Coreblue

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Clariti

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The strenght behind the structure. We help deliver large scale construction projects through a wide range products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coreblue to accomplish?

• Develop a MVP application for our new software business within 6 months.

SOLUTION

How did you find Coreblue?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Coreblue over others?

High ratings

How many teammates from Coreblue were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Develop a cloud application for designing construction products.
• Create admin portal for managing users and customers.
• Create a scalable platform that allows future development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project team have delivered incredibly well, providing clear updates as progress was made and allowing me to provide feedback at regular intervals. The product has been built to a great quality and I’m happy with how the project has come together.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Coreblue follow an agile development process, inviting me to daily standups and sprint review/planning sessions. As well as this, me and my team have been invited to their company Slack channels where I have direct access to the developers. We used this throughout development to ask questions, share knowledge and organise further meetings to ensure we remained aligned throughout development.

What was your primary form of communication with Coreblue?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Coreblue’s commitment to understanding this project, despite it being heavily reliant on construction industry knowledge was very impressive. Coreblue made it clear this was not their expertise, but that as technical experts, it was their responsibility to learn and ensure that our business needs were captured through development. Coreblue spent significant time and effort to understand the complexities of the project and used their technical knowledge to plan and deliver a quality product.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Coreblue could have done differently?

No, Coreblue worked well during discovery to plan out the project and understand our commercial and technical requirements. I believe they have delivered well to that plan and I look forward to the next stages of development.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Account Manager of Hook Tangaza

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides information, signposting and an applications portal for prospective students applying to leading UK institutions for postgraduate courses leading to professional qualification in law.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coreblue to accomplish?

• Updating and stabilising our existing platform
• Rolling out a development roadmap
• Be an IT partner that would take the time to understand our business and those we work with, to ensure we make informed technology decisions aligned with our strategic objectives

SOLUTION

How did you find Coreblue?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Coreblue over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• Demonstrated a good understanding of our business

How many teammates from Coreblue were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The initial scope of work included an audit of the current application. This required a thorough understanding of the code base and Coreblue reviewed the entire code of the application. The application consists of an admin portal, a front end user portal, and a portal used by the institutions. These portals were built using a combination of ReactJS for frontend elements and a Node based content management system for backend management. 

Coreblue produced a backlog of work to ensure the application was stable, up-to-date and maintainable. Once complete, we moved into a maintenance arrangement with Coreblue who are retained for a fixed amount of time each month to provide regular updates, maintenance and small feature enhancements. There have been many smaller projects that accompanied maintenance which have allowed the roll out of major feature enhancements as well as a new application process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The platform is stable, well, maintained and we have introduced multiple feature enhancements. Once such development was the introduction of a restful API which allows institutions to automate the application process. Coreblue continue to be excellent technology partners.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Coreblue’s Project management style allows us to stay up to date with the development work on the platform by providing input and feedback. We have regular meetings to discuss upcoming feature development and regular releases are made enabling us to feedback on the work that has been done.

What was your primary form of communication with Coreblue?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Having worked with other software development vendors, it's clear that Coreblue takes a business-first approach. We regularly talk about opportunities for the platform and Coreblue often consult with us on technical challenges outside of the scope of this project. Coreblue has been very helpful in sharing their advice and expertise in these areas at no additional cost

Are there any areas for improvement or something Coreblue could have done differently?

Not at this time

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder and Director of QUIDMATE LTD

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Quidmate is an online payment platform that provides financial empowerment to its users by providing them with the ability to monitor their expenditures and receive personalised recommendations to enhance their financial habits in spending, saving, and investing at the touch of their fingertips. Currently at MVP stage, the application will launch in 2024. I am the founder of Quidmate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coreblue to accomplish?

Quidmate has engaged Coreblue to be our technology partner. To date, they have undertaken technical discovery, conducted an innovation spike and developed the product backlog ahead of developing the MVP and approaching investors. It was important to onboard a technology partner that had the necessary technical experience as well as an understanding of the requirements of the business at each stage of development.

SOLUTION

How did you find Coreblue?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Coreblue over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Coreblue were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The project so far has involved the creation of software and infrastructure architecture aimed at realising the Quidmate product vision. It was divided into two initial phases: discovery and technical design, and has since been supplemented with an innovation spike ahead of progressing the development of the MVP. During the discovery phase, CoreBlue delved into the application's concept and also gained a comprehensive understanding of the commercial objectives behind the project.

