Product Update: ‘4 Strategies improving the Arantys product development’

With an increasing number of customers, a growing team, and a more complex product, the Cadran CTRM team has recently implemented changes in its approach to product development. These changes benefit customers while accelerating product evolution. As most of these adjustments are now in place, we are already seeing the first results. Other improvements are part of an ongoing process that will enhance our implementation and consulting strategies moving forward.

This blog provides an overview of these updates, offering prospects and customers insight into what to expect. Topics include our product vision, backlog and product design approach, newly formed software development team, and testing strategies.

1. The Data-Driven Commodity Trader

We have refined our vision to better position our product. By adopting an integrated approach between ERP, trading platforms, and reporting, our solution acts as the backbone for a commodity trading company’s value chain.

Our product continues to focus on the connection between ERP and trading, integrating the entire process as a unified structure. For instance, in Release 3.6, we will further integrate with JD Edwards’ standard modules, including production integration within Arantys.

With improved digitalization, your company can gain real-time, accurate insights into your business operations, boosting profitability. Enhanced visibility into trading risks and profits has already enabled our customers to expand their operations. Through digitalization, we leverage Tableau for data visualization and integrate robotic process automation (RPA) via JD Edwards Orchestrator. This allows businesses to further automate and connect with external data sources for predictive analytics and customer insights.

Key initiatives, such as establishing a user group for continuous feedback between our prospects, customers, and product development team, are already underway.

2. Backlog and Product Design

Previously, our product backlog was heavily influenced by specific customer requests during implementations—a common practice for new products. Now, we’ve transitioned to a product roadmap shaped by input from multiple stakeholders, including customers, prospects, market trends, and consultant feedback.

Our newly appointed Product Owner manages this roadmap, prioritizing and assigning improvements to releases. All consultants can propose user stories that enhance the product, which are reviewed and prioritized. This approach results in smaller, faster-delivered updates, providing a clearer roadmap and more direct customer influence.

Improved Technical Foundation

We’ve redesigned the technical foundation of our solution, resulting in a more scalable product. Key highlights include:

• Modular functionality that can be activated or deactivated without redesigning the entire software.
• Reduced upgrade impact, allowing customers to stay current without enabling all new functionalities.
• Standardized releases for faster and more automated deployments at new JD Edwards customer sites.

Additionally, our partnership with Tableau has deepened its integration into our design and development strategies, enabling quicker and more reliable insights.

3. Software Development Team

We’ve established an internal software development team comprising five newly trained developers and experienced team members. Operating under the agile/scrum methodology, they deliver bi-weekly sprints to implement user stories. Progress is visible to all employees, with Sprint Review sessions open to everyone.

Team Mars

The team, self-named “Mars” (as our office rooms are named after continents, and this team is considered “out of this world”), brings new energy and perspectives to product development. Their work has already resulted in innovative solutions and improved efficiency.

Highlights:

• Regular code reviews and refinement sessions for higher-quality releases.
• Adoption of new technologies and development of new tools to simplify implementations.

Soon, Team Mars will also take on client-specific projects, allowing customers to directly benefit from these advancements.

4. Testing

With increased product complexity and integration, we needed a more rigorous testing approach. Previously focused on unit testing, we have now adopted DWS SwiftTest for integrated test automation.

Enhanced Testing Capabilities

• Documented Tests: Over 200 automated test scripts simulate real customer scenarios, documenting each step with screenshots for rapid issue identification.
• Nightly Test Runs: Integrated tests are run nightly, ensuring consistent quality.

These advancements improve product reliability, enabling faster and more focused releases. While the impact may not be immediate this year, it will significantly reduce time-to-market in the long run.

Improved Documentation and Environment

• Automated product documentation for better compliance and transparency.
• Migration to a new cloud-based development environment, reducing release time and effort significantly.

Over the coming year, we will implement further improvements to our release management and product approach. This is the start of a new approach to our product and market. Are you interested in learning more about this, and what benefits these changes can bring you? Or are you interested in our product and new releases? Contact Bart Dix.