Company Profile
frogfire is an incubating lab for social media services. Developer of dNeero, which is true social network currency that provides engagement, buzz, and viral power all at the same time, dataBlogging, knowledgeLogs, myThredz, and Traaak, all platforms that bring quantitative functionality and analysis into an enhanced qualitative social tool.
Business Situation
In 2003, frogfire introduced a new application as part of their market research service-center offerings. The application was designed to provide clients with a la carte online surveying solutions. As the requirements from frogfire’s clients increased in complexity, it was clear that the application was not meeting frogfire’s nor the prospect’s need for adding new functionality. Furthermore, the main thrust behind the concept of this application was the ability to provide timely and accurate data analysis results.
Technical Situation
A detailed review of the application revealed issues with horizontal scalability (the ability to add more functionality) and vertical scalability (the ability to perform under added stress as more users interface with the application)
Additionally, the application consisted of separate installation instances per client. This made maintaining and supporting these separate instances a challenge. This raised issues with versioning among the installations and consistency in functionality.
The mechanics of generating and producing reports consisted of a series of manual processes and case-by-case hard-coded processes that were a hindrance to timely delivery of analytical results back to the client. Furthermore, these manual processes were increasing the complexity of setup and configuration of new clients.
Solution
After a detailed review, frogfire decided it was clear that a rewrite was the only reasonable solution. No out-of-the-box solution appeared to fulfill all of the requirements including extensibility, non-proprietary, and ease-of-use.
The new solution consisted of a single-instance custom application that allowed for configuration of individual survey instances in the same application making the management of versioning and consistency a non-issue. While the application was a single instance, it allowed for complete separation of data per client including personalized surveys. Surveys allow for interface unique look and feel per client via simple configuration settings.
An administration application was developed that drives all instances of the application in a unified interface. Setup and configuration of new clients could now be managed from a centralized interface that provided control of nearly all aspects of the survey(s). An easy to use, flexible, and efficient reporting mechanism was put in place with the ability to pull reports for any client from a central location.
Benefits
Reduced administration costs
By implementing this custom solution, frogfire was able to cut setup and configuration time by as much as 80% — immediate cost savings.
Increased savings to clients
The new architecture allowed the easy and rapid addition of new functionality. The new solution cut costs per engagement to about 50%.
Enhanced product value
The new solution made the ability to extend the application to accommodate more complex client requirements more efficiently and effectively. The value of the product increased by being able to provide more with considerably less resources.
Improved customer service
The administration interface greatly improved the ability to run reports and generate analytical results instantly. Additionally, the solution provides the ability for the end-user to configure and generate reports.
Simplifies application development and deployment
The architecture of the new solution lends itself to productize or commoditize the application. It opens the door for future packaging and opportunities to sell the product as an out-of-the-box solution.
Products and services
Microsoft .Net Framework
The .NET Framework is Microsoft's comprehensive and consistent programming model for building applications that have visually stunning user experiences, seamless and secure communication, and the ability to model a range of business processes.
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a comprehensive, integrated data management and analysis software that enables organizations to reliably manage mission-critical information and confidently run today’s increasingly complex business applications. SQL Server allows companies to gain greater insight from their business information and achieve faster results for a competitive advantage.
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