Portfolio

The aim of the project was to redevelop the old website using Kentico MVC to improve UX and increase site performance. Also brand new modern design was implemented and additional functional features were added in order to increase target audience interest to the website (8-13 years old kids).

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) creates opportunities to connect with Judaism and the Jewish community at key life moments. In addition to flagship programs that are active across North America and around the world, the HGF invests in Jewish life at home in Western Massachusetts.

Business has set up multiple goals for this project: Update the website look and feel, add interesting and interactive functional features in order to attract more potential users - children 8-12 years old. Improve site performance to allow up to 50K of users and up to 5K simultaneous user sessions during load peak periods. Integrate the application with external ERP platform Microsoft Dynamics NAV and custom API built on top of it. Improve editors/admins experience with management of content and data entities in Kentico admin through custom modules. Another goal from the business was accessibility improvements.

Key challenge was to develop a high performing website with quick response time during load peak time. Another quite interesting challenge was to make the page look and act differently depending on site mode: parent vs. child mode, that could be switched on any page in site header. Also the site awards users with different badges for different types of activity. The challenging part is the awarding logic around those badges.

Using Kentico MVC approach with Web Farm setup allowed us to build a website with a good performance meeting client's performance benchmark, meanwhile full control over the HTML output provides SEO benefits, clean and light markup, faster page load and improved overall site interaction. In addition caching features bring benefits to site performance allowing us to cache whatever we could cache on multiple layers of the system. Also we really like to use custom modules, as they allow us to build whatever data structure we need and provides clean, intuitive and consistent with the entire Admin section user interface.

PJ Our Way application has been integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV as well as custom API built on top of it. Traditionally Google Web Analytics has been added to the site to track users' interactions. Also we've integrated the app with EnjoyHint JavaScript plugin to improve new visitors experience with a guided site tour highlighting all site features and capabilities.

Probably traditionally for Kentico Experience the most used features by clients are Content Management related modules: Pages, Page types, Media libraries, Content (page) versioning, so we paid a lot of attention to them. For sure Forms; Custom tables and object versioning was utilized. Also we've set up Content staging to make content promotion to production environments as easy as a single click for our clients. To enable site search and crawling we've used Smart search. Key features that were used are: Content caching and Web farms to increase site performance; Custom modules to create custom classes and management interface for different custom entities; Page builder to make better content management experience for content editors.

See live site at pjourway.org

Industry: Non-profit

Workspace planning never was a simple task. Especially when we talk about budget estimation. Our client had a dream to change that once and forever. We were lucky enough to help them make their dream come true. With the tool we’ve built, clients get an easy way to visualize what an office will look like starting from a floor plan and ending with decorations. But the real magic comes into play when switching from view to the numbers - the tool allows clients’ sales manager to quote workspace planning budget in a couple of minutes and prepare an offer with all the details and pricing right in front of their clients and deliver it via email.

Aside from the vital functionality, the application provides incredible user experience. User journey is intuitive and obvious on every stage meanwhile allowing users to experiment with options to find a best fit for them.

The tool allowed clients to speed up sales significantly and decrease deal closing cycles.

Industry: Furniture

Philadelphia Commercial web site was built for Shaw Industries Group, Inc., one of the world's largest carpet manufacturers with more than $6 billion in annual revenue and approximately 22,000 employees worldwide. It is headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, and is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

The main intention of the project was to update look and fill of the site and improvement of overall site performance by shifting to Kentico MVC platform. Business wanted to make site look modern and target any possible screen factor providing their users with awesome experience despite the device they are using. Additionally, being content heavy, old site demonstrated lack in performance.

Most of the challenges were related to the fact that a lot of features available in Portal Engine are not present in Kentico MVC and implementation of them. In most cases those were some web parts and widgets those client got used to.

Kentico MVC provides much better control over page's HTML output allowing to build much cleaner and lighter markup meanwhile does not set any limitations for UI developers allowing them to build literally whatever they need. As long as Kentico MVC is built on newer and modern framework (comparing to previous versions) it shows much better performance out of the box providing really fast public pages as well as administration section.

Despite the fact Kentico MVC misses widgets and web parts it gives developers mechanism to build their custom widgets with no limits allowing to implement any required functionality.

With site release we were able to increase number of new users for 17%, users in general for 11%, sessions - 18%, doubled page views and decrease bounce rate from 42% to 1.03%.  

Features: content management, product catalog, integrations with internal product inventory and image service, web farm

Here you can find live site philadelphiacommercial.com
 

Industry: Textile, flooring (manufacturing)

Simple but really handy mobile-first calculator web application was built to allow end users to estimate the cost of a mortgage according to their financial situation and term, or estimate their refinancing options and apply for it. Application notifies the responsible manager as well as stores requests into the client's internal system, so it could be processed right away.

New and extremely efficient user interface allowed us to keep all the key information important to decision making on a single screen providing end users with exceptional user experience.

Additionally this tool provides useful features for loan officers allowing them to quote mortgage or refinancing for their client on a fly in a couple of clicks as well as store and review client information and a history.

So the application allowed to process clients’ inquiries faster as well as keep all necessary data in a single place with outstanding user experience and navigation capabilities.

As a result, application allowed the client to increase sales and engage with more new clients.

Industry: Finance, Mortgage

PJ Library UA site has been developed for The Harold Grinspoon Foundation and it is a part of international Pj Library program.

The mission of this site is engagement of Jewish kids in Ukraine with basic Jewish values, in particular reading books, which unites kids and parents in Jewish families. Web site offers visitors to sign up on behalf of their kids for the program and receive books for free. Application processes user data and generates mailing lists. Site integrates with carrier system, which eliminates human errors on the user registration step and automates the process of mailing and delivery to the subscribers. Also application provides the variety of reports and analytical data.

