ClientServiceBridge
IndustryFranchises
RegionUSA
Work implementedCustom Software Development, Web Development, Staff Augmentation
Challenges
The first challenge came in the form of the urgent need to quickly develop franchiser focused functionality, which necessitated meeting a number of very tight deadlines. In addition, there was the issue of adapting the royalties system to meet the client's needs without implementing any programming work. In cases where the functionality had to be extended, the entire system needed to allow for that to happen with the least friction possible. - Every part must be configurable without developer intervention
- Extendibility is a priority
Goals
For ServiceBridge, the primary goal of partnering with Toughlex was the co-development of a new franchise royalty reporting system. Besides the functionality requirements, which ranged from support for different royalty agreements to services like exemptions, promissory notes, etc., the objective was to make almost every part easily configurable.- Prepare architectural vision before implementation
- Choose technology that covers most cases
- Ensure high unit and integration test coverage
- Use scalable solutions at every step
Created Value
With the project's challenges and goals in mind, Toughlex took inspiration from its experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS CloudFormation succeeded in transforming a human-readable document into an entire stack of uniquely configured, interdependent services. This was exactly what was needed for the royalty reporting system. To this end, we implemented AWS Lambda-based microservices to ensure scalability, high test coverage and AWS-inspired extensibility-oriented architecture.AgileTo keep up to date and react quickly to changing requirements and new challenges, we decided to use the agile software development methodology - with Scrum being our framework of choice. This allowed us to set priorities and deliver the functionality without any delay. Throughout the entire process, Toughlex remained an important part of the team, starting with grooming and ending with retrospective meetings.
ChallengesBesides the highly dynamic nature of royalty reporting, the domain itself proved to be a challenge. We were dealing with periodic money calculations for companies in different timezones. To maintain the requisite timezone logic, we developed a piece of software that could be considered an extension library in its own right. Dozens of different methods were needed to extend the original functionality to account for date, time and timezones, which would prove useful even after the original conditions were no longer present.
Fast AdaptationServiceBridge has a large set of features serving the various different needs of franchise field services. The royalty reporting system was integrated into the existing functionality. Toughlex quickly adapted to the technology stack and the services used, which became a key factor that enabled us to deliver excellent results.
OutcomeToughlex managed to become a valuable part of a dynamic team that delivered a web application that was usable by an almost all types of devices, and different designs that could be used as white label products adapted to a variety of viewing modes designed for people with disabilities. It also seamlessly integrated into an already existing project as a separate component. It was an MVP that satisfied technical requirements and was very positively received by the client.
Technologies
Since the product already had a long history, we decided to use the existing stack: .NET for the backend, PostgreSQL as our main database, and Knockout for client-side. For the development of microservices, we used AWS Lambda, as well as other Amazon web services. This enabled us to create a highly scalable, easy-to-manage, low-cost architecture. To reduce the time necessary for the development and management of new microservices, we created a template and automated the deployment process for different environments using PowerShell and TeamCity.
Skills
- .NET
- Custom Software Development
- AWS
- Knockout
- PostgreSQL
- TeamCity
- PowerShell
- Agile
