Nodero

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The NZBCI operates the NZ energy certificate system, a platform for issuance and transfer of electricity certificates. I am the founder and CEO of the NZBCI.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Nodero?

The NZBCI hired Nodero to build the NZECS registry - the platform through which all certificate transactions and system functions will be performed.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a complete system build, within time and budget constraints, to a minimum aesthetic and operational standard

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had crossed paths with Mark (Founder, Nodero) previously, and I reached out to discuss the need. Mark pitched for the job, and I decided to engage Nodero.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I provided a wireframe of the registry design, including as many specific functional requirements as possible. They then built the system and all supporting architecture, loaded the platform on AWS and did everything else required. All I needed to do was link the registry from my company homepage and it was ready to go.

What was the team composition?

Mark and Ben (Technical Director, Nodero) were both actively involved in leading the project team. They deployed Lucas (UX Designer) and a team of programmers, to work on the system over the project period. They also had Ben (Sales Consultant), their BD manager, involved from time to time, and had a couple of UAT testers involved also in the latter stages. All in all, there was probably 8-10 people involved in the project to varying degrees.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The existence of the registry in the early stages of the NZECS has been meaningful to assist early users to conceptualize the process of certification. In addition, the quality of the first release has helped with initial brand credibility.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was handled in a pragmatic way (no unnecessary system use). The design was fairly well-scoped, so the build process was rolled out in a fairly straight-forward manner. Completion of tasks and prioritization of incomplete tasks were managed personally and supported by google sheets. A number of group meetings between myself and the project team enabled us to work through any questions and kept progress on track.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have enjoyed the interpersonal aspect of working with Nodero the most, and think that on this front they have been most impressive. All members of the team have been professional, and have had no problem communicating with me directly on their areas of specialty. Ben and Mark have been amazing in dealing with me on areas of business strategy, and we have reached a level of rapport where I see them as extensions of the NZBCI.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Interpersonal and general communication was impressive, but at times I lacked transparency as to what was happening on the project. It wasn't necessarily a problem, as high-level communication provided assurance that things were progressing, but I would have enjoyed a great degree of detailed visibility. I'm sure they had systems (dashboards etc) that tracked their progress, it might have been possible to provide me access to these systems so that I could follow more closely.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a university on a range of strategic projects over time periods up to three years. These projects are all related to the support and advancement of teaching, learning, and research across a range of disciplines within a college.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nodero?

We have had an academic workload policy at the institution for some years, but there has been no consistent way to implement it within and across different departments. After a decision was taken to implement a more generalised workload model that would apply to multiple departments, the challenge was to apply technology in an appropriate way that managed complex course, staff and workload model variables within an easily understandable interface.

We looked at some ‘off-the-shelf’ products but found them unsuitable for the enterprise-level implementation we were planning. So we needed someone to build an MVP for us, with a mind to a full solution if we could demonstrate a proof of concept.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Using some broad specs and a process of iterative discussions with us, Nodero built an MVP over a period of 25 weeks. The presentation layer was built on the Zurb Foundation framework, utilising Angular 4, TypeScript and Kendo UI components. They were very accommodating of some early changes to the technical specification which provided for better alignment with our internal IT frameworks.

We then worked with them via a support agreement during the trial and full user testing of the MVP which resulted in further product enhancements that have recently been completed and are in the final stages of testing.

We are currently doing some work on our internal business processes prior to consideration of a full production version in the future.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a senior developer and others in the business operations area of Nodero.

How did you come to work with Nodero?

They were already a preferred provider at our university and had experience working on a range of projects with university staff. It was therefore easy to establish a contract with them under our umbrella agreement. That said, both myself and one of the other project staff had worked directly with them in the past and found them to be really good. They listened, delivered, and were very accommodating of changes and refinements. After initial contact, they provided us with a quotation, which we accepted with some changes to the scope, and it was all very easy, we got on with it.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent about $135,000 on the MVP, support agreement and product enhancements.

What is the status of this engagement?

Substantive work was undertaken from May–October 2018, with support and refinements delivered thereafter.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They have delivered a fully functional work allocation tool which we have rolled out as a pilot. They provided us what we asked for in terms of a tool that manages the work allocation for multiple staff and multiple courses according to different rules set within various workload models. We now have a few policies and operational business processes to work through internally in order to use this tool to its full potential.

It is quite something to get this far, and to have a nice-looking user interface as well. Use of the tool has huge potential for enhancing our efficiency, productivity and understanding of workload management. We are really taking a future focus with this tool as we believe that this type of software will be increasingly important in higher education. The New Zealand education context is one of continual change and there are many studies that indicate staff are overworked, but limited evidence for the claims. We aim to better understand what is happening and applying a Workload Tool is a significant part of that.

How did Nodero perform from a project management standpoint?

They have delivered what we have asked for in the agreed time frames which speaks to their project management capability. The development process has been pretty agile, iterative and collaborative which we have really appreciated as we navigate what is a pretty complex and contested space within universities.

We primarily communicated via sms, email and phone with the occasional meeting. Talking through particular areas, and sharing screens worked well for us. During the substantive development, there was probably one or two phone calls per day and email follow-ups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their can-do approach is great. They are very positive about doing things and they are a very nice company to deal with. They have an ability to deliver real things in real time, and I know they pride themselves on being IT-friendly to non-IT and IT-people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From a client perspective, I don’t think so. I think they have done a great job. Operationally, I suspect they say yes a little too often – possibly underestimating their own time and commitment – but that’s in the client's favour so I wouldn’t tell them that!