Web site allowed to start PJ Library program in Ukraine and provided thouthands of Jewish families with an access to high quality and completely free books. One year after site release more than 2500 families subscribed for the program.

Features: Subscriptions, Newsletters, Reporting, Content Management, Carrier system integration

You can find live site at pjlibrary.ua

Industry: Non-profit

E-commerce site built on Kentico CMS for courses and webinars purchasing, online test and certifications allows potential students to register online, browse catalog of courses and/or webinars, select the products of interest and purchase them online. In case of webinar purchase user will be suggested to pass a test and gain a certificate online. Extra security has been implemented in order to prevent webinars sharing, which was impossible with the old system.

With this application client automated purchases, payments and webinar tests and certification, as well as introduced appropriate level of digital product protection.

Features: product catalog and checkout, online payments, webinar sharing protection, classes schedule calendar, online tests and their management, content management, courses rating and users feedback

School Portal - recently added section that introduces LMS into main site: enables management of learning program, classes and schedule, student assignments, their grades, electronic document signature, etc.

School Portal is built with .NET Core Web API, Entity Framework, MS SQL and React (Typescript).

Here is what our client, Shawna Miller, Administrative Director of Total Tech School says about this project:

"I can’t begin to tell you the amount of time that the Portal is saving me!!!  When I do a Registration event now with my soldiers it’s done immediately, with me having to do nothing once the session is done…….the soldiers are completing their Packs in the Portal and all information is accessible to both me and Daphne, which makes it GREAT!!!!!!!  Before I would have to come back to the office and enter each paper Pack into my spreadsheet and then complete the TTT soldier roster, which took at least 1-2 full days………and now no more paper!!!!!  I have told my husband, Don, on several occasions how much I absolutely LOVE the Portal and how much of a timesaver it is.  Thank you all again for putting up with me and taking care of everything that I need.  We are not done yet, and I’m excited to implement further ideas for Total Tech to utilize in the Portal, but what is there is fantastic!"

Here you can see live site: totaltechschool.com

Industry: Education

Transition to Trades is an approved Career Skills Program (CSP) developed by Hiller Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical and U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Campbell. Transition to Trades, launched on July 5, 2016, allows transitioning service members the opportunity to attend Total Tech trade school (a subsidiary of Hiller, LLC) to learn valuable technical career skills while remaining active duty in the U.S. Military.

Transitioning process provides servmen with a lot of opportunities, such as learn, train, work in field, apply for job and so on. But any action taken by servman should be tracked diligently. This has been done with help of Excel, however that was a huge burden for our client, as it required making changes in multiple places as well as ensure data consintency and manual validation.

After converting client's framework into a web application we were able to significantly speed up the process and allow program managers to process more work in less time. The process was partially automated, which allowed to eliminate all redundant actions. Also application ensures user input validation and builds relations.

Additionaly application automatically compiles a ToDo list for program managers out of entered data to avoid missing of necessary actions.

The aplication was implement with high level of abstraction allowing application extension with very least development and testing efforts, which makes the app extremally flexible.

The application was build with modern, secure and reliable tech stack - .NET Core and Angular. 

Given solution allowed business to save money on transitioning process by significantly increasing program managers efficiency becauce of automation of multiple processes, avoiding human errors (those required much time to resolve) and autogenerated ToDo list.

Features: CRM, ToDo list, interviews & employment tracking, events management, classes reservation, mentorship, reporting, state authorization report

Industry: Education

The application has been built for enterprise manufacturing client and aimed to get rid of paper print materials and ensure everyone uses up to date version of the product documentation, such as product installation instructions, warranties, etc. and usage of outdated documents could cause damage and/or lawsuits. We solved this problem by preventing users from downloading documents, but keep persistent links instead. However challenging part was that any type of document stored within the system has to be branded differently depending on who’s viewing it, so this is where dynamic document comes into play. We’ve built a tool that applies reseller’s branding to the actual document.

In addition to dynamically build documents there were quite complex workflows implemented, as any change to a document had to pass multiple rounds of approval.
Also, according to the client’s policies, there was retention process implemented, which archived documents according to the policies for particular amount of time and then completely removed it.

The application allowed business to save on printing product documentation as well as establish the single source of true and avoid lawsuits caused by usage of outdated documentation.

Features: product documentation management, advanced content production workflows with parallel approvals, on-fly document branding, search engine, scheduled tasks, REST API, reports, security

Industry: Textile, flooring (manufacturing)

The application was built for enterprise manufacturing client that has a lot of dealers those sell their goods. The main purpose of application is to have all dealers promo websites in one place and easily managed and updated by non-technical users. So application has main website that allows dealers to purchase different web-services. Main service that they can buy is website. During checkout process user can select site template and color theme for future website. After user completes payment, website is created automatically based on selected template and color.

There are a multiple site templates prepared with different color themes. Various color themes can be created for site template automatically in custom-built module. Website content is manageable in custom modules as well as site template and color theme that makes application flexible and easy to use as well as adjust.

Currently over 1000 dealers installed their sites on given platform and this number grows every day generating couple of millions of revenue annually. The solution allows to save money on merketing as all the content is produced centrally and shared across all dealers' sites making all the information consistent. Additionaly this solution significantly reduces maintenance cost as well as development of new features - build once and reuse accross all the sites.

Features: e-commerce, centralized content syndication, product catalog, site builder, CyberSource integration, billing, subscriptions

Industry: Textile, flooring (manufacturing)