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CREELiT

A provider of corporate marketing automation solutions for real estate agencies in the United States

Solution:

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SERVICES

Industry:

Internet & Direct Marketing Retail

Business size:

Small Business

Outcome

Computools applied state-of-the-art technologies, innovative approach and specialist expertise to execute rapid Digital Transformation for the client. The client noted positive changes in the operation of the online platform.

Business
challenge

weaknesses

  • Non-integrated, conflicting business processes resulting in the loss of effectiveness
  • Slow interface response due to outdated architecture and mix of technologies
  • Poor user experience and interface design
  • Poor system and data security
  • Non-scalability of the system
  • Week internal information system.
  • Lack of important metric and data for building KPI and KRI.

strengths

  • Well-known brand with strong demand and target audience loyalty
  • Excellent quality of printed advertisement
  • Deep knowledge of customers’ needs and behaviour
  • Well-honed logistics and delivery processes

Project
Description

CREELiT’s online platform is used by more than 17,000 real estate agents in the United States to automate their marketing activities. With its ‘web-to-print’ functionality, real estate agents can significantly reduce their marketing efforts: an agent chooses a design template directly from the dashboard for anything from a business card to a billboard, and then easily customizes it, with their own details. Subsequent printing and scheduled door-to-door shipment happens automatically and effortlessly. CREELiT allows real estate agents to focus on their core business activity.

Wayne Creel, CTO and founder of CREELiT, had an ambition to grow user numbers from 17,000 to 500,000. Mr. Creel invited Computools to spearhead the necessary digital transformation, identify bottlenecks and enable growth. To meet his goals we conducted a thorough business analysis of the company’s current processes and identified both strengths to build on and weaknesses that had to be eliminated.

Digital Platform & Technology

To build a state-of-the-art platform, we have carefully chosen a set of technologies with exceptional performance and security characteristics. Our chosen technologies were also highly efficient in terms of total cost of ownership and support.

Communication Framework

Open and efficient two-way communication is crucial to the success of a digital transformation project. Following consultation with the client, we agreed upon a clear and unambiguous communication framework with scheduled regular face-to-face and online meetings and regular reports by email.

Our communication ecosystem also incorporated a structured documents environment and client access to Computools' internal task managing platform. This made both the general project roadmap as well as specific processes transparent and clear for all parties.
Email
Skype
zoom
Slack
redmine
Jira

Specification

We created detailed specifications for tasks and processes with User Stories using the Behavior-Driven Development approach. It was based on the previously created CREELiT’s Business Process Map. At this stage we also produced a detailed and precise estimation of costs.

As System Admin I want to be able to see text field when I click button "Decline" on new sign up request so that I can type notes:
  1. Decline Reason - "Why this request have declined?" - text field
  2. Reason for the user - text field, required
As System Admin I want to be able to view the list of people that have tried to register but did not do the confirmation email.
To do that, I want to have a separate tab in Manage ->Users -> Sign Up requests named "Not validated" that will display the table with the next columns:
* First name
* Last name
* email

This data should be taken from the database and display all users that get an email but didn't follow the link yet.

System architecture

Team

To make the project a success, we have chosen 11 specific, named engineers with most appropriate expertise and experience from Computools’ talent pool:

Backstage

There is a lot more activity behind the scenes at Computools than meets the eye. Each kind of meeting serves its own purpose, but all of them work towards a common goal - successful Digital Transformation of the client’s business.

Whiteboard Meeting

Whiteboard meetings are a great way to continuously align everyone's efforts on the quest towards perfection and a very effective tool for visualizing progress and obstacles.

Brainstorming

Collective brainstorming is a very effective technique designed to let the best ideas come to the fore. At this stage we strictly follow the "no-laptop” rule.

Dev Meeting

A special kind of meeting, it allows to take the collaborative process all the way to de-facto editing the code in parallel. This works especially well when our engineers engage with their client counterparts.

Internal Communication Flow

To support an efficient internal communication within the project team we have chosen Email for sharing reports and tasks; Skype, Zoom and Slack were perfect for addressing urgent issues, as well as for scheduling and conducting audio/video conferences. Redmine and Jira Project Management Platforms were used to for role assignment and progress control.

Project Management Methodology

We followed Agile methodology to ensure delivery in time and on budget whilst maintaining flexibility to address any emerging challenges. Our project management approach was based on Scrum with 2-week sprints.

Project timeline

01

CONSULTING

Defining Scope
  • Understanding Customer’s Business
  • Identifying Strengths & Weaknesses
  • Setting Goals
02

Product DESIGN

Digital Transformation Initialization
  • Business Process Mapping
  • Interactive Prototype Creation
  • Digital Platform & Technology
  • Specification, Tasks & Deadlines
Project Management Flow
  • Creating A Team
  • Establishing Internal Communication Flow
  • Choosing Project Management Methodology
Development Flow
  • Development Methodology
03

Product Engineering

Implementation
  • Environment Setting
  • Tasks Assignment
Application Build
  • User Interface Designing
  • Code Creating & Refactoring
  • Testing & Fixing
Application Launching
  • Environment Setting of Client’s Server
  • Migrating Users’ Data To A New Application
  • Client's Employees Training
  • Application Launch
  • Guide For Users
  • Continuous Measuring & Support
  • Measuring Digital Transformation Effect

Design

The product architecture plays a key role in developing it from scratch and when working on an upgrade. Computools' integrated approach includes the development of the architecture for the project, which allows taking into account not only functional features but also their interaction.

Implementation
On Client’s Side

1.

Launch

We set up server environment at CREELiT’s site, installed the application and set up accounts and roles.

2.

Transfer

We gathered all existing user data and migrated this data to the new platform.

3.

Education

We trained administrators of the platform and prepared an intro for new users.

use link below to find
code sample

https://github.com/computools/Dependency-Injection

What our
client said

«The team has rapidly improved my product extensively. We are now about to exit private beta and on board over 500,000 users. I highly recommend Computools, they have been an exceptional partner and we will definitely continue to cooperate with them for the foreseeable future.»

Wayne Creel

President and CTO at CREELiT

Contact Us

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