Engaging in discussions about the non-technical aspects of the project was enlightening and we refined the non-technical aspects of the proposition in addition to developing the technical backlog. It was reassuring that we had more involvement in the project than one might typically anticipate when collaborating with a technology firm.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Output was delivered as described and on time. We have now moved to the development phase and the work done so far has helped shame the product and ensure the technical specification and design is aligned with our commercial objectives.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We have met in person a number of times which has helped build the relationship. Project communication is handled largely over the phone, Google Meets and in-person meetings.

The initial project involved predominantly planning and research so CoreBlue conducted a number of technical “spikes” into areas of technical uncertainty and produced a comprehensive development plan along with estimates and general themes/phases of work which are comprehensive and form a longer-term development roadmap.

Despite having a named project manager we also have direct access to developers and the commercial team so we can interact directly with those completing the work which helps to break down any communication barriers that can occur.

What was your primary form of communication with Coreblue?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

CoreBlue has taken a consultative approach, collaborating closely with me to comprehend the business objectives and ensuring they are met through the technical solution. They have taken the time to understand the wider context and have planned the project schedule accordingly.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Coreblue could have done differently?

There were no areas of improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Director at Firehub

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Firehub is a fire risk assessment app that allows assessors to complete risk assessments quickly and efficiently.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coreblue to accomplish?

• Take over the running of the app from a previous provider.
• Secure the system

SOLUTION

How did you find Coreblue?

Online Search

Why did you select Coreblue over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Coreblue were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our first engagement with CoreBlue was to audit and assess our current platform. We knew we had a cross-platform mobile application written in Flutter, as well as several Web systems written in Laravel and VueJS. Our platform was hosted within our own AWS account that the previous suppliers had managed for us. 

CoreBlue supported us in handing over all technical assets to them, putting them in a position to fully assess the Firehub platform and understand where everything sat and how it needed to be managed. The initial audit aimed to ensure their development team were fully onboarded to the platform and could continue development, as well as perform a risk analysis for us to help identify any areas that needed immediate attention. 

In doing so, CoreBlue identified several issues around out-of-date frameworks and technologies that needed updating before it was safe to continue active development. CoreBlue estimated this work and proceeded with a major upgrade work package that added several tools to support the monitoring and debugging of the application in the live environment. 

With these upgrades, CoreBlue’s current responsibility is to support the live application through a retained maintenance arrangement that allows continuous development and support of the Firehub platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Now the platform is under CoreBlue’s management, Firehub has been completely upgraded to use modern versions of the underlying frameworks and technologies. Our live platform has active monitoring for any errors and debugging tools that support the ongoing maintenance of the platform. CoreBlue is now retained to support the ongoing maintenance of Firehub and any major feature developments are scoped out independently.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

For project management, CoreBlue onboarded us to JIRA - their tool for documenting development tickets and issues. On JIRA, we were able to provide feedback for anything they had completed and deployed to a staging environment before it was approved for going live. We were able to follow JIRA updates to monitor progress on the work CoreBlue was doing and they had organised regular meetings with us to discuss updates and decide the next steps. 

We were kept very informed throughout the entire project. CoreBlue invited us to a shared Slack channel that allowed us to speak directly with their development team throughout the project, making it easy for us to reach out or answer questions their team had.

What was your primary form of communication with Coreblue?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Having been used to quite an unnerving experience around development and the risks it presented to our platform when uncontrolled changes had been released, CoreBlue is a breath of fresh air. The control they had around their processes and the tools they introduced us to gave us so much more confidence over our platform. Their technical ability and the high assurance nature of their work have allowed us to focus on our business.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Coreblue could have done differently?

The upgrades CoreBlue had recommended were split into High, Medium and Lower priority items and all upgrades were completed before CoreBlue moved on deploying the application under their architecture. For the sake of speed to move our live platform away from the old architecture, it would have been preferable to deploy after key milestones rather than all at once at the end.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Sirius Asset Solutions Limited

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We offer asset tracking solutions that provide powerful insights for our clients into their asset usage and location, allowing them to save money, significantly reduce losses and optimise their investment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CoreBlue to accomplish?

• Deliver a launch ready solution within accelerated timelines
• Multi-platform integration with large, regular volumes of data processing
• User centred experience for a suite of reports

SOLUTION

How did you find CoreBlue?

