Our PeopleOur SolutionsOur Advantage

Product Development

At SSI, we understand that our sustainability is directly tied to our customer's long term success. We are continually enhancing and updating our software to react to the ever-changing business environment and to meet the growing needs of our customers so that they remain profitable.

Our development process starts and ends with our customers. We encourage customers to submit ideas on how to improve our software and we to look to them to help determine both the value and urgency of those features. Once an idea for a potential enhancement is received, it goes through a formal process to ensure the proper requirements are gathered and the business value is identified.

SSI's development process is diagramed and outlined below.

  1. New Feature Ideas
    • Ideas are gathered through customer requests, industry supply chain initiatives or regulatory-driven requirements
    • Potential enhancements are entered into a feature tracking system where they are reviewed and prioritized
    • SSI's Customer Advisory Group (CAG) may also be used to help determine the benefit and urgency of the request

  2. Requirements Analysis
    • Requirements for the feature request are gathered and business objectives are clearly identified
    • Scope of project is defined to include estimated timeframe, required resources and potential risks (to existing functionality)
    • Detailed FSD (Functional Specification Document) is prepared based upon the scope and requirements analysis
      j
  3. Software Development
    • Feature is designed based on requirements contained within FSD
    • Coding is completed based on the design and FSD
      j
  4. Testing & Quality Assurance
    • Development of test cases to ensure the feature will work as required in all relevant circumstances and for all types of users
    • Feature is tested to ensure it operates per specifications in each test case scenario
    • Related features are put through regressive testing to ensure existing functionality continues to work as intended
    • Software is deployed in specified customer (beta) locations for production usage prior to general release
      j
  5. Maintenance
    • Software is continually maintained and enhanced within a specified release schedule
    • Normal release cycle includes a major version release once every 12 months (but may also include between 3 and 5 maintenance updates per year as needed)
    • Updates are included for customers enrolled in SSI's support and software maintenance program