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At Artisan, we create solutions for consumers, corporations, and government agencies. We engineer products that are sold by other companies, assist entrepreneurs by turning their ideas into products, and develop many applications that are used internally by public agencies and corporations. Our applications are robust enough to handle life and death issues in law enforcement, public safety, and drug manufacturing, but they are also appealing enough to draw customers and the public.
In many cases we are not allowed to disclose the name of our client, but we’ve included a few examples of solutions we’ve delivered below.
Education
We designed and developed a complete enterprise solution for iD Tech Camps, the leading provider of summer technology camps for youth and teens.
The multi-phased project touched every aspect of the business,
from product definition to sales, marketing, payments, check-in, camp management, financials, evaluations,and personnel management.
The system includes a variety of internal and public-facing tools and integrates smoothly with other products, such as WordPress and the Great Plains accounting system.
Read more about the iD Tech Camps Case Study
Artisan also developed a commercial On-line School Registration and Attendance Tracking product. This tool allows members of the public to find adult education classes at public schools and to register and pay for them. Companion modules allow teachers to track ttendance and demographics for their students and to provide mandatory reports for state-funded continuing education courses.
Insurance and Benefits Administration
Our complete enterprise system for DMC Insurance Administrators automated many manual processes and dramatically reduced costs while improving the health and benefits plan administrator's ability to comply with government and industry regulations. This complete solution improved service and enhanced the adminstrator's competitive position while facilitating communication across many constituencies including plan providers, employers, unions, employees, and more.
Read more about the DMC Insurance Administrators Case Study
Retail & Consumer Products
Artisan designed and developed a complete franchise management system for Pump It Up, a nation-wide chain of entertainment franchises. The system allowed the franchisor to regain control of its brand, enhance the quality and consistency of customers' experience, and rationalize its finances. The system generates the Web sites for all of the stores, creates and executes localized promotional campaigns, handles reservations and scheduing for all of the franchises, enhances communications between the franchisor and franchisees, and generates business intelligence reports.
We created a framework that enabled a consumer products company to operate multiple, individually branded Web storefronts which integrate seamlessly with the company’s Oracle/NetSuite back-end systems. The Web stores feature sophisticated product finder and configuration features, specials, most popular products, etc. The sales data for all stores rolls up to a common financial system for accurate inventories, P&L, and more.
eCommerce
 We designed and developed a commercial Podcasting and content delivery site, with features for self publishing, browsing, searching, automated interest matching, and community building. The eCommerce portions supported various subscription models and recurring billing.
Our team has developed a variety of other ecommerce web sites leveraging common, standard components while overcoming unique issues and producing a customized look and feel. When appropriate, we have developed ecommerce applications from the ground up. Several of our projects necessitated such custom solutions – the integration of ecommerce features into complex environments that did not lend themselves to off-the-shelf solutions.
 Artisan created an early entrant into the world of last-minute shopping with a Web site that helps consumers find and purchase local entertainment and recreation opportunities. The application has a database of venues, events, and profiles that match customers to products, services, and events by price, interests, location, and other factors. Vendors can offer their stock and have buyers find them without effort.
Analytics
Artisan developed a sophisticated analytical product to enhance the intelligence with which world-wide enterprises can manage their partner programs. The tool tracks, collects, and analyzes very large amounts of public and private information about partner companies and provides visual tools to depict the partners’ relative commitment to the parent company and to its competitors. The tool also provides trending tools and “what-if” features to help estimate the revenue impact of investing in the partners.
For a different company, Artisan engineered a product that obtains and aggregates large amounts of data and documentation connected with patent filings, examinations, actions, trends, and history. Coupling this data with information about attorneys, examiners, firms, assignments, etc., the tool creates a unique timeline that is not available from any public source. The analytical engine and public-facing tools provide a foundation for predictive features, searching, and other related services.
Logistics
Not all situations require building an application from the ground up. In an order-tracking project for Tosohset Inc. we revamped and existing business-to-business order tracking system to enhance security and allow for multiple levels of interaction based upon roles.
Medical and Pharmaceutical
Artisan greatly reduced data collection and procedural errors for a major pharmaceutical company by creating a straightforward operator interface for a laser photo ablation system. The software eliminated many steps by automatically importing the data from related test stations and passing data on to other inspection devices, so that the data did not have to be re-keyed at each station. It also included checks to ensure that the operator's data was complete and appropriate for each sample.
 We also architected and developed applications to support engineering improvements in pharmaceutical packaging equipment. The largest application collected data from high-speed cameras and image processors as well as the programmable logic controllers used for process control. The same application provides feedback to process control hardware and archives images and data using high-throughput techniques so the data can be analyzed for continuous improvement.
Artisan designed and built a medical communications application that obtained lab test results electronically using HL-7 protocols and then generated alerts for both doctors and patients. This brought abnormal results to the doctor and patient's attention more quickly. Associated workflow tools improved tracking and reduced physician workload for normal tests. The application also included the ability to conduct adaptive interviews with patients, where the questions followed different paths depending upon user responses and the data in the system.
For a precision calibration company, Artisan's application dramatically sped up pipette calibrations by integrating data from various LIMS and measurement tools and then generating pipette-specific FDA-compliant calibration certificates.
Artisan designed and built a marketing database and software framework to generate Web-based questionnaires used on prescription drug discount program sites. The questionnaires collect both the registration information and the answers to the questions. The Web logic then forwards the information to the companies sponsoring the programs, but it also aggregates the registration data in a multi-tenant marketing database. The database is used to analyze the effectiveness of the benefit programs and to support future marketing campaigns.
Industrial Automation
For a large food processing mill, Artisan enhanced the manufacturing execution system to integrate the line control equipment with a remote installation of SAP. This effort involved high-speed data collection, using Rockwell tools to obtain information from the programmable logic controllers and real-time communication with the world-wide SAP system, which assigned pallet and drum identifiers back to the line. This is a generalized solution that could apply to any environment integrating Rockwell control equipment with SAP.
Government
Artisan has guided the Alameda County Public Works Authority in conceiving and implementing projects that streamline and improve operations: Artisan designed and built:
- Capital improvement project budgeting tools.
- Invoice tracking and approval software.
- Tools to allow the County Surveyor to provide more detailed information to the public.
- Software to integrate geo-location date with older survey maps.
Artisan has also assisted the County IT department’s skills by providing advice on topics ranging from the selection of third party products, the enhancement of security policies, and integration strategies for legacy products.
 Artisan created a highly-reliable public safety system for Critical Reach, inc. that handles over 1 million bulletins per year. The bulletins can include high-quality graphics. Because of its reliability, ease of use, and ability to broadcast information at high speed, it was selected by several states to serve as the core of their Amber Alert system.
We also created a telephony and text-based emergency notification system that permitted senior government officials to reach members of a large government organization instantly. The system would continue trying by alternative means until each person acknowledged receipt.  The message delivery "engine" gave emergency personnel tools for creating, prioritizing, and delivering messages per end-user preferences.
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