MAR-VEL International:

MAR-VEL International is America's oldest diving supply company. Since 1946 they have been supplying the military, commercial, rescue, scientific and recreational diving communities with the finest diving equipment to be found anywhere.

A major part of MAR-VEL's business comes through their Prime Vendor Contract with the US Department of Defense. Under terms of the contract, any branch of the Federal Government or in many cases, State and Local government agencies, can purchase goods directly from selected Prime Vendors. The contract makes ordering and purchasing easier and more cost efficient. Obviously, their Prime Vendor status is extremely valuable to MAR-VEL.

But when MAR-VEL's contract was nearing renewal, the company learned that the Government was going to require all Prime Vendors to make their product offerings available online. For MAR-VEL, that meant determining how to connect to its proprietary database and bring thousands upon thousands of items to the web. Furthermore, to meet the deadline, it all had to be done in a matter of weeks, not months.

PICS designers and database engineers went to work immediately. They used ColdFusion to create a web application that allowed MAR-VEL to display their product offerings to all their key customer groups. All visitors browsing the MAR-VEL site can view products available for sale to the general public. When they login, they see pricing based upon the kind of customer class they belong to. Customers who authenticate their status as Prime Vendor buyers can view items sold only to government or military buyers. Again, these government purchasers see different pricing because their purchases are covered by the Prime Vendor contract. The site also includes a wish list for buyers who want to retain their selections while they seek purchasing approval.

Weeks after hiring PICS to handle the project, MAR-VEL management was able to demonstrate a beta version of the site for the Government. They liked what they saw, and PICS completed and launched the MAR-VEL site soon thereafter. The new MAR-VEL site -- www.MAR-VEL.com -- is now poised for a second generation redesign which will emphasize popular products and ratchet-up the site's ecommerce capabilities.