Implementation of special applications in the S&B Group by drawing on the capabilities of the Thesis.net framework platform

Customer Profile

S&B which started out in 1934, is today a multinational group of companies with more than 2,000 employees, with extensive business activities in more than 20 countries across 5 continents and customers in 65 countries worldwide.The core of the activities of S&B Industrial Minerals SA is the mining, processing and marketing of industrial minerals, with leading position in the global market in all industries involving its products.It serves 15 different industries, such as foundries, steel, construction and building materials, metallurgy, agriculture, etc.

Business needs

S&B Group in Greece manages daily a very large load of cases, documents, licenses, and files relating to mine ownership. The variety, volume and complexity of cases (properties archive, mine permits, technical designs, licenses, and their renewals by public services, water supply, etc.) combined with the daily need for effective, timely, multi-level (technical, economic, legal, etc.) and integrated management of all cases, and increased requirements of the management to optimize internal processes (surveying, mapping, etc.) and ensure timely and accurate information, led to the need to create a special application to offer mineral rights ownership control. “Metallioktisia” (Mineral Rights Ownership) is a specialized application tailored to the specific needs of the company to ensure clear operational and business advantages from the organization of information until today dispersed to direct and secure information to the management and any officer. It supports the automated electronic recording, transfer and update of all necessary information relating to the property managed or utilized by the group. The system ensures a very high efficiency, continuous (24x365x7) availability, maximum security of access rights, reliability and flexibility of scalability based on the business plans of the group. Moreover, the establishment of broadband (ADSL) connections, requests are made and implemented daily for additional functionalities and/or the remote provision of additional specific services.

The Solution

As the most appropriate solution it was selected to use the Thesis.net Framework platform as the implementation core for the development of specialized additional specific modules interwoven with the specific object of activities of the group. More specifically the special application “Metallioktisia” was developed. Furthermore, the application utilizes functions of Thesis.net CRM, offering integrated capabilities for updating contacts and information of managers, a full log of actions and their results, subsequent actions, etc. The solution makes full use of cutting-edge technologies (.Net 3.5, Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008, Visual Studio 2008), etc. The solution supports the logging and displaying numerous alerts for a particular period of time before the expiry of documents, demand for actions, etc., and includes a remote interconnection feature. Some of the alerts included in the application are those concerning the expiry of letters of guarantee, fire protection, operation, exploitation, installation, environmental terms and conditions, intervention, water supply, etc.Lastly, it lends itself for developing special additional functions in Web environment. The use of these solutions responds with exceptional success to the demand of the company for an integrated and absolutely application. The application fully and accurately automates the exchange and update of data with the points of activity of the group ensuring speed, reliability and high functionality. The integration of products and processes in a single functional and aesthetic environment provides unique advantages with obvious benefits. Thanks to the development features of Thesis.net framework, the application was completed in record time and is already in full productive operation with zero down time.

The benefits

The company’s improved operation using an integrated state-of-the-art system, instead of previous many distinct and independent archiving systems, ensured uniqueness of each imported item, real-time mapping of various data and thousands of documents that before were scattered, automation, alerts, control, planning and standardization of procedures are the direct results of using the new system. The system draws in a productive manner on available group data, fully automates all the processes of logging contacts with competent authorities and serves adequately the goals of the company. Alongside the technological environment of the solution, it adequately leverages technologies for remote operation, such as private networks, WEB, CTI, etc. In conclusion, the functional use of the Thesis.net Framework environment completely justifies the initial selection of S&B.