Referral

Why did you select CoreBlue over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from CoreBlue were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

A solution was required to support Sirius customers in managing their fleet of assets across both their own sites and sites within their supplier network to reduce losses and optimise their asset distribution and usage. The solution would provide insights into the location and usage of the assets through a portfolio of visual reports delivering large volumes of complex telemetry data and forecasting in a user centred and consumable way.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The work that CoreBlue completed allowed us to perform this incredibly labour intensive migration on top and deliver the tool to our clients seamlessly and well within timelines. The addition of a migration tool sped up our delivery and the activity to reduce our operational costs has meant that we now operate with zero cost for 3rd party API usage and a minimal cost for cloud resources each month. 

The successful delivery of this project has placed us in a position to scale the business immensely, multiplying the number of assets currently managed under the platform and delivering huge savings and efficiencies for our clients.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Having come from a technical background, I was very familiar with the methods CoreBlue used to communicate and manage the project. We conducted regular and productive meetings throughout delivery to showcase work completed and allow time for internal testing and review. 

I was well-informed throughout all phases of delivery and kept in close communication during the development of the reports - each driven by complex calculations and high volumes of regular data crunching. Confidence in the accuracy of the forecasting and analysis was critical given the business decisions that will be taken from their use. This approach allowed me to remain in control, whilst giving me confidence that CoreBlue were delivering well.

What was your primary form of communication with CoreBlue?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was most impressed with CoreBlue's commitment to delivering for us - from everyone involved. This was a particularly challenging project with a tight and inflexible timeline and a very controlled budget for the first phase. CoreBlue worked with us to solve complex technical problems and went above and beyond to ensure we finished the project on time and within budget with no compromise on quality or what was delivered. 

At every point, the team was always available to me. Being able to call and discuss challenges or next steps gave me the confidence that this wasn’t an “in and out” project for them and that they were really working with me to achieve our goals.

Are there any areas for improvement or something CoreBlue could have done differently?

Not at all. The project was a minimum viable product with a tight timeline and a very specific set of deliverables to meet initial client commitments. Since this initial work package, we have worked with CoreBlue to develop powerful enhancements to offer more value and insights to our customers and significantly reduce our operational costs as we look to scale.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I, Oliver Jackson, act as CTO for Supra (UK) Ltd, the UK’s leading access management experts. The Key Safe Company, our distribution arm, has been offering access management solutions and expertise since 1996, bringing industry-leading brands like Supra™ and KeySafe™ to market. In 2022, we launched ark Life – our design and manufacturing brand – to develop our own industry-leading access and security products.

Born from close consultation with our customers, ark products are a hallmark of British design, bringing innovative features and high levels of security that users have come to expect from Supra UK products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CoreBlue, and what were your goals?

We had a clear idea for an MVP that would allow us to prove the concept and give us the ability to introduce the solution to potential customers. We appointed CoreBlue to help us mature our idea through a technical discovery process and then on into development of the full solution. Our goals for this phase were to have a full functional solution that we could use to onboard prospective customers during demonstrations to collect feedback.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

KiCall was prepared under an RFQ submitted to a number of software companies. After speaking with CoreBlue, it was clear that not only were they able to grasp a full understanding of the business case and the problems KiCall solved, but they also had a strong ethos of technical excellence. For KiCall to succeed, we required a solution that had very low relative running costs.

CoreBlue were able to breakdown our idea and produce a technical plan that would utilise serverless cloud technologies that kept our operational costs low and provided us with the opportunity to scale. CoreBlue’s discovery process gave us the opportunity to fully understand the technical approach necessary for KiCall and filled us with confidence in their team.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The solution required a user interface split into two key areas. An administration portal that would allow us to control the data within the platform, onboard customers and assets and monitor usage metrics. The second interface was essentially an asset management system that would allow our customers to define information linked to physical assets distributed as QR codes. Consumers would have the ability to scan QR codes at key access points and view information relevant to them.

Asset owners would have the ability to lockdown private messages for limited contacts ensuring information is shared at the right place and only to the right people. This required the development of a secure 2FA process and the ability to link information to these QR codes in a secure manner that would not allow messages to be crawled or tampered with.

