Data silos were hindering discovery research. A new, integrated view was needed, but millions had already been spent – and lost – on the effort. That’s where we came in.

Here’s What Happened
The company’s research environment was encumbered by inefficient access to vital data. Researchers needed to collect diverse information from a variety of studies to find genes associated with particular diseases or treatments. The volume of data and technical and conceptual disparities between individual data sources made searching information slow. Isolated computational silos, aimed at a depth of detail in narrow fields of research, didn’t provide the broad, integrated view required for researchers’ desired analysis and discovery. The result was a morass of data in differing formats that needed to be queried in isolation, transformed, and only then compared in context with the accumulated evidence set.

Informatics software had been developed to exploit particular types of data, from specific sources, and the file formats and database schema was highly tuned to the details of the specific data it was built to access. This tightly coupled relationship between data and software forced researchers to use different applications, with only partially overlapping feature sets, to access what they would scientifically consider to be the same type of data.

This Is Where We Come In
A research platform integrating terms, data formats, interfaces, and content with a common language was needed. Using object-oriented design methodologies, a representational, scientific framework was created. The system was able to access data from multiple sources within a single scientific frame of reference to ensure that data of the same type is represented consistently and will be available to all applications accessing the system. The platform offers a cost-effective way of integrating vast data sets into a modular, extensible system and features data store abstraction, application integration and interoperability, and enterprise scalability.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• Data silos hinder the level of discovery needed

• Researchers spend an enormous amount of time trying to build ad hoc connections because there isn’t a single, integrated view of the data
• Multiple viewing and analysis applications are used for the same type of data because each application is only able to provide a specific, narrow view. Researchers are left trying to stitch these views together in order to develop a unified view.
• Your informatics resources have been reduced or eliminated altogether- and you could use a hand building a needed tool, viewer, or integrated repository for your data

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

Disparate systems that rely on one another, but speak different languages, needed a “translator.” They called on ClearWave to develop a software Esperanto, if you will.

Here’s What Happened
A large manufacturer uses SAP for its sales and financial management, but uses another company’s warehouse management system (WMS) for inventory control. Maintaining these two independent systems created several problems: double data entry, data inconsistencies, and time lags related to synchronicity of the two systems. When they added a 3rd system (automated palletizer) with dependencies on the WMS, the lack of system integration became unworkable.

SAP, the WMS, and the palletizing software were written on three different platforms and could not be interfaced without customization. Although the customer had access to customization vendors for both the palletizer and SAP, the associated costs were significant.

This Is Where We Come In
Since the WMS was at the center of the supply and demand requirements, the ClearWave Crew implemented interfaces for the WMS and added the ability to “listen” to both SAP and the palletizer systems. In this way, all three systems were able to exchange data in real time with only one of the three systems requiring any customization.

Double entry, associated entry errors, and synchronization problems were all eliminated. Labor costs were reduced and system efficiencies increased overall personnel productivity.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• Disparate systems that rely on one another, but can’t work together, are costing you a lot in personnel time, system downtime, and data problems

• Current business processes force people to work around the systems- not with them- in order to get their job done

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

A manufacturing company needed to keep its managers on the floor to oversee operations, but the systems they used demanded that they be in their office to monitor production dynamics. Find out how we solved this conundrum.

Here’s What Happened
A local manufacturer implemented a Warehouse Management System (WMS) to manage the storage and retrieval of its product inventory. The computers that contained all of the inventory and daily production information were in the manager’s offices, not on the production floor. The company needed to find a way for floor managers to see what they needed from the WMS- while remaining on the floor to direct personnel and manage operations.

This Is Where We Come In
ClearWave created software to provide real time visibility of critical production and inventory information. Bold graphical representations were created to alert managers of system health (green for healthy, yellow for potential issues, and red for items needing immediate attention). The company installed large, flat panel LCD TVs around the plant, allowing managers to remain on the floor without concern for what “might” need their attention. Quick glances toward the monitors now allow managers to watch for color changes without initial concern for detail. If everything remains green, they continue their focus on personnel and operations. A yellow or red indicator warrants a closer look and the manager can view the associated messages from the floor and respond as needed.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• Without realizing it, you’ve implemented a system that pulls your people away from their most critical tasks- leaving operations vulnerable
• Personnel are required to spend time viewing very detailed data- just to find out that everything is fine
• Your team adjusts to the software system, rather than getting the software to fit with how you need them to work

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

Warehouse communications needed an overhaul to improve efficiencies and reduce errors. They called on ClearWave to help.

Here’s What Happened
A warehouse operation used radios to communicate between forklifts and warehouse management, requiring forklift operators to use their hands for communications. This made things difficult for the operators; requests to drivers often arrived faster than they could be fulfilled, requiring operators to either stop what they were doing to write down the requests, or rely on memory later. They also weren’t given advanced notification of pending requests, which kept them from efficiently organizing their patterns. Finally, the reliance on a dispatcher to generate each request to the operator placed an unnecessary step between warehouse management and the forklift operator.

