The CDS Group is a major supplier of IT Health Care systems to the NHS and Health Trust market. Other companies within the group include CDS Altim, CDS Telepath, CDS Mital and CDS Technical Services.
CDS Solutions has a considerable depth of expertise and experience in software specification, design, development and project management. Utilising these skills CDS Solutions plays a major role in the design and development of all the Group's products.
The Market Place
CDS TelePath is the market leader of Pathology systems to the NHS. The product is written in MUMPS. The Pathology Market is one of the few areas of health care which is I.T. mature. The market demands efficient and very comprehensive functionality.
The Competition
Over the last two years there has been an increasing expectancy and aspiration for Windows type products. GUI products are perceived by the users as the modern approach and the way forward.
The Problem
CDS TelePath acknowledged the marketing importance of providing a GUI user interface. The task of providing such a feature within the existing product utilising GUI building tools was extensive and not practical within the required time frame.
The Answer
CDS Solutions concluded that the requirement could be met within the desired time frame by utilising a character interface translation layer onto the front of the CDS TelePath application. CDS Solutions spent several weeks proving the concept by prototyping in C++. Following this it was agreed that a commercial solution be sought. A detailed analysis of the products available was conducted.
The product Soft Option from Soft Option Technologies (SOTL) was eventually chosen as by far the best product available.
How did Soft Option Help?
Because of the 20 man years experience and nearly 10 man years development that has been invested into Soft Option, the learning curve for CDS Solutions was only 3 days.
"Using Soft Option, the SOTL Engineer together with our engineer was able to achieve as much in the 3 day Quickstart Programme as we have achieved in 30 days working from scratch. Using this tool not only greatly reduced the development time, but also produced a much more maintainable and stable product. Throughout the development period, we received excellent support from SOTL, who resolved all our queries and difficulties promptly and efficiently."
Sue Davies, Director of CDS Solutions
