About BP Logix
BP Logix Inc. is a leading provider of web-based BPM and workflow solutions. The company is focused on software solutions that improve workflow and process automation, enabling users to maximize their efficiency and work as intelligently with digital content as they do with paper-based information.
In 2009, BP Logix released a new version of its flagship product, Workflow Director. This was the first 100% .NET release of this product, so choosing a partner for .NET components was critical for its timely release and success in the market.
Prior to development, BP Logix researched the .NET component market for many months, developing test cases and functional requirements. ASPOSE was selected as the component vendor for all document manipulation, including PDF transformation, Excel report generation, Microsoft Word parsing, and BarCode generation. The selection of ASPOSE and the subsequent development was a complete success. The functionality and design of ASPOSE Components, as well as the Technical Support of the ASPOSE team, was key for developing our product on-time. The ASPOSE products saved many person-months of development effort.
Requirements Scenario
After meeting with customers, product managers, and development managers, a requirements document for our .NET document component library was written. The most important requirements are outlined below.
- 100% .NET compliant and .NET native (including .NET 3.5)
- Single library for 32-bt and 64-bit deployment
- Simple installation and distribution
- Royalty-free license
- Excellent support including searchable online forums, online samples, and online documentation
- Product stability
- No requirement to install MS Office applications on the server
- No requirement to create special system services for PDF transformation
- PDF functionality
- Ability to convert .DOC, .DOCX, .PPT, .PPTX, .XLS, .XLSX into PDF
- Ability to convert text and images into PDF
- Ability to merge PDFs
- Ability to read and write PDF form fields
- Reporting Functionality
- Ability to generate Excel reports
- Ability to generate CSV reports
- Import functionality
- Ability to import from Microsoft Excel documents
- Ability to import from PDF form
The Aspose.Total for .NET components met or exceeded all of our requirements.
Solution Implementation
Our application is a web-based application built on top of IIS. The ASPOSE components were easily deployed into our application in the /Bin folder of the web application.
The component is transparently integrated into our application and can be configured by end-users using Workflow Director Custom Tasks. As part of our document management capabilities, documents can automatically be rendered into PDF as they are added to the document library. Electronic Forms can now be rendered into PDF for archive or email use. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and analytical information can be created using Excel Template reports.
Benefits
BP Logix benefitted in multiple ways from selected ASPOSE. In previous versions of our product, we used a different component provider for PDF manipulation/conversion. We learned from our history how important support and stability are with component vendors. The support offerings from ASPOSE have been outstanding! There are clear examples for each component, up to date documentation, and very active forums. Product stability has been excellent. As a software vendor, I know how important it is to listen to your customers … I can say that ASPOSE shines in this area as they continue to update their components with new features based on input from its customers.
Another benefit of switching to ASPOSE has been its product design and architecture. Previously, we used a component that required MS Office to be installed and configured on the server, and various system services to be running. This was a nightmare to support! With ASPOSE’s 100% .NET implementation, installing at customers is as easy as deploying a .DLL into the /Bin folder. It has cut our support expenses tremendously and has eliminated any of our customer frustration from our previous component vendor.
Future Implementations
One of the most exciting things about the ASPOSE components is how feature-rich they are. In all honesty, we have only scratched the surface of the functionality available within the components. We will be looking to leverage the capabilities of the Microsoft Project import/export as well as the Flash components.
Conclusion
Selecting the Aspose components for file processing functionality was critical for our timely release of the Workflow Director product.
