From MVP to the Main Site
Awkbit developed a twofold project for R/GA through team augmentation. It started with building an MVP for a business in the healthcare industry and resulted in the team leveraging it as a foundation for their Research & Development business unit.
Laying the foundations: the MVP
Awkbit teamed up with R/GA to successfully develop a minimum viable product for a renowned healthcare website that needed a new digital User Interface. They required a change in their content management system and front end, plus integration with technologies for hosting, tracking, filling forms, and providing videos quickly.
The solution also needed Continuous Integration updates to provide a seamless working site with ease of use both for customers and administrators. The Drupal- based CMS was built with a marketing vision in mind and integrated with a content delivery network for quick video loading across the US.
According to R/GA's needs, Awkbit presented an MVP first, which grew into a more extensive scope thanks to the versatility of the original project.
Technologies
Challenges
- Regain market share through building a solid and updated digital presence for the new business unit.
- Stay on a small-scale project and leverage parts of the previous project for implementation.
Journey
Awkbit used Drupal to build the content management system and the frontend solutions. For its upkeep, our team used Acquia as a CMS hosting solution and integrated it with Brightcove CDN to provide quick access to videos across the globe. On top of that, we set up Solr to provide a search index, Google Tag Manager, Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Marketo to track and fill lead capturing forms.
Destination
Awkbit accomplished its goals by working and providing the content structure, implementing R/GA's design, improving the content writing tools, and planning and developing the search engine.
After the MVP launched, R/GA decided to leverage this first project into the health care provider's R&D business unit. Thanks to the versatility and scalability of the MVP, Awkbit could provide the expansion they needed without starting from scratch.
Building on the premises
Once the MVP launched, R/GA decided to go all-in. So the next step for Awkbit was to revamp the corporate site of the R&D business unit while providing Continuous Integration with a scalable, versatile, and unified solution.
An expandable approach made it possible to save time, effort, and resources, speeding up the development and the decision-making process.
The tools and technologies for the minimum viable product worked seamlessly for the R&D site, as well. So both the back and frontend solutions progressed without any issues. That is the power of scalability.
Technologies
Challenges
- A comprehensive technical revamp on the back end.
- Content and design integration.
- Development tools and stacks so the business unit can self-manage, be independent and up-to-date.
Journey
The first thing to do was to set up all the development tools and stacks. Awkbit used Docker to provide the local development stacks and Kubernetes to manage the hosting cluster. The process of setting up was essential not only for our developers but also for the client's internal team. It worked in the same way as scaffolding and machinery in the construction industry.
The clients' design was implemented once the development stack setup was complete.
Twig provided a template engine that supports Drupal. This is how Drupal fills out blank spaces and turns “insert_your_username_here” into your actual username. Essential for custom components.
We implemented Adobe Analytics for audience segmentation, which allows for tracking and segmenting the different groups of users entering the site. Using personalization for the corporate segment avoided the voice and tone issues they had been having.
This journey was similar to the one of the MPV, with added complexity but solid foundations to build upon. As a result, the technologies used were the same, focused on backend and frontend development.
Destination
The development team at Awkbit successfully leveraged the code already written, maximizing flexibility and versatility for the second part of this project. Thanks to this, we were able to accelerate development and provide a unified foundation for both sites.
At the end of this journey, Awkbit was able to deliver a completely restructured Continuous Integration pipeline that streamlined content updates and deployments.
This case tested the capacity of our developers to reuse and recycle the components that proved functional in the minimum viable product and build new ones according to the new set of goals and challenges, maximizing productivity for all the stakeholders of the project.
