Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali
Houston Young Professionals Avatar

 Analyst Programmer at AMERISAFE, Inc.

About

I pride myself on being knowledgeable and passionate about software development. I am very consistent with tasks and challenges and work well under pressure. I am a self-directed leader who fosters a collaborative and supportive team environment.

I float through challenging obstacles like a butterfly and my knowledgeable implementations sting like a bee…I am Muhammad Ali!

SEED Center program helps business owners help each other

Technical Experience

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We are experienced in a variety of IT services, operating systems, networks, and databases. We work with just about any technology that a business would encounter. We use this expertise to help customers with any size project.

High ROI

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Do you spend most of your IT budget on maintaining your current system? Many companies find that constant maintenance eats into their budget for new technology. By outsourcing your IT management to us, you can focus on running your business.

Looking Ahead

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The world of technology can be fast-paced. That’s why our goal is to provide an experience that keeps up with your company’s needs. We will help you understand how to plan for your technology needs and invest in your infrastructure.

SERVICES

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Contract Programming

We offer a variety of programming services and technologies from cloud, web, mobile to desktop design and development. We are here to provide our expertise in software development to help your company grow.

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Project Management

We are available to manage large or small software projects from the early requirements gathering through final implementation.  We can manage any mix of project staff including our personnel, your employees, or other outside vendors.

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IT Support

We are available to consult with you or your staff when problems arise with your software. We can assist your end-users or customers resolve issues in a friendly and effective manner by phone or chat.

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Network Support & Maintenance

We can set up and maintain your business’s network, or help troubleshoot and maintain your existing network. 

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Cloud Service & Data Backup

We will work with you to establish the appropriate cloud service and available resources for your business. 

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Data Entry/Document Analysis

Our staff is willing to help your company with any and all data entry or document analysis related assistance. 

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Call Center Staffing

We have a growing group of qualified call center representatives that can provide cutting edge service to your customers and users.

PROJECTS

MEDICAL CLINIC SCHEDULING SYSTEM

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Need:

A regional hospital system and school of medicine managed schedule and provider changes for member clinics using paper forms and fax machines. The process was cumbersome and error prone causing unacceptable delays in the coordination of clinic schedules with the staff responsible for setting patient appointments.

Solution:

Provide an application capable of maintaining clinic scheduling and provider information in a central data repository. The user interface should require minimal training and actively assist users with the entry of accurate and reliable data.

Implementation:

New web application development tools were selected for one of the hospital system’s existing platforms. The application was developed in PHP to run on an IBM i application server using Apache and Zend Server. Bootstrap was used as the component and style framework for the user interface.

Impact:

Users were able to start using the web application with almost no training due to the familiar terminology and organization gleaned from the paper forms in developing the new application’s flow. Extensive inclusion of help dialogs and informative error messages also helped to reduce the learning curve. The key outcome for the customer was the increased flexibility and accuracy in setting patient appointments since changes to clinic schedules and providers could be submitted and processed in the same day instead of the previous three business days allotted.

END-USER INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

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Need:

A nationwide  financial services company conducted their annual physical inventory of  equipment in the possession of central office and field personnel using  paper receipts distributed by hand, fax, and email. In  addition, any equipment assignments or returns done throughout the year  were handled with the same cumbersome process.

Solution:

Develop a  new application to deploy to end-users for digitally handling both the  annual inventory physical inventory tasks as well as any ad-hoc tasks  occurring throughout the year. The application must be able  to work in limited connectivity situations.

Implementation:

A  Progressive Web App was developed in Angular 7 for deployment to any  browser available to the end-users on phones, tablets, laptops, or  desktop computers.  For devices with camera capabilities, the  application  allowed for scanning of asset tags and serial number barcodes to  facilitate entry and identification of inventory items.  All features of  the application could be used while the application was disconnected  with transactions queued in a service worker until  a connection to the web server was available.  Bi-directional access to  data from the company’s inventory system was made possible through a  web API developed as part of this effort. 

Impact:

The  physical inventory from the year prior to deployment of this  application took five man-months to complete including personnel to  verify  all of the equipment and inventory technicians to enter the resulting  information.  The new PWA made it possible to complete the next  inventory in one-fifth of the time while also correcting data entry  errors made in previous years.

LOCATION APP FOR FIELD INSPECTORS

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Need:

A safety  inspection firm used a custom mobile application developed for a  specific platform to indicate  locations where safety personnel should  be scheduling inspections. The dependence on a single platform to  use the application meant that most inspectors were required to carry  multiple devices to utilize the functionality provide by the app in  their daily routines.

Solution:

Develop a  Progressive Web App that would make it possible to deploy the  application to any browser available on the inspectors’ phones, tablets,  or laptops.  For most inspectors, this meant that a single device  could be used to perform all of their duties.