CoreBlue used serverless cloud technology to build and deploy the main API and multiple static ReactJS applications for the various user interfaces.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

During discovery, we worked very closely with CoreBlue’s CTO and CIO, helping us define the solution and build a technical roadmap. In the development phase, we worked closely with 1 primary engineer and had regular meetings with their CTO through various milestones in the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

KiCall had the logistical challenge of syncing thousands of physical QR codes to the system, making them available as assets to be provided with information. With CoreBlue’s support, the platform was successfully developed, deployed and integrated with an initial batch of 1000 assets ready to be used in demos with prospective clients.

The early release of the product has allowed us to start collecting feedback and has already guided further development packages to incorporate new features and functionality.The confidence CoreBlue has been able to give us with the quality and stability of KiCall has enabled this feedback process and given us what we needed to continue on the development roadmap.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

CoreBlue introduced us to the SCRUM agile methodology, organising the development backlog into 2-week sprints of work and meeting with us regularly to showcase deliverables and plan upcoming work. We had close communication with the development team throughout the project and felt that we were able to guide the development process well, keeping us in control.

When the team had a number of options to implement a solution, we had the opportunity to provide our own input and understand their recommendations.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

From our very first meeting we had a great feeling about the team at CoreBlue. Following a glowing recommendation, they were invited to tender, and it became clear very quickly that they were exactly the development partner we needed. Nothing phases them. Every component of their delivery surpasses our expectations. From their technical expertise to their boundless enthusiasm – CoreBlue is a breath of fresh air, and we are excited about what we can achieve together.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Our initial plan for the KiCall product was to create a minimum viable product (MVP). For our purposes, an MVP required a number of polish points that would give the product the finish necessary to successfully deliver demos and onboard early adopters. CoreBlue worked well with us to help figure out which areas could be delegated to future phases and where our investment would be best spent to achieve value in our initial phase.

Some items would have been preferred to be considered in earlier versions of the product, but this did not impact the overall quality of the product and our growing relationship with CoreBlue has allowed us to better align in ongoing work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

PreConvey is an organisation committed to streamlining the home selling process for sellers and solicitors with exchange ready home selling packs. Our online platform digitises the conveyancing process and offers simple user journeys that guide individuals through the entire flow. I, Chris Scantlebury, am the Managing Director of PreConvey. I have worked with CoreBlue to plan and have overseen the development of the platform from the beginning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CoreBlue, and what were your goals?

PreConvey’s initial development plans have been funded by Innovate UK. We needed a software development company that would assure us that the development requirements we had set out could be achieved. CoreBlue were to be the primary development partner to help us produce the phase 1 of our system and allow us to start generating revenue.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

During our procurement process, we had met with over 20 software development firms. CoreBlue stood out to us as they took a full business approach to our plans, wanting to understand how the business worked and what our long term plan was. They had made it clear their technical understanding was sound and gave us confidence in their ability. What differentiated them from other firms was how they were able to support us beyond development as a technical partner.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The phase 1 of PreConvey was to serve a few key stakeholders. As administrators of the system, we required a high level overview of the platform, allowing us to control features and content displayed to other users. A separate platform for conveyancing firms was to be completely self-serving, allowing firms to onboard themselves, configure the tool to their requirements and begin processing customers.

The customer facing area to the site would process users through the flow configured by conveyancing firms and utilising secure ID scanning tools to identify and validate customers as they proceed through the process. The platform integrated with ID scanning services that adhered to Land Registry’s Safe Harbour standards. Document signature services were used to allow information provided by customers and conveyancers to be signed digitally, completing the signing packs needed for the conveyancing process.

Future plans for the platform required additional portals and applications. CoreBlue’s solution to this was to follow a hub and spoke model that allowed functionality and data to be made available through an API that can be utilised by various web and mobile portals for each use case.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

During discovery, we worked closely with CoreBlue’s CTO, CIO and Head of Engineering. This uncovered all technical requirements and performed the necessary investigation to plan the full development. During development, we were introduced to a number of additional software engineers as well as their project manager. We still regularly work with the CTO as we progress other areas of the business where CoreBlue offers advice in hiring our own software engineers and navigating IP laws to support further investment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our initial plan was for development to completed within 4 months. Since starting with CoreBlue, progress has been accelerated and we are in a position to finish within 3 months, including the addition of scope for a native mobile application used to identify customers. Through technical discovery, CoreBlue helped us identify other services to partner with for key dependencies in the platform such as ID and document signing.

