Schnell Solutions Limited

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the commercial director of Complete P.E., an online educational platform that specializes in primary physical education. We host lesson plans, units of work, and resources for primary school teachers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Schnell Solutions Limited?

We had an e-book of resources and lesson plans that we needed to bring to life on an online platform. Therefore, we hired Schnell Solutions to develop the platform and host our online videos.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Schnell Solutions developed our whole platform from scratch. Before working with them, we had an Excel template that we used for our plan, and that is now hosted online. The platform also hosts all of our videos, lesson plan links, and learning cards. In addition, they created the subject leaders areas and the additional resource page that teachers dip in and out of.

Recently, they built a new curriculum builder where teachers can create their own PE curriculum by dragging in the units of work or lessons that they want to teach. Schnell Solutions incorporates any idea we have into the platform and helps us fix any issues or bugs on the software.

What is the team composition?

We work closely with Jignesh (Managing Director) and two other software developers. Their team is very efficient in what they do.

How did you come to work with Schnell Solutions Limited?

We put this project out to tender. One of our directors searched for companies via Google and different platforms, and we met with 3–4 of them. We had a conversion with Schnell Solutions, and something clicked right away.

Working withJignesh was so comfortable. He got many ideas and inspirations. He wasn’t afraid of challenges and poteantially make things better. Therefore, we thought that they could give us a good service and make things work for us — that’s why we went with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial setup to build the platform was around £30,000–£40,000 (approximately $41,500–$55,300 USD). However, there were specific projects that needed to be done. For example, creating the curriculum map took us 14 days of work, and we spent about £4,500–£5,000 (approximately $6,200–$6,900 USD). They’re not the most affordable, but we paid for what we got.

What is the status of this engagement?

We contacted Schnell Solutions five years ago, in April 2016, and we’ll continue to work with them for the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have clear statistics, but we see that what Schnell Solutions has done for us is working just by looking at the feedback and our retention rates. We’ve gotten positive feedback from schools on the new curriculum builder and everything that’s been added to the platform. The platform is also easy to use.

Another way in which we can see the impact of the project is in the retention rate of the schools we have. We’ve only lost roughly 0.7%, which is obviously down to our resources as well. We have now over 500 schools registered.

Additionally, Schnell Solutions has brought our ideas from paper to a digital version, which is great because it’s made the life of teachers, subject leaders, and schools easier.

How did Schnell Solutions Limited perform from a project management standpoint?

How we communicate depends on the project. For example, for the curriculum building process, we had a Zoom call to run through it,

All methods of communication are open, but due to the current situation, most of it is done through email and phone calls. However, for bigger projects, we meet up with them since they’re not too far away; they are just 30–40 miles down the road. Whenever we have an issue or a bug in the system that needs to be fixed, we can just pick up the phone, and they get it sorted as quickly as they can.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their perfectionism and attention to detail. Schnell Solutions is capable of fixing as quickly as possible any issue we might have. Their customer service is brilliant. Additionally, their professionalism and communication is great. They come up with ideas and make sure that every specific aspect of the project that we ask for is embedded into the results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can do better, but I wouldn’t want Schnell Solutions to change anything. They’ve done great so far. I can’t think of anything that needs to be done better.

Any advice for potential customers?

I’d say to future clients that if you got an idea, Schnell Solutions will bring it to life. They’re not afraid of challenges and to think outside of the box.

Going back to Complete PE, we built it in blocks, but even though we're still on phase one, we’re already thinking about 2–3 stages along the line. That’s what they do really well. Not only do they bring ideas to life, but also look for ways to make them better and more efficient.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The organization that I work for is a charity of the National Children’s Bureau, called Anti-Bullying Alliance. I’m the head of programs, so I run all of our practice improvement work and training, and we work with thousands of schools and professionals across England.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Schnell Solutions Limited?

We wanted to be able to reach as many schools and individuals as possible, through our program work. We have a lot of tools and we provide a lot of face-to-face training, but we wanted to build a digital solution the schools could work through — somewhere to house all of our online tools, people, and questionnaires to measure people’s experiences of bullying and well-being.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

What we ended up having is a bespoke digital platform where schools can have their own accounts and track their journeys through the program. One of the most crucial things we require for the platform is how we gather data from children in a safe and secure way — so the project is more about building something that was totally safe. All the people’s data are encrypted and anonymized, but it provides useful reports on the outcomes of the questionnaire to schools, and to us as administrators of the program.

Schnell Solutions already had a relationship with the organization prior to my joining, so they had already built the platform for the questionnaire, which schools can already access. People can go along and take the questionnaire using a secure key, so the system matches up the people’s responses with some of their demographic information.

On the other side of that, we’re able to see reports that show different levels of bullying according to school, peer group, gender, special education pupils, and entitlement status. These are really important things especially when you’re trying to understand levels of bullying and how it’s experienced by some groups more than others.

When I came along, we started building a whole program that includes schools having their own accounts, dashboard, tools, and access to the results and reports of their findings. 

What is the team composition?

Jignesh (Managing Director) is the person with who I work closely, and we also have a support team from Schnell Solutions that provide us with ongoing support throughout the program.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested close to $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership with Schnell Solutions started in September 2016, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The whole program is evaluated independently at several stages. That includes the measures of how users and schools have found using all the digital tools and things of that nature — and the results have been really positive. I have reams of feedback from schools on how having a digital platform in place makes everything so much easier, how using the tools allows them to break down their work, and how having a digital plan can be invaluable.

We’ve had an absolutely huge amount of incredibly positive feedback on the success of this platform built by Schnell. Jignesh and I work closely on this together, and he gave up so much of his time beyond what we’ve paid for. They really feel like they’re a part of the organization in terms of the level of interaction and service they provide. Especially the technical support team who are always there to answer quick responses to queries.

They’ve just been fantastic overall.

How did Schnell Solutions Limited perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great and they’re often waiting on me — that means their project management is better than mine. Additionally, the turnaround time is really quick, and they’re always clear at the outset for any piece of development work.

Being a charity means the budgeting is always tight, so we always work through every piece of work and they are always able to give good estimates on how many hours or days it will take. I can’t think of a time when a deadline isn’t met, so it’s been really brilliant overall.

We use DevOps in intensive build stages for the platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What is really helpful for me as a busy person running lots of programs at schools, is that I can give them a problem and they will take it away and come back to me with a solution. The fact that they’re solution-focused makes it easier for us to identify potential pitfalls. Moreover, I like how creative they are when approaching a problem, and that has been incredibly beneficial.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything to say on what they could do differently, but their least strong point is in relation to design — they don’t have an in-house design function. They’re slightly more tech-focused than making something visual.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take the time to be clear about what you want. You can also present things as a problem and give them the opportunity to work through them. Additionally, they’re a really creative and solution-based organization so make the most of communicating with them, even if you’re afraid that something might not work.