Pax Ventures
The Problem
After a modestly successful experiment, Pax Ventures wanted to re-introduce the power of web-ordering to its 2 brand, 27 location food chain. Metavera joined the effort midway through the project’s re-development and quickly identified key problems that remained from their original system, including:
Reliability
The technology system needed to be reliable to both customers and store operators that managed the order fulfillment.
Scalability
Pax’s growth was inevitable, with more stores, more customers, more orders, and more personnel. The application needed to anticipate this growth and provide a flexible path forward.
Performance
Nothing was more critical than properly planning for the application capacity. Peak usage was lunchtime ordering, at which time the site should serve customers with no noticeable delays and browser response times of under 2 seconds.
Customer Convenience
Unique features and a modern user interface were needed to differentiate this site from its competitors.
The Metavera Solution
An integrated approach to business analysis, project management, development services, quality assurance, and production support were utilized to ensure that all four problem areas were addressed:
Business Analysis & Project Management
Before even embarking on the project we determined the key stakeholders, listened to their needs and identified the best way to meet their expectations. From the perspective of the users, reliability was the most crucial component – quality assurance and performance testing was identified as our key deliverable. From the perspective of management, increased order volume and decreased operational expenditures were equally weighted expectations. We studied the existing feature set and made key recommendations on changes that were more compliant with customer best practices and additions that streamlined the operation of the order fulfillment centre. Once our analysis was completed, we worked directly with the key decision makers to ensure that our plan was accepted and our developers were given the green light to move forward with their execution. Throughout the project, we used an agile approach that saw the timely and cost-effective addition of new requirements.
Development Services
We staffed this project with the best developers. Our developers are all university educated with applicable science or mathematics degrees. They have a keen knowledge of open-source Java methodologies and frameworks. They are all trained with an approach that values "the information exchange transaction" as the key value point in successful web applications. They understand the power of user interfaces and are keen to use cutting edge web methodologies to attract and retain application users.
Quality Assurance
Our development team worked directly with project management to assure quality. Functional quality was assured through review of requirements. Performance quality was assured through realistic load scenario testing. A fully tuned production system with effective use of memory and relevant database tuning was provided as a result of successful performance testing. Further reliability was assured through constant unit and regression testing.
Production Support
We provided dedicated on-going production support with realistic service levels after deployment. Where required we were counted on to help diagnose systemic problems and application issues which were resolved within the required service levels. The Pax system continues to exceed performance requirement even during peak usage periods.
Results
As a result of a successful development and deployment, the Pax system:
- Significantly increased operator and customer loyalty
- Enjoyed a threefold increase in volume of orders
- Won a Webby and an Interactive Media award