In doing so, we uncovered additional scope for the native mobile application. With CoreBlue’s help we were able to document this and attach it to the existing project with little impact to the budget and timeline. CoreBlue has kept us well informed at all stages of development, allowing us to review deliverables as they finish sprints and provide feedback each step of the way. We are incredibly confident in their ability and have seen excellent results.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

CoreBlue introduced us to the Scrum methodology, breaking up the product backlog into 2-week sprints of work, allowing us to focus on key areas of the platform. We are local to CoreBlue so whilst most of our communication is over email, Slack or Google Meets - they frequently host us for meetings that require more collaborative discussion. To track work, they have onboarded us to JIRA/Polaris which allows us to monitor progress against the backlog and record our feedback against tickets that require UAT.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Beyond their technical ability, I was most impressed by CoreBlue’s commitment to supporting our business outside of development. CoreBlue took a position of partnership and has helped us make decisions for our business and worked closely with us to support our investment plans and even begin hiring our own technical staff members. CoreBlue has kept us involved throughout the entire process, making it very clear that this is not a black box case for them and that their knowledge is shared with us at all times.

Where we have had questions, CoreBlue has been able to guide us and support us in translating technical elements into terms we can share with our investors. Given the domain of our business, security and quality were huge factors for us. Knowing that CoreBlue is ISO9001 and ISO27001 accredited has allowed us to continue with confidence and has filled a tickbox for our investors.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Engaged Communities is a C.I.C with a vision to build world class community technology that delivers social impact; supporting communities, organisations and charities. As CEO, I am responsible for overseeing the planning and delivery of digital products and services that help us achieve our vision, starting with the production of our volunteering software marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CoreBlue, and what were your goals?

Engaged Communities was born from a product that was created during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Our proof of concept application allowed us to market volunteering opportunities and place volunteers with organisations needing support throughout lockdown. We came to CoreBlue because we recognised an opportunity to grow this proof of concept application into a mature product offering that large public and private sector organisations had recognised a need for.

Our vision was clear, but our technical strategy & implementation needed support. We needed CoreBlue to help us plan the delivery of this product, defining requirements and then build a marketable application that could help us generate revenue with scale.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

In choosing a suitable partner to help us build this platform, we wanted to make sure that who we worked with would help us realise our ideas, working with us to figure out the detail to achieve the most value with our MVP. In scoping out our project with CoreBlue, they were able to question our decisions - understanding the problems we wanted to solve and making suggestions when we didn’t have the detail or if there were better opportunities for us.

As we worked through our idea, CoreBlue’s technical ability was made clear by introducing us to solutions and services that would add tremendous value to our product and saving time through development. Where we questioned our goals for scaling this platform, CoreBlue were able to provide excellent technical solutions that would allow the product to grow as we acquired new customers, reaching the scale of use we needed.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

CoreBlue were initially hired to help us form a technical spec to define our ideas and produce a full delivery plan. Their first objective was to work with us, extracting our understanding of our existing platform and it’s limitations, combined with the objectives we had for our new idea. In doing so, CoreBlue created a full development roadmap that allowed us to fully detail our ideas on paper as tangible assets we could share.

This added so much value to us, giving us the tools we needed to share our ideas with early adopters and shareholders. With the roadmap in place, CoreBlue were then responsible for the design and build of the platform. Prototypes were created in Figma, allowing us to work closely with their engineers to feedback on the look and feel of the platform before development had begun. This allowed us to rapidly iterate of the product with very little investment.

Moving forward into development, CoreBlue built 3 core elements: A cloud first serverless API, a public facing marketplace of volunteering opportunities and a volunteer manager portal. Both frontend portals were developed as single page applications (SPAs) in React and distributed using scalable cloud services.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our discovery process was conducted with two members from CoreBlue, their CTO and their Head of Design, Scott. Once in development, we worked with a team of 5 compromising of engineers, Scott and their project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project was an incredible success, CoreBlue were able to exceed expectations by delivering on an expanding roadmap in time and in fact under budget. We have recently launched the initial release of the platform and CoreBlue were with us for the initial unveiling to a number of high profile stakeholders.

As well as delivering on the initially planned development backlog, CoreBlue uncovered a number of additional requirements to incorporate our commercial model in a self-service subscription feature and necessary GDPR compliance functionality. The API they’ve developed will be used as a central hub for future portals planned on the roadmap.

