SHRINK-WRAPPED SOFTWARE MODS

Client: Jafra Cosmetics
Challenge: Modify shrink-wrapped software within a tight deadline
Result: TMS out-codes the original developers

Jafra Cosmetics was opening operations in Thailand within 30 days and needed to have modifications made to the WildFire multi-level marketing software package used to handle custom calculations of sales commissions and the back-office operations for their business localized to the Thai character sets. With such a tight deadline, they asked the original Wildfire developers for help, but also hired TaylorMade Software to work on the same task, in case the manufacturer failed to meet deadline.

In order to make the necessary changes to a 3rd party shrink-wrap, turn-key application, without access to the application client source code, we had to think outside the box. Rather than touching the WildFire client application, we worked inside the Firebird (Interbase) database, using a recursive algorithm to handle the traversal of the sales force organization chart tree for the complex calculation of sales commissions. We delivered within Jafra’s 30-day deadline—before Wildfire’s own developers.