This Is Where We Come In
Wireless flat panel touch screens were installed on all forklifts. Communications were routed directly from the warehouse management system to the drivers- without the need for a dispatcher. The inventory control system was modified to transmit wireless instructions to specific forklifts instructing them of product needing movement; multiple directives may be queued on the screen to generate a pick list. Drivers now receive instructions without interrupting their duties and may make requests directly from their forklift.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• You have unnecessary layers in your business process, causing inefficiencies and complications for your folks in the trenches
• You know there are better ways to do what you’re doing, but it’s difficult to see where the most valuable opportunities for changes lay- and the most cost-effective way of getting there
• Current business processes force people to work around the systems- not with them- in order to get their job done

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

A global beverage company needs more warehouse capacity – without building more space. Sound impossible? Have no fear…

Here’s What Happened
A global beverage company needed to expand its warehousing capacity. Rather than bare the high cost of building expansion, they chose to utilize robotics to implement an automated storage and retrieval system to better utilize existing space.

The challenge was that the project had to be completed in a very tight time frame to meet the company’s upcoming peak season production demands. The customer had purchased robotic hardware from a company in the US, but the software to control the system was written by another company in Europe. Customizing the software became problematic when they discovered that the software was not written in English and the company IT staff could not read the source code.

This Is Where We Come In
While the customer worked on building storage racks to squeeze extra capacity into the existing warehouse footprint, the ClearWave Crew took responsibility for managing the European code base and creating highly customized logic for product storage. We wrote language translators that parsed through the source code and translated the code, variables, and notes into English. Then, we customized the code to allow the operational logic to fit the client’s needs, maximizing product throughput and matching pallet-based product heights to appropriate levels and racks. Finally, the Crew wrote a full warehouse simulator to allow the client to work with the storage logic and optimize throughput and density before deploying to the live warehouse.

The simulator allowed the customer to observe their storage logic in real time and make adjustments in a few days- rather than the months needed previously. The customer can now run thousands of pallets a day through the system with robotic carts moving product in and out simultaneously without human intervention. Furthermore, they are able to exceed their density goals achieving an overall compaction of 93% and up to 99% in some rows.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• You need to build warehouse space- and can’t solve the problem by building new physical capacity
• You have some legacy code, but no one knows what to do with it
• You need a software system in place now, in time to meet your peak season demands – not later, after it’s over and you failed to deliver what your company needed
• You have good people working for you, but none of you can figure out how to create more hours in the day to get it all done- you need a system to help make the most of the resources already in place

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

An institution needed their members to exchange and sync data while maintaining autonomy. Processing volume was too great for standard hardware options – and the project was on the brink of disaster.

Here’s What Happened
A global financial institution needed a solution that would allow its 872-member network of companies to exchange financial data while maintaining complete autonomy. However, processing volumes (transactions per second) were beyond the bounds of traditional hardware. The data existed locally at each of the locations and, while it could be changed at any site, all sites needed to remain in synch. A common platform for shared financial services was needed.

This Is Where We Come In
Members of the ClearWave Crew built a centralized data center capable of high throughput, high transaction volume, to serve as a point of synchronization between all member partners. Processing logic was constructed so that transactions could be disassembled, spread across an array of computers for parallel processing and reassembled. This allowed throughput capacity to be scaled by simply expanding the production array. All member partners then connected via interface to the central banking automated clearinghouse through the shared data center. This allowed a banking relationship to be created once, but shared with each of the member partners.

With all of the members able to synchronize through the data center, processing turn around far exceeded industry standards!

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• Current solutions to address high throughput, high transaction data volumes are falling short
• You need a platform that is scalable to handle current- and future transaction volume demands, regardless of what they are
• A shared data center that allows all members of your company’s network to function independently while exchanging and synching data seems like a pipe dream

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

In the wake of 9/11, a government agency needed to build seamless data interfaces in order to share information with other justice agencies. Seemed pretty straightforward – turned out it wasn’t.

Here’s What Happened
First, the agency turned to a global software company to help them build the interfaces. As you might expect, the outside agencies had disparate systems, languages, and security protocols. For reasons that remain unclear to this day, the vendor treated each interface as a project in itself, and more and more budget had to be diverted to creating new interfaces and maintaining the old ones.

