Mainchain's data secured by .Net

By ADAM GIFFORD

Mainfreight has turned to Microsoft's new Windows Server 2003 and .Net technology to build an online freight-tracking system.

The $250,000 application, called Mainchain, was developed by South Auckland company Designer Technology. It links 11 databases and systems in several countries.

Mainfreight IT manager Kevin Drinkwater said Mainchain gave the company the information it needed without having to alter back-end systems or buy expensive supply chain applications.

"We didn't want to develop another database and .Net gave us that ability," Drinkwater said.

"All the security it needs is built into the existing customer management database. The Mainchain application doesn't hold any data, it just presents what is in the various databases."

Drinkwater said the company's many business segments meant lots of individual systems with silo databases, which it wanted to connect and show to customers through one entry point.

The aim was for one source of tracking information no matter what part of the business customers used.

Mainchain includes not just the information from Mainfreight and its subsidiaries like Mainfreight International, Daily Freight, Chemcouriers, LEP International and warehousing company Mainfreight Logistics. It can also also pull tracking information on parcels which get to their final destination through Courier Post.

Designer Technology business development manager Craig Simpson said .Net provided web services which fit on top of the database - meaning the application developer no longer needs to worry about what sort of database it is, and changes to the database don't require changes to the application.

" It is a smarter way of getting information out of back-end systems to talk to customer systems," he said.

The .Net tools and protocols were included in Windows Server 2003, rather than loaded on top, as people had to do under Windows 2000.

In the course of developing Maintrack, Mainfreight decided to jump from Windows NT 4 to Windows Server 2003 without installing Windows 2000.