Here’s an amazing stat:  UPS created applications to support the 2012 London Olympics that helped move over 30 million pieces of equipment.   In the recent Wall Street Journal article “How UPS CIO Dave Barnes Spends $1 Billion”, Barnes credits iRise visualization technology with helping to make this important process an incredible success.

One of the key benefits of the iRise enterprise platform is that it serves as a central communication platform to drive all phases of the software development life-cycle, from the concept phase to launch.  Along the way, it allows both the business and its stakeholders to test drive applications before building them.  In the article, Barnes talks about how iRise helped his application development team demonstrate various applications and workflow process to the Olympic organizing committee before they were actually coded.  For such a large and important event like the Olympic games, there is little room for error.  The ability to demo apps to the committee and accurately confirm they were building the right solution was key.  “You end up building better software, driving a better customer experience and you get better results by doing it this way.” Barnes said.

The WSJ article also details the greater emphasis UPS now places on mobile apps, something that iRise’s powerful mobile capabilities (including on device review) also helps with.  Previously UPS would create applications for the desktop first, and then focus on mobile.  Now they see mobile “as a natural extension” of their applications.  They pair iRise with their team’s Agile development process, which lets UPS visualize during the requirements gathering stage and accelerate development cycles.

The overall message is that UPS faces a very competitive market, high customer expectations, and a greater shift to online ordering.  Barnes understands that UPS wouldn’t be able to achieve its strategic objectives “without technology driving every aspect of it”, allowing them to move much faster, with greater efficiency.   We’re proud iRise has played a big part in this process.

The full Wall Street Journal article can be found here (subscription required):  http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444914904577619672505895352.html?mod=WSJ_qtoverview_wsjlatest&mg=reno64-wsj

A WSJ blog post on the article can be found here (subscription required): http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/08/29/how-ups-cio-dave-barnes-spends-1-billion/