This Is Where We Come In
They called ClearWave to get another perspective on the project. The agency decided to place the ClearWave Interface Hub on site as a platform to connect with all outside agencies. By using common methodology, time spent creating new interfaces has been shortened from weeks to hours. Changes made in the future, including the adoption of new technologies by any partner, can be implemented at the hub level- allowing the interfaces to benefit from the new technologies without having to be rewritten.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• You need to share information with outside groups or agencies
• The data exchanges are between disparate systems using a variety of protocols and languages to communicate and have varying operating systems and security schemes
• Your current interfaces are written in such a way that the interfaced systems have become “tightly coupled”. Any changes in either system requires changes to the interfaces as well.
• You’re experiencing difficulty in meeting the demand for new interfaces because each one requires a design, architectural, and security review as well as a development cycle.
• You need a platform that’s responsible for all data transitions and protocol shifts so that the I/O from the agency never changes regardless of the outside agency’s system limitations
• You need to shorten the time for new interface development from weeks to hours
• You need a platform that greatly reduces the burden of maintenance and allows you to provide a specification for outside partners for how they can best exchange information with you
• You can’t be chained to a particular system on either side of the interface. If you want to change technology on your end, or your partner wants to change technology on their end, the system needs to be handle this within the platform- without requiring either of you to rewrite the interfaces.

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

When a county government outsourced its IT to one of the big global IT shops, they expected costs to be reduced and processes streamlined. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out quite that way.

Here’s What Happened
Despite what we’re sure was everyone’s best efforts, things seemed to go to hell in a hand-basket (yeah, we’re not sure where that expression comes from either). Rather than efficiencies and cost reductions that would lead to improved services for its citizenry, folks in the department instead spent hours in large meetings trying to resolve issues, had unscheduled system downtime (sometimes for days on end), source code fell out of sync with deployed systems, planned improvements were tabled – all culminating in runaway expense without a clear return on investment. To top things off, users stopped reporting issues, believing they would never get fixed. Eventually the agency transitioned to a new global IT shop, but things didn’t change much. Finally, the agency gave us a call to see if there was a way we could assist.

This Is Where We Come In
The ClearWave Crew audited the source code and reverse engineered the missing elements. After interviewing users we set up a prioritized list of issues and created a clear roadmap working on both architectural issues for system stability and user-prioritized issues. To restore user confidence, we put a process in place to receive and respond to user reported issues as our top priority. The net effect has been that we can now make system improvements quickly and efficiently, users are using the system and providing the department with terrific ideas that help improve business processes, and morale has turned around. The client management system that had cost millions of dollars and thousands of personnel hours to create works effectively to meet their needs and hasn’t had a moment of unscheduled downtime.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• A project you anticipated would lead to cost reductions and improved efficiencies has turned into a runaway train wreck of expense with little value to show for it
• You and your users experience intermittent unscheduled down times that lasts anywhere from hours to days
• You have a sinking feeling that instability in the system means you have bigger problems than originally thought. You’d like to figure out what the condition of the code actually is and what sort of gotchas live there.
• You’re spending lots of time and money in large meetings with spread sheets, charts, and graphs, but little is being done to improve the software
• Small “work arounds” and renegade software projects have sprang up to attempt to overcome system deficiencies
• You need a small, capable, dedicated crew- a technical SWAT team if you will- to come in and work with you to identify the issues (the good, the bad and the ugly) and then address them
• You hear curses under the breath of users whenever they discuss the software
• Your name is being used as a verb- and not in a good way (o.k., that wasn’t really happening, but we thought we’d throw that in just in case it’s true for you).

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company

A large retailer needed to centralize its payroll system – including a collective bargaining agreement with different regional interpretations. After much handwringing, they decided to get some help.

Here’s What Happened
Labor hours were being collected in a variety of electronic formats. The consolidation of this information for payroll processing required significant manual labor to pull time card reports and manually enter payroll. Although there was only one collective bargaining agreement in place, through the years it had been implemented differently in each region of the country. After discussions with union leaders it was determined that each region should continue with their unique interpretation of the bargaining rules. The company wanted to centralize its payroll control, but the process of loading the data required intimate knowledge of the company’s regional versions of collective bargaining agreement. Without a centralized way of handling payroll, the company could never realize the efficiencies, consistencies and controls needed for an effective system.

This Is Where We Come In
Members of the ClearWave Crew created an electronic interface that pulled information from all of the different electronic payroll devices, including time clocks, cash registers and PCs which were being used to clock employees in and out of over 200 retail stores. A central rules engine was also created that contained the bargaining agreement with all its regional variations. Finally, a single program was created to function as a controller to the labor retrieval system. The net result: the process of payroll data entry went from 100% manual to 100% automated, using a single press of a button.

We Can Help You Save the Day if any of these aspects of this organization’s story are true for you too:

• You have a decentralized system that is requiring manual intervention to address differences in vendors, partners, business units, bargaining agreements, or any other entities
• You need to significantly reduce the time and errors associated you’re your current system and automation looks to be at least part of your solution
• A centralized system is needed to pull information from a variety of electronic reporting devices
• Complex business rules are driving you nuts- you need to figure out a way to simplify things

ClearWave Software – We’re Not Your Ordinary Software Company