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| elixir international uses a blend of
Agile Software Development
and traditional software development methodologies that we call the r3™ Application Development
Model; r3™ = rapid, reliable, repeatable. The r3™ (pronounced “our cube”)
Model is tightly integrated with our eiWorks™ platform. |
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It is largely due to our ability to deploy the
r3™ Application Development Model on the eiWorks™ platform which has enabled
elixir international to enjoy a consistent history of developing large systems on time
and within budget. Of course, it helps that we are totally result-oriented and employ a
single-minded task-force approach to serving our clients in developing and/or
replatforming their systems. In all of our accomplishments, we have fostered a
relationship of trust and partnership with our clients.
While we are aggressive technologists, we are also sensible business people. Our team
understands that many projects do not succeed because those responsible for the work lose
sight of the true goal of the project - the software solution. Instead, they tend to focus
more on the "paperware" and process-for-the-sake-of-process. The elixir international
philosophy, on the other hand, is that the point of the paper and process should be the
deployment and use of the system. We implement only as much process as is needed, no more
and no less. In our opinion, the purpose of process, is to facilitate software development,
not impede it. |
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| In designing eiWorks™, part of our vision was "...to build a robust framework for rapidly developing highly reliable applications that developers would choose to use [instead of being required to use] because it dramatically reduces development and testing time and effort..." |
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Thus far, all systems developed on the eiWorks™ platform have been produced on-or-before-time, within-budget, and have provided more than the requested functionality. The eiWorks™ platform provides a set of common services and benefits to every application using it, including
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The eiPAM™ (elixir international
Presentation-Action-Model) platform and engine to build n-tier
application components. The engine provides all the necessary
“plumbing” needed, so that the developers need focus
only on “coding” the specific application’s
logic |
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Database connectivity framework to quickly
and safely access almost any relational database |
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Enterprise-class performance, scalability,
maintainability, extensibility and reliability. What this means
to our clients is that as their business grows, the applications
built on the eiWorks™ framework adapt and support the
growth easily |
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Rapid development and prototyping tools |
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“Automagic” application logging,
reporting and monitoring |
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User session management (thin- and rich-client
applications), security model including authentication/authorization
and permission management, application help, common data administration
screens, failure recovery, and more |
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Field, form, object, and database validation |
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Framework for rapidly developing EDI (Electronic
Data Interchange), SOAP/Web Services, MSMQ, and COM interfaces |
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Framework for customizing the “application”
presented to each user based on individual permissions and group
permissions |
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Strict auditing and audit trail maintenance
of business transactions and processes |
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Framework for seamless integration with
other enterprise/organization applications |
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Proven yet industry-leading methodology
and tools |
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Modern technologies including .NET, C#,
Visual C++, stored packages and procedures instead of direct
database insert/update/delete, logical n-tier partitioning,
enterprise class Oracle and SQL Server relational databases |
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Years of research and development leveraging
both elixir international and industry-wide best practices and
expertise |
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Optimal balance between leading-edge technology,
industry standards, cost, and business needs |
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| The human interaction with computer systems continues to
remain one of the most challenging aspects of software development today. In developing a typical
application, a large portion of the development time and effort is focused on building "defensive"
elements that have little to do with the normal functioning of the application, such as validating
user input for invalid values, denying access to unauthenticated users, denying privileges to
portions of the application to users who may be authenticated but who are not authorized to
access those areas, handling error conditions, and so on. Another area contributing to significant
"code-bloat" is the "plumbing" of the application's data; moving user input to and from the screen,
storing it in a data repository, reading it back from the repository, sending it to other systems,
handling all failed cases, and so on. These code constructs are repetitive but require meticulous
attention to detail on the part of the developer and the tester, and they are very prone to
oversight and errors. |
The eiPAM™ (elixir international Presentation-Action-Model) components
of the eiWorks™ platform dramatically change this devscape by automagically handling the necessary
plumbing and leaving the developers and designers to focus entirely on the application's logic and
quality. Leveraging eiPAM™ not only reduces the lines of code required but also the overall
development and testing effort, which translates into cost savings for our clients. These savings
don't stop at implementation but continue to accrue through maintenance; fewer lines of code = less
code to maintain! |
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Two key eiPAM™ components deserving of special recognition
are eiMOM™ (elixir international Model Object Manager) and eiDAD™ (elixir international Data Access
Director). eiMOM™ provides a declarative metaphor for processing user interaction with the system.
eiDAD™ on the other hand serves as the gateway for the system to communicate transparently with its
databases and with other systems. All of the details of the communication process are completely
abstracted from the application code. |
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| Today, most applications require a high level of collaboration
between systems. These systems can be within the department, across the enterprise or even outside
the organization. Each system with its own set of rules for security, communications protocol,
data mapping and translation, and so forth, posing a different set of logistical challenges for the
application project team and the teams maintaining the external systems. elixir international has
developed a set of components and tools that help make this System-To-System (S2S) interfacing seamless
and painless.
MWeiRDO™ (Wizard [for generating] elixir international Relational Data Objects) is an intelligent
XML-based development tool that produces lightweight and highly performance-driven components for loading
and retrieving data from relational databases. MWeiRDO™ can also be configured to build all database
objects and stored procedures required for the interface. The elixir international Advanced Data
Adaptation Module (eiADAM™) is an XML-based utility that can be plugged into any S2S equation to provide
quick and robust dataportation. |
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On the other end of the S2S spectrum, eiEDI™ (elixir international Electronic Data Interchange),
eiFTP™ (elixir international File Transfer Protocol), eiWS™ (elixir international SOAP and Web Services), and eiQ™
(elixir international Queue) serve as pluggable communication components that natively integrate with MWeiRDO™,
eiADAM™, and eiDad™ and shield the application layers from changes in communication protocols. |
Finally, eiMonitor™ and eiNotification™ can be leveraged to perform periodic
health checks and initiate self-healing procedures or notify administrators of configurable events. |
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Our mission is to
develop a partnership with our clients,
to provide business system solutions for
their present and future business
success by understanding their business
needs, respecting their financial
requirements, responding promptly and
effectively to their system issues, and
providing technical innovation to give
them the competitive edge in their
business.
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