Cambridge University Press Case Study
Web-based Order Processing and Tracking
Company Profile
Cambridge University Press (CUP) is the printing and publishing house of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1534, the world's oldest press is today one of the largest educational and academic publishers producing nearly 2,500 books and over 150 journals a year in print and electronic form, which are sold in some 200 countries. CUP is an international publisher, with over 24,000 authors in 108 countries.
Business Requirements
Cambridge University Press (CUP) had a requirement to integrate their powerful database system, capable of managing their back-end order processing, with the company’s Intranet. This system would enable their staff around the world to interact with the database system via a simple browser. CUP had installed a web site on their internal network using a back-end Oracle database for its data source. Background processes were used to transfer data to and from their Vista publishing system.
CUP wanted the integrated ordering system to be used initially as an internal tool as the main bulk of the orders CUP received were from trade customers in contact with their telesales department. However, CUP also wanted Beacon to consider extending the project to include the integration of on-line credit card processing software and the ability for customers to place and progress their own orders. This first system was therefore to be used as a tool for internal sales order processing and as a trial for public use.
Our Solution
Beacon worked with CUP to extend their web site to integrate the back-end Oracle order processing database and order tracking software with their Intranet. The preliminary work was carried out using an Object-Oriented Model and class design techniques. Beacon also advised CUP to use Microsoft Site Server rather than Internet Information Server as a more suitable platform for future e-commerce requirements.
The design was modular and used library components to perform the business logic and database access. The technologies we deployed were based around Windows NT 4 servers running Microsoft Site Server and an Oracle main database. The design we used prevents all unauthorised access of the database using the NT/SQL security model. JavaScript was used for the client-side code with clients using standard browsers and VBScript for the server-side code, along with various plug-ins, ASP Pages, and DLLs for libraries.
