Towquest's WEB-Lease module is launched

Early last year, our database partner - Progress UK - quietly launched one of those really elegant little packages which had the immediate appeal that almost always indicates that something is worth pursuing. So, we pursued it.

It's called ps:eScript and we committed almost half our development team and most of May last year to acquiring the skills that would allow us to adopt this new methodology in a commercial environment. We've been delivering Web-based solutions within our market-leading car leasing software since the mid-nineties, but what we felt we could achieve using ps:eScript would move us into another league.

And circumstances do sometimes conspire to help. One of our major clients - Glasgow-based Arnold Clark - had been working on a major re-launch of their website and, on the strength of our initial assessment, agreed to pilot use of the new technology. So, we put up a solution based on the ps:eScript methodology, which included a total re-write of existing capabilities. We knew this would significantly extend the scope of a project for which we already had some pretty tight deadlines, but we judged that the ongoing benefits - particularly in the context of what we needed to achieve - would fully justify any short-term pain.

So, at the end of last summer, we put the remainder of our developers through a short "crash course" in eScript and in November began the project for real. Clark's internal team had undertaken responsibility for the look and feel of the revised website and for development of its public content, so we had a set of reasonably tight definitions from which to develop mock-up pages for approval. We got sign-off for the layouts fairly quickly and programming began in earnest at the very end of November 2004. With a beta test version available little more than six weeks later, we had the completed application delivered and operational by 20th February this year.

To give an indication of the size of the project, we have developed (or redeveloped) an extensive range of fully interactive functions, working against the full "back-office" databases in real time - no smoke and mirrors! They included a full car and LCV lease quotations module, reacting to customer rules and allowing progression through to order placement; sales account access with document reprint functionality; fleet information access, including vehicle service history; fleet demographics; report requesting with email results delivery; driver data maintenance; mileage recording. Also included was web access to the TQL Daily Rental module of the system, providing on-line booking capabilities for the Arnold Clark Car Rental division, both in a corporate and public access context. All these processes are "customisable" to allow tailored and badged corporate access which offers enormous flexibility in both presentation and content.

But there are still big benefits to come - not just for us as developers, but for our PRO-Lease client base as well. We've built our expertise now and we've also got a level of future proofing that we've never had before. We've also seen very significant gains in performance.

We know we've found, in ps:eScript, the ideal framework within which to deliver the large and increasingly complex Web applications that are demanded by our users, and to deliver them in a hugely flexible and efficient manner. Our background in Web development goes back to the beginnings, but we've never been better positioned to come up with the goods!

Contact us for further information or for a test drive of WEB-Lease2.