In late 2007, MCCA engaged Optaros to build a comprehensive Event Management System that enables the MCCA staff and their partners to sell, plan and deliver events to their customers. The solution supports MCCA’s core business operations in the event management lifecycle including:

• Sales and Facility Booking
• Event and Exhibitor Space Setup and Service Order Management
• Event Settlement and Accounting

The Optaros team applied the Optaros Assembly Methodology (OptAM), starting with a rapid Blueprint phase that focused on scoping the solution, gathering user requirements and task scenarios, defining the architecture blueprint and selecting technical components that meet the functional and technical requirements.

Following the Blueprint phase, Optaros delivered a Solution Assembly phase using the following open source components based on MCCA’s unique business requirements:

• Google Web Toolkit (GWT) for desktop-like web/AJAX applications
• JBoss/Spring/Hibernate for the core application services
• JBPM for workflow
• Mule ESB
• JasperReports for reporting and data analysis

In particular, the Optaros and MCCA team selected JasperReports based on key selection functional and technical criteria:

• Provide high-quality reports for MCCA’s Operations, Executives and Customers
• Allow business users to create ad-hoc reports using an intuitive web-based interface. JasperServer’s domains and topics provide a business abstraction layer of the database schema so that business users can create ad-hoc reports (tables, charts or crosstabs) using simple drag and drop without any prerequisite knowledge of the technical database structure, field names and relationships
• Ability to output reports to multiple formats including PDF, RTF, and XLS
• Secure access control over reports including field-level security
• Integration of JasperReports and the Event Management System in order to provide a seamless user experience. JasperServer enables such integration by exposing Single Sign-On capabilities via Web Services or URL-based authentication and authorization, and the ability to customize Jasper’s user interface to provide a consistent look and feel with the Event Management System
• J2EE architecture and ease of embeddability using a Java API

On MCCA, OptAM delivered high impact business results quickly and with the least risks. Technical decisions were always made in conjunction with the user requirements. Open Source JasperSoft solutions provided the necessary flexibility and transparency for the Optaros and MCCA team to make informed decisions based on initial proof-of-concepts and throughout the iterative development and testing process.