The scalability they’ve achieved through it’s architecture and it’s development has been vital to the success of GoVolunteering. The portals and interfaces developed have had such great feedback from everyone we’ve showcased the early versions to and we’re excited to start onboarding clients.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

CoreBlue used an agile methodology, SCRUM, something we’d incorporated into Engaged Communities internally to make syncing up between various departments through standups. We had the opportunity to meet with the CoreBlue team at least every 2 weeks to review progress made and showcase deliverables as well as plan upcoming sprint work.

We had the opportunity to control the direction of the project, allowing us to make business decisions to prioritise various aspects of the platform based on our evolving business direction. Key decisions to change the priorities of work allowed us to showcase key aspects to stakeholders. In between sprint reviews, I had regular email communication with their senior members to clarify assumptions and ensure we were providing regular feedback on work.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Right from day one, the team at CoreBlue were invested in our vision. They took the time to understand the long-term plan for this platform and worked closely with us to bring our ideas to life. Their level of communication is outstanding, to the point it felt like they were part of our internal team, positively questioning our plans and steering us in the right direction.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We are very happy with the way we’ve worked with CoreBlue and what they have produced. We are already in discussions with them for future work packages and we’re working together to plan out the longer term roadmap of GoVolunteering.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Executive Nexus supports world class senior executives and leading private equity firms to build relationships of high mutual value. Our private equity clients work with us on a subscription basis to create connections with world class executives who they are interested to work with on deals or in their portfolio.

As Head of Product & Operations, I (Tom James) am responsible for overseeing the delivery of Nexus and communicating the challenges Executive Nexus wishes to solve and the ways in which we want to progress. I was and am still very involved in the ongoing development with CoreBlue often as the primary client stakeholder in delivery meetings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CoreBlue, and what were your goals?

We came to CoreBlue with an initial release of the Nexus platform already deployed. We had the requirement for a mature, capable development team. The need for ongoing development to address our business needs was apparent, but there was a particular demand for technical advice.

As technology delivery consultants, we wanted CoreBlue to understand our challenges and work with us to come up with technical solutions. The challenge posed to CoreBlue was how we could adopt our ethos of automation and capitalise on the value of our data.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

In our initial meetings with CoreBlue we wanted to be confident that they were capable of maintaining our existing product that was already functional and revenue generating. As Nexus was built in Laravel, CoreBlue was able to provide many case study projects demonstrating their relevant technical expertise. In speaking with their leadership and senior team, it was clear that CoreBlue has the required skill set to take on the project, along with similar values.

As we already had active, high-value users we wanted to choose a company that could provide a high-level of assurance and remain accountable for the security and robustness of this business-critical platform. CoreBlue’s maturity and accreditations in security and quality give us the confidence to pick them as our partner.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Our initial engagement with CoreBlue started with the migration of our existing platform onto a new environment under the control of ourselves and CoreBlue. We had suspected this would be a great deal of work, however CoreBlue were able to complete the migration and conduct an initial audit of the entire system to form new documentation and gain a deeper understanding of the mechanics underlying the system.

We were able to conduct this initial package of work under initial estimates. Beyond migration, our roadmap was to take this proof of concept portal and transform it into a high-performance, scalable and reliable tool for our clients & users.

There were a number of functional changes we wished to make, bugs we were aware of, performance issues and general gripes that we’d asked for advice on. With this list, CoreBlue worked with us to estimate the work in manageable packages and prioritise the deliverables in the form of most value add first. We were brought into their project management tool to keep us in control of delivery and maintain a high level of communication throughout. During the early stages of development, this was very important for us due to the high-assurance nature of the work and its unavoidably challenging architecture.

Despite these challenges, CoreBlue was able to introduce mechanisms of de-risking updates with testing environments, backups & disaster recovery policies and automated deployment & rollback procedures which gave us confidence in the system which we had a number of concerns with previously.

Since our relationship with CoreBlue has grown, CoreBlue are being made more and more responsible for our technical strategy and are taking ownership over a lot of the work I have been responsible for previously for instance feature planning and general testing.

CoreBlue have proposed new strategies that de-risk changes to the platform and reduce my workload by completely rearchitecting a number of our more risky elements that depend on 3rd party services and replacing with them safer and sometimes bespoke alternatives that better cater to our needs.

