A big development - interview with Director of the Business Development Department of Exact Systems- Arkadiusz Warmus.

By Exact Systems
schedule29th Aug 19

This year we handle over to our employees, clients and business partners an advanced business communication platform - Extranet 360. Today we will talk about Extranet 360 platform with a person coordinating the whole project - Director of the Business Development Department of Exact Systems - Arkadiusz Warmus.

What is Extranet360?
Extranet360 is a system made for placing an order for services by our clients and reporting the results connected with a client order. Clients can describe the requirements to each order and create specification in the online creator, during the whole process of order implementation client and all of the interested parties are notified both by email and notifications in the system. Orders are assigned a status, in order to allow clients to track the progress of an order in real-time. Create comparisons, filter the data by a number of different parameters. Moreover, the client has access to Pareto charts of defects, details about the amount and type of faulty components.

On the other hand, the system is providing data about the schedules of Exact Systems operators, allows to generate contracts, payrolls and to export those data to HR or controlling systems.

What benefits does the new system bring to a client?

First of all, it is time. Thanks to Extranet360 client has access to all of the information about an order, anywhere and anytime, when needed. Second of all, full analytics. There is a possibility of generating reports, tracking the statistics. Moreover, availability. The tool gives access to invoices, coordinated projects and their progress and the scope of the cooperation, which directly affects the speed of a decision- making the process.

We know already, that you are responsible for coordinating the project. Who else is working on the success of a new platform?

I coordinate the project together with a Business Development department- Monika Walaszczyk, Manager of substantial issues and Dorota Sznober, who is a Research& Learning Manager. Dorota is coordinating the implementation of Extranet360 system in Poland. Furthermore, the platform was created in close cooperation with Sławomir Kluczewski, Head of the IT Department. Naturally, the Customer Service Department- particularly Agata Sałamońska is involved as well. The Regional Directors are playing a very important role, because of their cooperation with Key Account Management in smooth implementation of the new system.

Apart from Poland, the platform serves Exact Systems branches in Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Great Britain, Belgium, Russia, and China. Together with Agata Frasunkiewicz, a Foreign Markets Support Specialist, we are responsible for a smooth implementation of Extranet 360 in those countries. In all of the above branches, there is a person or even a team (depending on the size of the branch) responsible for the supervision of implementation, introduction into the system and training.

Extranet is not a new tool in Exact Systems. Our clients had access to their data nearly from the beginning of the companies existence. What is the difference between the previous version and Extranet360 and why was there a need for a new tool?

The change of a system is a result of a need for a better projection and a transfer of some of the processes in the company into a digital form, which would allow for developing the automation of some of the activities/ processes. We hoped for better and closer interaction with our clients and delivery of a tool, which will allow them for hassle-free and easy access to the necessary information. There was a big development in the possibility of filtering reports that are already introduced to the system.

On the platform there is a space for orders- we developed a creator for clients and coordinators, which allows preparing an order. Orders allow grouping reports in a kind of projects. Those orders are shown in a list of orders, which allows for easy order management. Each of those orders has a specification, which is also created in a special creator available in the system and can be exported to a PDF file or printed out.

The clients can be divided into departments and assigned a representative. Each of the orders will have a hidden price-list, which will allow to track in real-time costs of each order and at the end create the calculation for the client.

In the new system, there is a solution for communication with clients, by notifications generated by the system.

There is a development in the filtration of the report existing in the system. Moreover, we can find a Dashboard which is a summary of information available for the client and automatically generated charts about the orders and reports. Charts are generated in real-time, based on a chosen by the user filters. There is also a meaningful difference in ergonomic of added data (reports) in the system and progress in possibilities of the data introduced.

The new Extranet360 is based on the newest version of PHP and MySQL and is installed on an efficient server, which is backed up on daily basis, which is a guarantee of high effectiveness and compatibility with the newest standards. Moreover, there is a guarantee of a high level of security of the data introduced to the system. The exchange of the system was also caused by a need for a better projection and a transfer of some of the activities into a digital form. We also wanted to gain a better and closed interaction with the clients and provide them with free access to any needed information. Unfortunately, the Extranet system had its flaws and the technologies used, didn’t allow for the development that we were aiming at. There were not enough possibilities for development in the old system.

How does the Extranet 360 look like in comparison to other companies?

I don’t really have the information about the tools used in other companies. From the unofficial sources I know, that reports are mainly delivered in the form of advanced Excel sheets.

Thank you for your time!