Client
Kaiser Permanente is America’s leading integrated health care organization. The company has 8.2 million voluntarily enrolled members nationwide. Today, Kaiser Permanente encompasses the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the Permanente Medical Groups, and maintains an affiliation with Group Health Cooperative.

Challenge
In order to provide more benefits to its employees, physicians, members and their families, Kaiser looked to build an e-commerce web application to provide users with a variety of discounted products and services. The non-technical character of this user group meant that an easy and user-friendly interface would be a key factor for the success of the project.

In addition, a management platform also needed to be developed for the Kaiser Permanente HR Department staff who would be the primary users involved in order processing, payment processing, report generation and search functions. Although this group possesses limited technical knowledge, they are well versed in business workflow. Due to the heavy daily workload, an easy, efficient and real-time response tool was an urgent need for them.

Solution
After collecting user and business requirements and analyzing the existing system, Saga Technologies’ team architected the designated system with two separate web applications: WebStore and ManagementPortal.



WebStore was developed to enable end users to browse and search the activity catalogs, add items to the shopping cart and submit orders, as well as manage their user profiles.

ManagementPortal was implemented with five key application modules: Customer Self Care Manager, Order Manager, Customer Manager, Payment Manager and Report Manager. This backend application enables Kaiser Permanente HR staff to:

• Integrate order fulfillment: the entire order process, which includes the
  entry, review, processing and shipping of orders, is streamlined.
• Manage and review orders: each incoming order includes the items
  ordered, customer information and shipping and payment information.
• Process orders in a job queue: the system provides an automated job-
  queue-based workflow to help the user process orders in an efficient
  manner.
• Print orders and invoices: the interface provides easy one-touch printing
  of essential order-related documents.
• Search for orders, etc.: a search engine makes it easy for users to
  locate specific orders by order number, order date, customer or shipping
  number, etc.
• Send confirmation emails: after an order has been placed or shipped,
  users are able to send a confirmation email or an email with the
  tracking number to the customer.
• Modify existing orders: the system allows users to change quantity, add
  or delete items, adjust shipping charges, sales tax, etc.
• Automate credit card transactions: system automatically and securely
  processes credit cards in real time.
• Enter order processing details: users can update orders with ship dates,
  tracking numbers, status codes, notes and other information.
• Track order status: customers are able to use an online order tracking
  function to track the status of their orders.
• Generate reports: users can generate sales booking reports, customer
  reports, shipping reports, payment reports and more.
• Track payments: users can track and manage customer payment
  information.
• Manage customer profiles: users can add, edit and remove customers’
  profile information.

From a technical standpoint, the system was developed with a multi-tiered architecture using ASP, COM/COM+ and SQL Server 2000. XML and XSLT were used in the user interface layer to provide flexibility in page editing and styling. The team also developed the session management module across the web farm to enhance performance, scalability and availability. SSL and Certificate were used to authenticate and authorize users with the proper permissions.

Client Benefit
The client was delighted with the success of the project and the complete solution that Saga Technologies provided. While end users enjoy shopping value-proven products and services via the user-friendly WebStore, the Kaiser Permanente HR Department is able to manage the increasing number of order transactions with efficiency and real-time response through the ManagementPortal.

By working with Saga Technologies to assess and develop unique solutions geared to their specific business requirements, the client was able to add functionality and realize and immediate return on investment.

Technologies Utilized
ASP 3.0, SQL SERVER 2000, COM/COM+, HTML, JAVASCRIPT. XML, XSLT, Dreamweaver


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