What was the scope of their involvement?
Our website provides HR functions for our associates and has key resources for supporting our customers. Roughly 500 retail stores access it in addition to several major call centers and external vendors. It’s a key knowledge content repository for our organization. We used Aviano, a systems integration consultant, to help us research technology options, establish user interfaces, and determine how we would carry out the portal migration. They were instrumental in helping us select our technology vendor, Xumulus, who helped us with the actual integration of technical pieces for our system. They helped us set up the IP addresses, define our domain, and develop custom coding to replicate our internal programs that needed to be converted into our new system.
I worked with four different teams, but Xumulus was responsible for all of our technical work using an Oracle platform. They developed our portal components that users were accustomed to, and they helped us configure our Lightweight Directory Access Protocol as well as integrate various modules. They were instrumental in helping our middleware team set up the system configuration and develop the mechanics for separating system access for our internal associates from our external associates. They worked with us on security, load balancing, and how to use different nodes. They also helped us distinguish internal configuration issues from Oracle bugs since we were working with Oracle version 12. We had a warranty period, so they stayed with us after implementation. After project completion, they moved from my team to our infrastructure group to train them on system operations and any necessary development work.
What is the team composition?
We worked with Dan [Founder, Xumulus] and three other people.
How did you come to work with Xumulus?
I had a short list of companies I was reviewing for hire, but I required someone who would work on our system from start to finish. I didn't want to have different consultants for system integration, UI/UX, and various technical aspects. I wanted content providers to be responsible for their own content, so we needed to build templates that were adjustable. Our systems integration company, Aviano, worked with Xumulus and highly recommended them. During our RFP process, we wanted to ensure that we contracted a company that understood Oracle, which is how we came across them. They had experience with Oracle, and their expertise was crucial for using the new version of the software.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent upwards of $2,000,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together December 2015, and we finished collaborating March 2017. They stayed on to help us with a 60-day training period after implementation.
Monthly earnings have exceeded their counterparts from the previous year, and blog migration should result in improved SEO soon. Xumulus was pro-active in optimizing web pages and would often finish tasks before follow-up was needed. Their bird’s eye view allows them to plan for future problems.