The companyHandicap International is an inter-national solidarity association thatspecializes in helping handicappedpeople. As a non-profit association,it intervenes in all contexts alwayson the side of the people with ahandicap, to offer assistance andaid them in becoming more autono-mous. Ever since its creation, theorganization has implementeddevelopment programs in approxi-mately 60 countries and it acts inmany emergency situations. TheHandicap International teams worktowards helping the handicappedperson find his or her autonomy,dignity and place in the community.

Project Leader

HHaassssaann BBiillaall is the IS architect.

The generousChristmas tree bag Since 1993, Handicap Internationalhas associated the “Christmas TreeBag” to the Christmas tree tradi-tion.This bag decorates the bottom ofthe Christmas tree and protects thefloor from the pine needles duringChristmas season. Once the seasonis over it neatly packages the treeto be thrown away.The Christmas Tree Bag is availablein some countries in all food stores,

This international associa-

tion has implemented a

solution that automates

data exchange with its

carrier in order to im-

prove its annual delivery

of over 600,000

Christmas tree bags.

WINDEV inside HANDICAPINTERNATIONAL’s stockings

H U M A N I T A I R I A N

in department stores, flower shopsand nurseries. A good deal, the Christmas Tree Bagis sold at 5 euros from which 1.30euros are given to HandicapInternational for handicap people.

Reducing costs:EDI with WINDEVWhen the “Christmas Tree Bags”started being sold, orders were pro-cessed by a sales management soft-ware. Once the order had beentaken the orders to be sent outwere printed out, then the bundle offreight notes were sent by fax. Thecarrier (DHL) would have to re-enterall the delivery slips in order to pre-pare the order and ship the pro-ducts to the customers. It thenwould invoice HandicapInternational in turn for this service.“For us, a humanitarian association,the operating costs must be at theirlowest. The only solution was toautomate the data entry, using anEDI-based solution”, explainedHassan Billal. He then added “thesoftware on the market did notmeet our needs especially since ourcarrier used a proprietary file for-mat. We had to develop a solutioninternally. We had a tool familiar toour teams but its interaction withoffice automation tools was cum-bersome and the development timewas long. Keeping in mind the costcontrol, we went for the WINDEVIDE, once we looked at its attractiveprice and its undeniable producti-vity. It was without doubt the bestand the fastest tool for developingsuch an application”.

WINDEV comes to therescue of Progress andDHL The objective was to create an inter-face between the legacy CRM appli-cation built with Progress withinHandicap International and thetransporters’ services.The user chooses the deliveryorders that he wishes to send to thecarrier by checking them on-screen.Later when he decides to processthe transfer of these batches, anemail is sent to DHL with the atta-ched file.“The software generates a file inthe EDI format expected by thecarrier. I then simply used the 5GL

functions fWrite andEmailSendMessage. Settingthe parameters for MSExchange was also very easyto implement”, continuesHassan Bilal.

Tracking downdeliveries: over600,00 ChristmasTree BagsThe delivery orders that weresent are stored on a HyperFile database.Once the product has beendelivered, the carrier sends afile with the delivery confir-mation and the software auto-matically imports it to ensurecustomer follow-up.“Just having an additional databaseon top of the CRM makes the proce-dure much easier. Hyper File is veryflexible.” Confided Hassan Bilal.This way, at any given timeHandicap International benefitsfrom delivery tracking, and we canknow in the blink of an eye where apackage is located, if it has beendelivered or in what warehouse it is.“WINDEV answered all of ourexpectations and other develop-ments are now in the pipeline”,concluded Hassan Bilal.

B A N Q U E

33

Don’t forget tobuy your

Christmas treebag!

Publi Dossier 01 INFORMATIQUE•