides Solutions Through a Product's Life
 Cycle
 
 The DevCast 5 solutions follow an organization's product
 through its life cycle, starting with product development
 and design, going on to manufacturing, to sales and
 promotions, and finally to customer service. The intent is
 to show how information technology can be applied to
 various functions in the organization to deliver dramatic
 benefits in productivity and quality.
 
 Four functional areas of the organization were considered
 in developing the DevCast solution, each represented by a
 sample module. These are:
 
 >  Product development and design
 
 >  Manufacturing
 
 >  Sales and promotion
 
 >  Customer service
 
 MODULE1 presents a solution that enables the product
 design and development processes of the organization. The
 solution centers around using standard integrating
 technologies (Visual Basic[R] for Applications, E-forms)
 to tie together powerful desktop software from leading
 vendors. Analyses can be performed on market research
 data, leading to design changes that can be implemented
 using CAD tools. Designers and analysts collaborate by
 passing findings and design drafts to each other by way of
 electronic forms over e-mail. Customer feedback data is
 retrieved from the SQL Server database that resides on the
 Windows NT(TM) Advanced Server, and is analyzed using
 SPSS, which is driven using Visual Basic from a
 Microsoft(R) Excel front end to perform customized
 analyses required by the product team. The sample code for
 Module 1 illustrates the technique of driving a leading
 statistical package (SPSS) using Visual Basic from within
 Microsoft Excel 5.0.
 
 MODULE2 illustrates a process modeling tool written using
 Microsoft Visual C++(TM) version 2.0. This choice was made
 considering requirements for complex data structures and
 computations required, as well as the need for instant
 response in a graphical user interface environment.
 Product unit information such as material requirements,
 size, weight, and so on yielded by design output is taken
 by this tool and combined with factory resource level
 information such as machine operating costs, production
 process required to manufacture, and precedence
 relationships between manufacturing tasks to model the
 entire manufacturing process.
 
 MODULE3 presents a solution representative of a growing
 category of software solutions--the stand-alone
 information kiosk. This application works stand-alone in a
 retail environment, presenting product information to
 customers and engaging passersby with an attractive
 display. Customers can browse through product offerings,
 view product features, listen to and watch sound and video
 that describe the product, and, if they desire, place an
 order from the kiosk itself. Orders are updated online
 into the orders database for further processing.
 
 The retail kiosk is built using Visual Basic 3.0, and uses
 multimedia technologies to present an innovative product
 display that engages customers in a mall. Customer orders
 are sent to the SQL Server running on a Windows NT
 Advanced Server. Connectivity between the retail kiosk and
 the corporate LAN (local area network) can be achieved in
 several different ways, of which the simplest is a modem-
 driven line.
 
 MODULE4, the customer service application, is built using
 Microsoft Access 2.0 and uses advanced database constructs
 (SQL passthrough queries, joins) to present a single view
 of all customer transactions from across multiple physical
 databases. Call assignment and tracking can also be done
 online. A MAPI-based (messaging application programming
 interface) Internet agent is implemented that polls an
 electronic mailing list of customers for product feedback,
 and interprets feedback response forms to build a database
 of feedback data points.
 
 To install and run the demos from the DevCast 5
 presentation, you must have the following software
 installed on your computer:
 
 >  Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0, Professional Edition
 >  Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows
 >  Microsoft Access 2.0
 >  Microsoft Mail Client
 >  SPSS 6.0 (or later)
 >  SPSS Developer's Kit (OLE Automation support)
 >  Microsoft Windows 3.1
 >  Microsoft Windows NT 3.5 (beta)
 >  Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 (beta)
 
 For setup and operation instructions, please read the
 SETUP.TXT file.
 
 This source code is provided to you in "as is" condition.
 It is not supported or intended for production use. You
 are free to distribute and modify this source for your own
 purposes.
 
 KEYWORDS: CD9
