Case Study

The client

WearCheck USA
WearCheck Canada Inc.
WearCheck Belgium
WearCheck Germany

The business

Commercial Used Oil Analysis Laboratory

The market

Both local and global condition monitoring clients

Server Technology used

Windows NT 4.0 Server
SQL Server 6.5
IIS 3.0
Active Server Pages
HTML 4.0
ActiveX
  ChartFX
  EasyMail
  ActiveFile
CSS

Client Technology used

Windows 95, 98, NT Workstation
MS IE 4.0, 5.0
HTML 4.0
ActiveX
CSS

by Bill Quesnel

A Client Extranet System

Business Needs and Objectives

WearCheck International is a global used oil analysis laboratory service. Each member laboratory services many types of clients all with one common goal, to save maintenance expense and equipment failure through condition monitoring. WCI requires the ability to distribute laboratory data and analysis to their customers economically and quickly. More and more of WCI's customers require data in electronic format, so that they can perform their own queries and analysis. Like other used oil laboratories, many WCI laboratories provided for a nominal fee a piece of software that enabled customers to retrieve and review their data.

In addition to individual clients, many of WCI's major clients were themselves global companies and require the ability to view data from equipment and plants located around the globe. Current client software could not share data, and modifying many disparate software packages to accomodate data-sharing was not a feasible implementation strategy.

Unfortunately most software was cumbersome to use and did not permit WCI to add new report layouts and features to keep up with customer requests. In addition the nominal fee did not offset the cost of supporting this package. For those customers who could not get their reports from the software, WCI had to provide both electronic and printed output, which increased distribution costs rather than decreasing them.

Solution Description

WCI determined that the laboratory group required an application that housed data centrally and was also centrally maintained. The system would have to be remotely administrated and be flexible in defining data-restrictions for clients accessing data on a central data-warehouse.

Clients would require a simple intrinsic interface, that allowed validated access to a clients data through a Web browser. The system would require the look-and-feel and especially the navigability of a typical Web site with the functionality of oil analysis application software.

The resulting application produced by CINRG Systems Inc., WebCheck (client.wearcheck.com), enables WCI's clients to view samples data and track their oil analysis program from any Internet-enabled computer located anywhere in the world.

Advantages and Benefits

Global clients can now view data from multiple sites across the globe, and track statistics on their condition monitoring program. Global OEM's can look in on clients using oil anlaysis for their equipment and send service information to the client through WebCheck.

WebCheck is currently available in four languages, English, French, German, and Dutch, and allows users to control their own settings including time zones, and default language.

The implementation of WebCheck has reduced WCI's distribution costs because WCI no longer needs to send printed reports to customers on the system.

WCI charges a minimal yearly subscription fee for use of WebCheck, and WCI's customers feel that they are getting a great value. WCI's customers who use laboratories around the globe for their used oil analysis needs are pleased, because WebCheck centrally ware-houses data from participating laboratories.