Fairbairn Capital

Industry: Financial services

Head office location: Cape Town

Technology deployed:

* Microsoft Windows Server
* Microsoft ASP .NET MVC
* Microsoft Windows Communications Foundation
* Microsoft SQL Server
* Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Service
* Microsoft Windows Forms

Fairbairn Capital is Old Mutual's premier investment offering, presenting the discerning investor with a range of sophisticated local and global investment solutions, accessible through a single centre of investment excellence.

Born of two of Old Mutual's flagship investment businesses - Galaxy and Investment Frontiers - Fairbairn Capital today boasts an individual investor base of over 160 000, as well as in excess of R60 billion of assets under management.

Fairbairn Capital's Web site was developed six years ago on Visual Basic 6. In order to align with the rest of Old Mutual's Web development strategy, it was required that all development utilise .Net 3.5, WCF, and TFS. Fairbairn also required a content management system that would provide the flexibility to easily load daily updated content onto the site, a separate brochure ware site, and redevelopment of a remote gadget deployed to their brokers' PCs and laptops.

Airborne opted to use only the latest Microsoft technologies so developers could test functionality continuously in a test-driven development approach.

The technologies employed for the Web site platform were Microsoft ASP.Net MVC, Windows Communication Foundation, and SQL Server 2005. The remote desktop gadget for use by the Fairbairn intermediaries, which displays updated indicators, news, podcasts and alerts, was developed using Windows Forms and Windows Communication Foundation.

Using MVC, Airborne was able to produce a flexible content management system, based on Masterpage templates. We also have the ability to add “user control” type functionality to content pages, which are editable via the users. The Airborne team was able to produce 100% matches to valid XHTML mock-ups provided by a designer. Updating content was previously done by developers and had to go through a complicated change-control process to update even the smallest spelling error. This content updating is now moved to the content owners who can update the content themselves, freeing the developers to focus on development work.

Microsoft technologies utilised:

* Microsoft Windows Server
* Microsoft ASP .NET MVC
* Microsoft Windows Communications Foundation
* Microsoft SQL Server
* Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Service
* Microsoft Windows Forms

Says Warwick Burke, Head of Technology: “Airborne is one of the most professional vendors that I have had the pleasure of working with. They have continually followed a collaborative approach with me, to ensure that the solution they deliver absolutely meets my needs. Technically, I have found Airborne to be very strong with a good depth of skilled resources, which are always made available when required.”

“Nothing seems too small, or too big, for that matter, for them to tackle. Our relationship with Airborne is genuine partnership (a sometimes very overused word in the ICT industry) where both sides give and take to make sure that there is a win-win situation for all involved.”

Benefits of the Airborne solution include:

* A customer focused and user-friendly site
* A technology refresh
* Site is easier to maintain and quicker to update content
* The base for future development

For more information:

Airborne Consulting
info@airborneconsulting.co.za

Postal Address
PO Box 31055
Tokai
Western Cape
South Africa
7966

Physical Address
Ulundi House
Portswood Rd
V&A Waterfront
Cape Town
South Africa

Phone
+27 (0)21 425 3430

Fax
+27 (0) 86 502 2412
http://www.airborneconsulting.co.za