PPD
PPD is a leading drug-trials coordinator, with a growing global business with unique processes handled by bespoke applications. Their legacy purchase order system was cumbersome and expensive to update and required frequent maintenance of business rules embedded in the source code. These rules are highly volatile, subject to the status of authorising personnel, expanding offices and new operational procedures. By identifying weaknesses and common failure points, Xiasma reduced downtime by 99%, freeing up resources to work on a versatile, robust solution to be deployed to regions where working procedures differed. We designed the replacement system to isolate business rules from application code, where logic is determined at runtime according to metadata stored in the application database. This increased robustness, reduced maintenance requirements and allowed business rules to be maintained outside the IT division, by HR and Finance departments, without the reliance on strained IT resources.