Alongside the development work we also agreed a service level agreement (SLA) which allows us to request urgent updates and investigation out of hours as required, this was important to us as there have been issues with the initial code base which we have asked CoreBlue to support, often with complex issues stemming from third-party platforms and integrations which require immediate attention given the high-value nature of our client base.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In total we have worked with around 4 or 5 engineers and developers in total however we most closely deal with 1 or 2 of the development team. CoreBlue’s CTO, and Senior Developers and Senior Frontend Engineers have been heavily involved in the strategic direction of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The development has primarily been to conduct general improvements, feature changes etc. However there have been some more significant improvements. When Executive Nexus completed a branding refresh, there was a major deliverable to update the design of the platform to match our new brand.

Our prototype wasn’t prepared for major design changes so this posed a potentially significant investment. CoreBlue was able to assign their Head of Design to update the design of the Nexus platform efficiently without having to rebuild the entire frontend.

Another high-risk, high-value deliverable was the onboarding flow for a new client. A new client in the Nexus platform entails a new connection to a 3rd party service. Previously, Nexus was built such that major development would be necessary for any new client and the onboarding process required weeks of debugging to fine-tune configuration on the client’s end that was a predominantly manual process.

CoreBlue was able to build an automated validation and connection process that allows us to onboard new clients much faster and automatically validate their config to inform the client of the necessary configuration changes required. Making this process seamless for the client is a major priority for us as it’s often the first piece of work they commission from us and can form the foundations of our relationship. CoreBlue’s advice and expertise on this process has been invaluable.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Core Blue invited us into their Slack workspace, giving us quick and easy communication with the development team. The features necessary in Nexus often require extensive knowledge in how we work as a business and in the private equity industry in general. CoreBlue being able to ask us questions easily throughout development or jump on adhoc calls was integral to the success of the Nexus platform and speed of development.

We wanted to work within a strict budget with CoreBlue and they were able to facilitate that with monthly reports on time spent and breakdowns of where in the project required most effort. When this came into question, CoreBlue were able to work with us to figure out where time would be best spent and how we could make the most out of the time available for the project each month. We were often invited into daily standups to discuss the progress of development and to discuss any difficulties being faced during development.

In the early stages of development, this was necessary but as the product has become more stable, CoreBlue is working with us to reduce this need and is instead moving towards bi-weekly sprint demos where they can showcase major deliverables.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We came to CoreBlue with the simple need for developers that could help us build our platform. With our engagement, CoreBlue has grown into a more consultative role, allowing us to focus on our own business and rely on CoreBlue to help us determine the best route to achieve our goals through technology. CoreBlue have met with our board in London and have been able to work with us to produce a roadmap for the company with strategies to make the most out of our investment in the platform.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The project has evolved over the time we have worked with CoreBlue and through continuous development, there have been areas on the project that have required rework. In a perfect world, I would have liked for these things to be considered in the beginning, but I understand that CoreBlue's efforts in presenting solutions and working closely with our team has meant that working features have been prioritised based on current company requirements.

As our company evolves and is able to feedback on features CoreBlue have completed, CoreBlue works well with us to iterate and improve the software for the benefit of the company and our clients

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We have mastered the art of making luxury holiday rentals beautifully personal. From exclusive properties to world class services, we tailor memorable holidays for our guests. Launched in 2014, our company has established itself at the forefront of the luxury villa rental industry. I founded the company at the age of 25, after having identified an opportunity in the market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CoreBlue, and what were your goals?

Prior to CoreBlue, our company was operating and managing bookings via a custom Wordpress website. This worked well for us however, as the company grew we came across limitations in our current systems and knew we had to invest in a more sophisticated platform. CoreBlue was recommended to us by our original software suppliers, highlighting them as the consultative digital partner that we needed.

Following a change in operating model and expansion throughout Europe, it was important to develop our own technology with a fully custom solution in order to avoid the limitations of off-the shelf options currently out there. We had a fixed budget to be used for the initial phase of development, with multiple stage of development to follow in the future.

It was important to us that our supplier would work with us and advise us; whilst we were clear on what we wanted to achieve, we knew we needed technical advice on the best way to achieve it with our investment. We needed a digital consultancy that would work with us to understand our constraints and identify technical opportunities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The introduction from our previous development made us feel comfortable in choosing CoreBlue and, following the initial review of the project proposal we knew we were in good hands. Before work began, CoreBlue recommended a brief investigation into the project to document their assumptions to validate their understanding of the project. In this investigation, CoreBlue worked through designs we had already prepared to pick out core functionality and document any uncertainties they had whilst making their way through the designed flows as if they were a real user.

