From idea to MVP

Creating a full business suite of services

As the project commenced, the customer was asked to identify the key challenges with the current system and what they wanted to solve with a new platform. Quite early, it was concluded that the solution they were looking for was more than just a CRM service. They also wanted to keep information on employees, track projects related to customers, use it for sending SMS and email messages, and manage supplier information. As they were working a lot with Microsoft products, they also wanted integration with their Azure AD for access control and SharePoint for document collaboration.

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For the sales team, the feedback was that the solution must be very easy to use so it wouldn't take too much time from their days to keep it updated. As we all know, a CRM system that doesn't get updated is useless, so user-friendliness was high on the agenda.

As the discussions proceeded, the use cases were also becoming more complex. We were looking at building a complete suite that stored information on the employees, the customers, the suppliers, and all projects. This became a solution that would be at the heart of the company and needed several integrations with other 3rd-party solutions.

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Our approach to the development:

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1. Business case: We created a business case out of the development to do an analysis of the development costs but also to see the potential of selling the solution as a service. Here we identified many possibilities but also saw that building a platform like this was going to be very time-consuming for a company with limited resources.

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2. Outsourcing: During the business case, we found the possibility of acquiring the source code of a system that covered many demands but needed new UI and some customization. Based on the business case, we conducted a due diligence process of the source code and facilitated the acquisition. We also helped with outsourcing additional resources that took part in the development team

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3. Agile development: When the foundation was set up and the project was underway, we took the roles of product owners and scrum masters to work with the development resources to move the project forward. There were regular online meetings with team members and status meetings with stakeholders. The UI and UX team conducted research and testing with employees to ensure that we were delivering according to plan and needs.

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4. Delivered in stages: As with most development projects, there were many changes underway. We practiced continuous improvements throughout the project to be as agile as possible. It was also important for test users to get new releases and features to test to keep them motivated and show that there is progress.

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Final result and conclusion:

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We delivered an MVP for the client that had more features than originally estimated and also felt more like a complete product. It was introduced to the sales team together with a workshop where we worked with change management and feedback. Once more people started using the solution, we also saw the need to tweak certain processes and make changes. The results from user surveys helped a lot to know which new features to implement. The whole project lasted for 18 months, and the solution is now live and in use by the customer.

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