Amsterdam Standard

MrWork builds talent pipelines for recruitment processes. They provide the direct connection between the company and their target group, helping to attract candidates, creating personalized candidate journeys, and ensure that the right people apply for the company. With MrWork, companies are also reaching the candidates who are not actively looking for a job.

How it all started

The partnership with Amsterdam Standard started in 2015 with hiring just one developer for a part of their existing project. During the next 4 years, the number of developers has grown. Some of the developers were in-house in the Netherlands (mostly front-end) and some in the Amsterdam Standard's Krakow office (mostly back-end). The company was searching for a solution to manage the team in the most productive way.

MrWorks original system was built on technologies created in 2014, which didn't meet the requirements anymore as it was hard to make changes in it. They knew it was the right time to update it.

When it all changed

At the beginning of 2019, multiple significant changes took place. First, MrWork decided to rewrite the system from scratch, based on all the information they learned in these years, and to focus on their SaaS platform. The second decision was to organize the whole team in Amsterdam Standard’s office and (accepted advice) to hire a Scrum master close to them to improve the communication and workflow. And the third thing was to change the technology they used (Angular1) to React and Symphony. Moving to the newest technologies made it possible to find inspired and experienced specialists to work on the project and to deliver the new system according to the highest standards. 

The team and the result of their hard work

Currently, the MrWork team consists of 4 full-time and 1 part-time developers and a Scrum Master on the Amsterdam Standard side and the project manager on the MrWork side. Due to the hard work of this team for almost a year, the new version of the system is released. From the beginning of 2020, all the existing and new clients are assigned to the new system.

The major technical changes

For the new system, the team is using the latest versions of technologies and frameworks, they have dedicated time for technology checks on the meetings to keep up with the updates. They fully automated the CI/CD process with code quality tools checks in place.

High code coverage with both unit and functional tests and enterprise-grade log collection and error reporting tools are also in place. 

About the platform

Now MrWork is a SaaS solution for the automated job advertisement. The new system is fast, flexible, and reliable. It enables us to interpret any format of the client's feed to the system's setup, making the system very generic.

To exclude the appearance of repeatable content for potential employees, we have generated the smart solution. It consists of the content library which is filled out with the client content and a set of branded advertisement templates. Then the system automatically creates possible combinations and conducts A/B testing to reveal the best performers. This way potential employees always see fresh and engaging content.

Mannenmedia is the one and only digital men's network in the Netherlands. Mannenmedia was looking for a solution that would provide them business intelligence into all their monetizing techniques and platforms. 

They needed a dashboard that can be used both internally by Mannenmedia and externally by their publisher clients to provide direct insights into earnings. 

Our developers created the API connections between advertising platforms and the dedicated server for the Mannenmedia dashboard.

The developers were active with filtering, sorting, and unifying data in all the different dimensions and macro's in-between diverse advertising platforms. They have used Symfony 4 as a backend framework and Angular as front-end technology. 

After 1 year of designing, developing, and numerous calls between Mannennedia and Amsterdam Standard teams, the dashboard was put into production. 

Mannenmedia now has the fast, reliable, and scalable dashboard that provides the entire team with both overall and detailed insights into earnings. The functionality of the dashboard saves countless hours in creating reports each month for both commercial and financial teams. An additional benefit is that the Mannenmedia publishers have daily-updated insights into their earnings, so they are aware of what to expect at the end of the month.

Amsterdam Standard has developed a new model together with GoPhoto: the attraction photography technology that increases the interaction with visitors and creates new revenue streams. The idea of the project is that by giving away free photos sales of premium photos will increase exponentially, data from visitors is obtained, a lot of free exposure on social media will be generated and advertising revenue grows. This new model is supported by a number of applications that together form the powerful GoPhoto-suite and provide a full solution for photography at high-traffic attractions:

• GoPhoto camera app
• Photo website
• Print kiosk
• E-commerce platform

Visitors also have the option to purchase and download their high-resolution digital photos online. The e-commerce system is fully automated and can be set up within a few minutes.

• Complete dashboard

The dashboard functions are the heart of the product suite. It allows tracking user and sales statistics in real time, set up automated mailing campaigns, adjust the look and feel of the photo website and manage general settings.

Results

GoPhoto and Amsterdam Standard have together created a profitable business model for high-traffic attractions. GoPhoto won the Innovation Award at The Park World Excellence Awards. Attractions that previously stopped selling photos because the turnover decreased over time have since been convinced by GoPhoto of the new opportunities and revenue streams.

De Nationale AI- cursus (The National AI-course) is a free artificial intelligence course for all Dutch people. The goal of De Nationale AI- cursus organization is to prepare all citizens for the future where we live with AI.

An improved user experience

De Nationale AI- cursus is a brand new course created based on the Elephant Road software.

Elephant Road felt an urgent need for a design and user experience update. The existing courses platform had a difficult user experience, not clear navigation and outdated design. It was considered important to employ a modern, outstanding design for this new course and their renewed website.

The result

The project started in May 2018 with the research and optimization of user flows. The next step was the framework design. Our designers created a modern and intuitive interface for this course.

Offered solutions

In total in this project was involved the team of two UX/UI designers, a back-end developer, two front-end developers, an iOS developer, an Android developer, and a project manager.

The existing backend has been improved and new functions have been developed. The front end is built with AngularJS. This course is made as a single-page application, allowing participants to switch to the next topic by scrolling without unnecessarily clicking. Amsterdam Standard has built hybrid mobile apps for the National AI course in the Ionic Framework for both iOS and Android.

Esdec is a manufacturer and supplier of professional mounting systems for solar panels on all types of roofs. 

Challenges prior to collaboration

Before Esdec cooperated with Amsterdam Standard, it used a home-made calculation system, which was difficult to use, slow to perform, not user-friendly and, moreover, was based on outdated technology.

From the first contact to placing the order

New calculation tools as part of the customer journey. We have tackled the entire product - from the moment of the first contact to placing the order. We looked at the needs of different users and designed different flows.

What solutions were offered

From April 2018, a team of 2 UX designers, 2 front-end, 5 back-end developers, a QA, and a project manager worked on this project in close collaboration with the Esdec product and marketing team. The system is mainly built in JavaScript (React). This project required an in-depth understanding of product characteristics and regulations regarding the US market, as the calculations must conform to US standardization (ASCE 7-16).

The results

The calculation tool for the mounting systems for solar panels is already actively used. It has a user-friendly interface and allows users to make the right calculations for both sloping and flat roofs. It is fully integrated with Bing's satellite maps. The calculation tool ensures that users can easily order the right materials for their installations.