Austin, Texas, USALocation
8Team Size
Marketing & eCommerceIndustry
The engagement with Canopy Management was for 18 months. The client partnered with us for the development & maintenance of a primary software system used by their customers for managing their Amazon seller accounts. The engagement was led by a Solutions Architect and a Project Manager, along with a roster of 4 developers, 1 QC, and a DevOps engineer.
About The Company
The client is a major player in the Amazon seller ecosystem – providing a range of consultative services from PPC to creative services, and a demand-side platform solution as well.
As an industry-leading full service marketing agency for Amazon sellers, Canopy had intensive data management requirements, server operations, and a Solutions framework to parse and operate their seller data.
The Tech Stack
Symphony with PHP
RabbitMQ
Vue.js
Elastic Search
MariaDB
Azure
Team Composition
The team consisted of 1 solutions architect, 1 project manager, 1 QC, 1 DevOps, and 4 developers that were deployed in phases on the project.
The Problem Statement
The client was running recurring Cron jobs for pulling central seller data using Amazon APIs, and due to the heavy data load, the server was unresponsive. Since the older development team was discontinued, the client’s server was in disarray, managing their server, resulting in complaining from customers, reduced business revenue, and a absolute lack of system design.
Thus they needed a solutions framework along with required resources in urgency.
Further, they had a list of backlog items that were required to be developed, and they needed a full-fledged development team to set up and jumpstart their project to explore its full potential.
The Challenge
The client’s primary challenge was making their software system work again. On that note, the immediate trouble did not have adequate engineering or development resources. For instance, the client did not have a server administrator – which made server operations particularly challenging.
Furthermore, the client wanted us to take care of their backlogs – modules and features that needed rapid development – to get on par with market relevance and customer requirements.
Additionally, the client needed us to introduce product targeting for SBA and SBV – i.e., sponsored brand ads and sponsored brands video – through an intuitive dashboard that developed reports and made the process of Amazon targeting & data fetching seamless.
The Solution
Netsmartz kickstarted the engagement with Canopy Management by deploying a Solutions Architect and a DevOps Engineer. The purpose was to manage the disarray of the server and lay the foundation for future development tasks.
Netsmartz suggested moving their current server infrastructure to Azure for scalability & performance enhancement. Further, a structure for the development team was proposed to handle the feature development (modules above & backlogs).
Netsmartz did a lift-and-shift of their current infrastructure and proposed containerization for better utilization of server resources.
The server end was taken care of, the Netsmartz development team was introduced, and they started the feature development and the overall application containerization.
The new feature development was started while considering the need for optimized processes.
Our Process
The project was – for all purposes – started from scratch. Jumpstarting the project meant cleaning the server chaos, introducing DevOps resources, and then building the software.
Resource allocation
After a thorough understanding of the client’s requirements, Netsmartz selected and deployed resources for the DevOps and Development work for the client. This process was prologued by the candidate’s selection, vetting, and interview.
Management of resources
An experienced project manager was allocated to manage the processes for the client – including the infra shift and the allocation and planning of feature/module development. The project manager was tasked with managing the resources, the requirements, and the day-to-day operations vis-a-vis the deadlines. Additionally, the project manager worked to hold regular SCRUM meetings and manage the deliverables.
Solutions Architect deployment & DevOps engineering work
A solutions architect was introduced to establish an understanding of the server infrastructure, after which the DevOps engineer brought in processes and expertise to move the server to Azure.
The Result
Even with the absence of domain knowledgable and the right resources from the client – and near makeshift solution architecture – Netsmartz handled their server management & development of several features to protect over 80% of the client’s paying customer base.
The further achievement of Netsmartz’s team was to introduce the unversed team at Canopy – thus helping them set up standardized software development processes per the industry benchmark.
Getting the MVP out quickly was the primary motivation and consideration for the project’s success.
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