What was the scope of their involvement?
RadixWeb proposed that we completely redevelop the technology instead of trying to retrofit the existing system. This would give us the benefit of bringing in all the new languages which had become available.
We spent roughly 8–9 months scoping mission, determining what we did and didn’t like about the old eCAT, and what we would and wouldn’t like on the new one. The closing stages of this involved fine-tuning reports, but the fundamental system is live. We’ve already moved some existing clients onto it, and we’re currently onboarding new ones.
The old apps had been written in PhoneGap, but they’re now native on Android and iOS. This in itself brings the obvious benefits of having a cleaner interface, being more robust, and operating more quickly.
The whole backend system upgrade took up about 80% of the overall redevelopment. It’s much stronger, and can be integrated much more easily.
We had nearly 40 types of reports in the old system, but we realized 80% of the people were using 20% of the reports. We brought the widely used ones into the new version and left out the others.
While there were certain functionalities in the old eCAT, getting rid of them proved to be difficult because a couple of clients liked them. We’ve managed to consolidate two or three functions for optimization purposes.
We ran another substantial project with one of our clients, Sodexo, who used eCAT to run hospital hygiene or health-level audits to determine how much the hospital should or shouldn’t be paying. Depending on the results of an audit, the system would generate an invoice for the hospital. It was a substantial piece of work, and it required scoping out from scratch. The only delay on this project was from Sodexo’s side, but the project still closed on time. This would have required a completely separate team if RadixWeb hadn’t worked on it.
What is the team dynamic?
During the project, the team peaked at 15-20 members. We had a whole new development team, as well as one maintaining the existing eCAT. It was brand-new technology, so the existing team wouldn’t have been up-to-speed on it. Now that the main development is done, the core team is down to about six people, including one man for bespoke work. These people now handle both the old and the new systems.
One of the people who worked with the old eCAT helped us with the scope of the new platform, including leading us through the development phase. The people involved in that team are still there, and the project manager from the old system is now the lead for the combined team. We were lucky to have all the people from the beginning still involved at different levels for the new development. Some of the old eCAT team moved on to different projects because they wouldn’t have had the same opportunities to learn new technologies while supporting the old system.
How did you come to work with RadixWeb?
We did speak to a couple of other potential providers, but by the time we understood the scope, evaluated training factors, and considered the system design, we realized it would be too difficult. We neither had the time nor the appetite, so we spoke to RadixWeb, and they came up with an open and easy plan to follow. They also offered transparency regarding both their resources and proposed design processes.
How much have you invested with them?
The cost of their work was around $150,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in September or October 2016. The heavy lifting was done six months later, followed by fine-tuning and onboarding clients. The system went fully live at the end of July or beginning of August 2017. We’re over halfway through the process of onboarding existing clients. I would hope that, by the end of October at the latest, we will have onboarded everyone who needs to be on it.
The UX/UI has been praised by end-clients, as has the solutions’ innovative value proposition. Radixweb participates in daily communication and works collaboratively to understand user behaviors and needs. Their technical competencies are another highlight of the partnership.