Professional Application Modernization Solutions Can't Be Good and Trustworthy Than This
Radixweb rebuilt an entire suite of applications using modern technologies and cloud hosting services for a unified platform and renewed market share
Hi, this is Mellisa, Product Lead of a software development and IT company based in Australia. Radixweb helped us recreate our legacy application by using the latest tech resources, adding modern functionalities, and hosting it on the cloud through a series of development phases. They always go beyond their commitments to deliver us the best.
Highlights
“They were very flexible, and the team at Radixweb is fantastic.”
“When there is time to go above the regular commitments, they have always done so.”
The project was delivered on time within budget, which is quite unheard of in the IT space.
Moving Beyond the Brick and Mortar Approach
When the client contacted Radixweb, our team quickly realized that the business was in desperate need of a development partner who could bring cutting-edge software expertise to the table and assist them in making the transition from outdated technologies to a better and more sophisticated tool.
With a suite of redesigned apps that have been producing better outcomes, Radixweb's competence in legacy system modernization met the company's expectations. The finished product, which struck the ideal mix between mission-critical functionality and reclaimed market share, was successfully delivered to the company.
They have a good understanding of the business logic and requirements, which allows them to provide the best possible solutions.
Here's a brief of the conversation:
Please tell us about your organization and your position
We are a software development company, and we only cater to the recruitment industry: human resources and payroll. We have our own software product, and we offer consulting services to recruitment and HR industries. In terms of size, we are about 60 people. Our head office is in Melbourne, Australia, and we have a sales office in Sydney, but most of our operations are located in Melbourne.
I work with the organization as the product lead. I am responsible for building and maintaining our systems. I work extensively with our clients and our CTO to build the roadmap of the product.
What were your business/technology challenges?
We were trying to rebuild a previously existing application, which was a 14 years old client-server-based desktop application hosted on the cloud. Our existing application required a lot of maintenance and upkeep, as well as a lot of expensive hardware to host, and these costs were prohibitive for some clients to come on board. Besides, most of our clients wanted to move their services, data, and properties to the cloud.
It was quite evident that we were losing market share because we didn't have a cloud offering. We had competitors that had cloud offerings, and our clients wanted a simple system where they could just go to a URL, log in, enter user name and password, and then start using the system. Our old system was quite heavy in terms of installation and maintenance.
As a result, we were losing market share, and our aim was to recapture our market share again. We needed to rebuild our entire suite of applications using the latest technologies and host everything in the cloud.
How did you come to work with Radixweb?
We had an extensive approach when it came to finding the right service provider. I had personally visited offices of about six different providers in India, Australia, and Sri Lanka and had spoken to a number of them. We did some pilot projects with a couple of them, and that was our strategy to find the right partner. We were looking for a service provider that could work with us as our partner and not simply as a vendor.
And there were a number of things that set Radixweb apart from others, but if I have to say one thing, I would say their ability to understand our business requirements clearly. I was surprised by how most of the vendors that I was speaking with were not able to understand what we wanted to achieve. Radixweb provided a plain, simple, and obvious solution and said, "Okay, let's put a team together. Let's start building it." That was honestly pretty impressive!
Can you briefly tell us about their scope of involvement?
When we decided to go for a cloud offering, we decided to start from scratch and rebuild all our applications using one technology. Having a consolidated platform was going to be key. We decided to build our application in separate stages. Our first goal was to build something quick with which we could go to market. We were trying to build a system that could handle the end-to-end business of a small- to medium-sized recruitment company and then slowly, in future phases, grow into an enterprise system and bring in the rest of the functionalities for more demanding clients.
We worked very closely with Radixweb in terms of our design and architectural approach. Radixweb provided their framework and suggested an alternative architecture for our applications. Radixweb had good frameworks already built, so it made sense to use existing frameworks to build our products on. We had very aggressive timelines for phase 1 and wanted to go out to the market in six months with the whole product built from scratch, which was achieved with Radixweb. I won't go into the details about cost, except we were happy with the cost, and Radixweb ensured that they kept my project within budget.
Could you share any evidence or result of the impact of this partnership on your business?
The project was delivered on time within budget, which is quite unheard of in the IT space, but the guys at Radixweb did a fantastic job of making sure that it was done in the right way. Our main goal was to gain the market share back. We now have a fantastic product that we are putting on the market. There is a lot of interest coming out from the market for this. We have a number of sales in our pipeline, quite a few clients have already gone live on this particular system, and a lot more are in the queue to go live. I won't share the number or the process, but in terms of efficiency, we have certainly been able to gain that market confidence and are well on track to regain market share.
Radixweb did a fantastic job to make sure that it was done in the right way. It has been a great experience, a journey that I had never done before personally or as a company.
Do you think Radixweb has used the most suitable technologies for your project?
Yes, of course. There is absolutely no doubt in our mind. We have selected the right software, the right technology, and the right partner. Before executing this project, we had a good idea that we wanted to build a browser-based system, and we were already beaten up by the whole bandwagon from Microsoft Silverlight. We discussed our issues with Radixweb to determine the best technology to rebuild our application. After a lot of consultation, we decided to rebuild using HTML5 with an AngularJS Framework for the frontend and web APIs and Microsoft SQL Server Database for the backend as our technology stack.
One thing I would say to anyone who likes to work with Radixweb, there are absolutely no doubts that they are fantastic guys. But, just like any outsourcing project, you will need someone to work very closely with Radixweb. This is true of any service provider, and it's fairly important that the goals are outlined very clearly.
How did Radixweb perform in terms of project management?
They have delivered everything that we had scoped within the agreed schedule and the specified budget. They were very flexible, and the team at Radixweb was fantastic. We had our fair share of release deadline pressure on a few occasions, and I must admit the team worked extremely hard to get us through. When there is time to go above the regular commitments, they have always done so. I have no complaints.
How would you distinguish Radixweb from other offshore vendors?
I haven't worked with many other service providers, but still, I don't think I can compare my experience with Radixweb to my experience with another provider. I will reiterate the fact that they were very good at understanding the business logic and requirements we described. Having a clear grasp of our business definitely resulted in a better project experience and, ultimately, a more suitable solution for us.
Final Words of the Firm
It has been a great journey that I had never done before personally or as a company. All our development was always from Melbourne, but we went ahead by taking a step with outsourcing. For the first few months, when things were settling, there was some level of back and forth, but as soon as we started talking in the same language after building some rapport with the project manager, things started working as expected.
Radixweb was brought in at a time when the team of Mellisa was seeking to move away from legacy technologies and reinvent her company. We assisted the organization in developing and taking control of several sub-streams through our unwavering commitment and support. All Mellisa needed was our development expertise and their vision to yield unparallel results that have been tried, tested, and trusted by their ever-growing clientele.