INNOVATIONCASE STUDIES

E X A C T U SExacting accountabi l i ty

i n f o @ e x a c t u scorp. c o m • w w w. e x a c t u s corp. c o m

InnovationInnovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. [Steve Jobs]

This is a collection of mini case studies highlighting innovative solutions our technology expertise and process focus has enabled us to provide to our clients

Process-oriented approach

A process-based approach to a project usually yields the most success: analyzing the key sub-processes involved, determining control & validation points, automation possibilities and reporting requirements.

a technology-centric,,, people-driven approach with... a keen eye for processes...

Database-driven rapid application development

Typically, clients prefer to use Excel as a first-level database management tool. It is easy to use and very flexible for non-programmers, allowing users to quickly add columns, enter any data in any column and format it appropriately. Spreadsheets can be easily emailed back and forth to exchange information.

However, these very features make it quite unsuitable for large teams that need to validate data and work independ-ently on a common pool of information.

Our approach is to convert the supplied Excel data into a relational database, develop a front-end application that vali-dates data that is input into the database and provide customized reporting that can also be re-exported to Excel (or a delimited format) for onward processing.

Similarly, the preferred reporting mechanism is email. Although it is very flexible, when a large team is at work on a project, it is often desirable or necessary to consolidate the work before sending it off via email.

A database-driven approach facilitates such consolidated reporting.

We specialize in rapidly developing specialized solutions that help our teams track, monitor and report on projects for clients.

These are web-based solutions that can also be made accessible to clients via our extranet, adding a flexible reporting dimension to a project.

We develop these using web technologies such as PHP, JavaScript and MySQL.

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Mini Case Studies1. Patent research

BackgroundPreliminary data was received in Excel sheets.

Our team of 12 was required to research this data and collect additional information and details.

Reporting was to be done by adding to the Excel sheets.

Potential ProblemsInsufficient validation was available via Excel.

Different team members would encounter the same patent number in different cases and there was no way to ensure that work would not be duplicated.

Excel was insufficiently robust and had no safeguards against accidental deletion of information.

Because of the huge volume of information to be extracted (in some cases entire multi-page documents), Excel was an unsuitable and unwieldy format.

RoadblocksThe client team did not have the resources or technological expertise to work with databases.

Their onward processes required delimited files (which Excel could easily export).

The full scope of the project was unclear even to the client and it would evolve out of our preliminary work.

SolutionWe studied the initial project requirements and conducted some sample work to understand the potential complexities.

In 2 weeks we put together the initial framework of a web-based application running off a MySQL database. This al-lowed our team members to log in individually and contribute to the pool of information as their research bore fruit. It enabled a team member to identify which patent numbers had already been researched, saving an enormous amount of time and eliminating duplicate work. And it tracked the time taken by each user on each case, facilitating billing.

As the project requirements grew and expanded we added on components to the application providing greater valida-tion, more flexible reporting (including export to Excel), and more flexible information capturing.

Since the application was web-based, we hosted it on our extranet and provided login ids to the client team. This al-lowed them to extract reports whenever they liked for any time period and whether we were at work or not. Their ids did not allow them to change any information thus ensuring data integrity and enabling us to continue to assume re-sponsibility for data accuracy.

Benefits• Control & monitoring• Data integrity assured• Flexibility in reporting

• Elimination of duplication

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2. Case summaries

BackgroundOur editors read judgments and create summaries and head notes for a client’s publication.

Potential problemsEach summary needs to follow a style and is expected to address the issues in a logical manner. However, there were two problems immediately apparent:

I. Each editor would tend to color the summary with his or her own approach to the case and the flow of the summaries would differ from each other. Although, all the summaries would be correct, they would not give the impression of being from the same stylebook.

II. Using Word, there was very little way to enforce discipline on the editors on how to structure a summary and what formatting to use. A Word template would have provided part of the solution but would not have allowed us to build a database of summaries for training.

SolutionOur editorial team analyzed the key ingredients of a good summary and created a logical structure that incorporated all the client’s requirements in a coherent manner. For example, we broke down the summary into answers to various questions such as:

I. Who brought the initial action?II. What was the initial action?III. What did the lower court rule?IV. Who appealed?And so on.

We next created a web application that allowed the team to upload the original judgment received from the client into a MySQL database and to view the judgment side-by-side with the summary template created by the editorial team. Editors could then complete the template while viewing the case in an adjacent window.

The application also allowed editors to send on their summaries to a senior editor for review. The final reviewed summary would be converted by the application into a Word document appropriately formatted and emailed directly to the client.

A team leader could also review which editor had worked on which case and at what point in the process the case currently was.

Benefits• Coherent summary structure enforced• Control and monitoring over editorial process

• Training process facilitated

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3. PACER Document research

BackgroundOur editors surf the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) court sites to research, identify and download documents that satisfy the client’s criteria for such acquisition.

Potential problemsThere are over 80 (and growing) PACER court sites to be surfed and the frequency and periodicity for visiting each varies. Similarly, the criteria for acquisition vary from court to court. Since cases remain open for some time, we have to exercise care not to re-acquire a document that may have been acquired a couple of months back. Once a case is closed, we should not waste time and resources in attempting to acquire its documents.

SolutionWe created a web application that tracks which sites our team has visited, what acquisitions have occurred from those sites, and prepares a calendar of what needs to be visited next.

Documents acquired are uploaded to the database so that they are aggregated in a secure place rather than scattered across user’s desktops.

The application also tracks time spent per court, which facilitates billing.

Since the application maintains a record of acquisitions we save time when re-visiting a site to check for fresh acquisi-tions.

Benefits• Control over documents acquired (including centralized backup and consolidated submission to the client)

• Monitoring and auditing the acquisition process• Eliminating extra work• Accurate billing

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