Implementation:

The new  application was developed using Angular with the resulting Progressive  Web App deployable through a web server for access from any browser  available to the safety inspectors.  An additional pain point regarding  data availability while offline was also resolved by the new  application. A survey of the devices preferred for use by the inspectors  was used to create a test suite to confirm that the application would  work on as many as possible. 

Impact:

All safety  inspectors were able to drop the device previously used for the old  application from their personal inventory.  With the dramatic difference  in the ease of deploying the new application and any updates,  it was possible to immediately address a backlog of feature requests  that had been previously delayed due to deployment difficulties of the  old application.

COMPANY INTRANET (CMS)

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Need:
A company’s  intranet had become outdated both in technology and information. Any  changes to site content had to be made by IT personnel using a very  difficult and limited tools.  Numerous file shares were being  employed by users to circumvent the problems with maintaining intranet  content.

Solution:
Replace the  current intranet with a new content management system that allowed users  to add and edit information to which they had authority.  Ensure that  the new CMS was robust enough to host complex content, such  as secured pages, videos, and web forms, if needed.

Implementation:
The Umbraco  Content Management System was selected to replace the outdated intranet  tools. The new site was deployed using a single solution from Visual  Studio 2017 to the Microsoft IIS web server. This CMS allowed  creation of dozens of new templates to help users add content to the  site without needing to involve IT personnel.  Additional templates and  content can be added at any time without disrupting use of the site.

Impact:
The new  intranet site quickly became home to all of the relevant information  previously hosted on the defunct site and to volumes of new content. The  site is once again the company’s central location for serving  shared information. Each department maintains their own content using  authorized accounts to manage access to the editing system. End-users  have been extremely receptive to the new intranet with a ten-fold  increase in usage.

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)

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Need:
A regional  retail sales franchise was processing merchandise purchasing,  fulfillment, and billing using paper documents transmitted by fax or  email. All of the tasks to be performed by the retailer were manual,  expensive, and error prone.

Solution:
Implementing  EDI between the stores, warehouses, and vendors would allow for highly  efficient use of systems to handle the purchasing, fulfillment, and  billing processes. The ability to produce and consume EDI transactions  would be added to the retailer’s existing management systems.

Implementation:
Custom logic  was added to the company’s JDA Merchandise Management System to handle  creating, sending, receiving, and processing EDI transactions for  purchasing, fulfillment, and billing. The system extensions were  coded in free-form RPG using embedded SQL for data access. EDI  documents were transmitted by SFTP with convention-based naming to  facilitate automation. All transactions initially required approval but  were later automated completely if transaction value fell  within configurable guidelines.

Impact:
Simply  adding the EDI transactions to the existing system would have improved  the inventory processes dramatically. However, by further customizing  the system, it was possible to automate most transactions thereby  realizing significant cost-savings and practically eliminating errors.  When an automated process fell outside of normal ranges, appropriate  notifications were delivered allowing for approval or adjustment as  necessary without circumventing the system.

VIRTUAL ANIMAL CONTROL SYSTEM (VACS)

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Need:

A  system was needed to provide animal control shelters the ability to  manage their pet inventory and health and to report on specific  information needed for adoptions and vaccinations. The number of  animals coming into animal shelters is rising and keeping up with them  has become a challenge. 

Solution:

The  Virtual Animal Control System (VACS) was developed in .NET to provide  companies the ability to organize and overlook everything happening  in their animal shelter. VACS has user and employee account creation  and login capabilities, giving users the opportunity to see which  animals are up for adoption with very precise details about the animal.  The user can review the animal history and decide  on which animal he or she would like to adopt. It also has the  capability for a user to put up an animal for adoption. An application  is filled out by the user and then is submitted for approval. 

The  employees are given a little more in-depth functionalities like  reviewing applications that are submitted by users and viewing the  number of animals in the shelter with details. It also shows the  capacity the animal shelter has and how many spots are available in the  shelter. Users are notified upon application approval or rejection. VACS  also provides the ability to view reports that  tell you the number of vaccinations given to animals by breed or Animal  ID which is given to each animal that is brought in. Other reports  include vaccination reminder reports and animal detail reports. 

Implementation:

With  an HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap powered UI, VACS gives a very user-friendly  feel. All functionalities are friendly enough to be self-taught  by most users and staff. All the data handling is done in Microsoft SQL  Server and the language used for data manipulation is SQL. The software  was developed using .NET Framework and C#. 

Impact:

Animal shelter employees were able to manage animals coming in and going out of the shelter affectively. A report dashboard was created  giving all employees of the shelter the ability to browse through and  see which vaccines were given to the animals and when. Anyone trying to adopt an animal can now view it before coming to the shelter to make a  decision. The process for adopting and surrendering  animals became tremendously faster giving the employees an ease for  managing and helping animals find good homes.

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