The detail CoreBlue went into for this investigation pointed out a number of uncertainties that weren’t necessarily clear from the designs as well as slight suggestions on small changes to be made to make the user work flow even more efficient. Their understanding of the project and technological needs was very helpful in bringing to life things that could not necessarily be technically described.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The platform had been split up into three main areas:

• the customer facing frontend that showcases villas and allows customers to inquire and initiate bookings
• the backend customer portal that let our customers manage their bookings and communicate with our staff
• the administration portal that would be used by our team to manage bookings

With these three main interfaces operating quite similarly and given our future aspirations to develop a mobile app, CoreBlue developed the core system as a web API. This allowed functionality to be built in one core place and other attaching systems like the frontend, admin portal and in future, the mobile app to all utilise functionality that had been previously built in the API. This had two main benefits of reducing the overall development time and reducing complexity in the 3 areas by maintaining them as simple interfaces to the platform.

Our platform needed to handle the full experience for our customers, from searching and finding properties through to payment, contracts and on-going communication with our concierges assigned to the booking. This meant we had to handle payment processing, chat systems, advanced search tools, administration, reporting and more.

Rather than developing the 3 systems independently, CoreBlue took a full-feature approach, ensuring that as features were prioritised, they were developed end-to-end for all involved stakeholders. That meant as CoreBlue were completing features, I was able to test them as both user types and give in-depth feedback.

There was a key focus on the SEO of the platform, primarily for the customer facing interface to ensure that the properties we were showcasing were listed in search engines. CoreBlue developed this interface as a server-side rendered single page app (SPA) in ReactJS & NextJS. This choice of technologies facilitate the complex nature of the platform, managing vast amounts of data whilst still maintaining the speed and accessibility we needed.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Given the size of the platform, CoreBlue had 2-3 specialist developers assigned to the project at any given time. I have worked closely with their CTO throughout the project to ensure key deliverables are met and CoreBlue is able to adjust their approach accordingly. Given the high priority we had on design accuracy and excellence, I have also worked closely with their Head of Design. He has acted as an advisor to the team and has worked as a key developer at times for particularly complex design elements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The platform is still going through development but CoreBlue has been regularly deploying updates for me to review and we have regular 2-week meetings to discuss deliverables and identify new priorities. Even still in development, the platform is now live and regularly used by our team. This has given me a great deal of confidence in the platform and the team has given great feedback that CoreBlue has been able to react to swiftly.

The quality of what has been delivered has been excellent - whilst I have remained heavily involved in the development of the platform, the work that has been showcased to me has given me the opportunity to put my designs to the test and iterate on them with minor feedback when necessary. CoreBlue is receptive to feedback and worked with me to ensure we hold the platform to the highest standard.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I had made it clear that I wanted to remain heavily involved in the development process - so CoreBlue has on boarded me to their project management tool, Jira, and invited me to their instant messaging tool, Slack. I have had a great deal of communication with their developers, giving them an opportunity to clarify assumptions with me and for me to give them feedback that can be acted on immediately.

CoreBlue works in an agile fashion, following the SCRUM methodology. I have been invited to regular sprint reviews that they have used to showcase their work from the past 2-weeks and giving me an opportunity to give feedback and work with them to determine the next sprint’s priority. Being on their project management tool, I have been able to leave feedback or answer questions on specific requirements rather than in detached emails or messages. I have found this particularly useful, keeping me in control of what is signed off.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

CoreBlue’s ability to engulf themselves in how our business works has given them a clear advantage in developing the features and processes we have defined. The complexity of how the luxury travel industry works and the quality that must be upheld was something I was initially concerned with when engaging with CoreBlue. However, the effort they have put into understanding the industry and my business has been incredibly evident and they have gave me the confidence that this platform will be successful once deployed into production.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

During development, CoreBlue had originally planned to develop the platform using one technology stack but after completing some of the initial feature sets - it was clear the technology choice wasn’t suitable. CoreBlue identified this early and presented the case to me for change. Whilst it would have been preferred that the technology stack was correct the first time around, I appreciate CoreBlue’s transparency and swift action to reduce the impact of this change.