"Today, with our customer portal complete, we can offer our distribution customers a standard e-commerce experience with more robust functionality that simplifies the ordering process and helps them manage overall account activity. Miller Systems’ meticulous discovery process was the cornerstone of this project, and its commitment to strategic and tactical excellence helped to produce results that will positively impact our business."

Alex Gramling
VP of Marketing
Priority Healthcare

Kicking off its assignment with Priority Healthcare, Miller Systems conducted a detailed, comprehensive discovery process that clearly outlined the company’s needs and the needs of its customers before any design or development of the e-commerce portal began. Once discovery was completed, Miller Systems’ challenge became two-fold: 1) to develop a consistent, new user interface for use by non-technical medical personnel and doctors responsible for complex patient drug delivery that leveraged existing customer data such as, pricing and purchasing agreements and; 2) to design and implement a modular, easy-to-use, online ordering application leveraging the company’s existing ERP system, AS/400 hardware and previously defined business rules, while ensuring compatibility with future systems.

• Seagull Software’s Transidiom.  Transidiom is a leading middleware product that intelligently provides SOAP-compliant XML from host systems, leveraging Priority’s significant investment in AS/400 infrastructure and software. Transidiom allows Priority’s existing code and business rules found in the ERP system to be exposed without code rewrites or re-training Priority’s in-house developers. For example, catalog items and account-specific pricing are all found using the native ERP system and code.
• Data access tier using Microsoft’s .NET framework. Miller Systems built middle-tier data access technology using C Sharp that securely communicates with Transidiom and formats data for consumption by the presentation layer, while allowing for future upgrades in the ERP infrastructure. Any future ERP system that speaks XML will interact with the data and presentation tiers in the future, ensuring ROI for years to come.
• Presentation tier using ASP.NET.  To ensure an aesthetically pleasing, standard browser based e-commerce experience, Miller Systems built the presentation layer in ASP.NET, allowing for easy consumption of the data tier and allowing for future changes, both in features as well as look and feel.

Today, Priority’s new online ordering application allows doctors and medical personnel to log in quickly and easily, intelligently search and browse the product catalog, save frequently ordered items to a re-usable order pad, and get ultra-fast access to their entire account history. The customer portal also helps keep customers on top of their account status, balance, product usage, and DEA license schedules. Customer feedback to date on the level of overall comprehensive service via the new portal --from order entry to delivery--has been excellent.

Miller Systems’ discovery process enabled Priority to update the taxonomy of their catalog effectively, and as a result, items are now searchable by disease state and manufacturer, as well as standard alphabetical listings. With this new taxonomy Priority is able to cross-sell to customers intelligently and increase order size by providing compatible product suggestions and recommendations. Overall, the end product successfully meets Priority's business goals, while significantly enhancing the user experience for its distribution customers.