We’re in the news!
Picture a regular Monday morning, arriving at the office, ready to tackle the day ahead. Then the newspaper we’re subscribed for comes in. It’s Computerworld, a weekly newspaper covering the most important news from the IT industry in the region. A colleague starts browsing through the pages, pauses, lifts his head and shows me screenshots of the platform we created. The article published in Computerworld is about one of our long-term projects, nominated for “IT Project of the Year 2017”. It’s a project we’ve been developing together with our partner Gemseek for almost 2 years now. Here’s a shorter version of the article, translated in English:
“Gemseek Consulting Ltd. was founded in 2011 with a main focus in market research and statistical analysis of large data sets. Gemseek works mainly with clients from foreign markets by serving multiple business divisions and markets of clients like Philips, Liberty Global, Cummins, Heidelberg, Brainjuicer, Future Thinking, and others.
In 2013, the company started developing its resources in the field of IT solutions, as the presentation of data analysis is most appropriate in a cloud environment – in the form of dashboards and dynamic online media for filtering and visualising data.
In 2015, Gemseek was included in the “Cheetah” ranking for fast growing small and medium-sized enterprises, ranking 1st among the companies in Bulgaria with the highest growth in the IT sector. This is precisely because of its decision to develop not only analytical but also technological capabilities with high added value for its clients.
Business challenges
Just two years after the company was founded, management realised that complex data analysis cannot continue to be delivered to customers only through packages such as Microsoft Office. Moreover, customers increasingly require dynamic access to online-based solutions where, in addition to accessing data, they also can filter, aggregate, and visualise it.
Customers increasingly require to use the data from surveys and statistical analysis and, if necessary, to query and break down data, as well as conveniently generate simplistic analysis. To respond to this need, Gemseek, together with Code Runners, developed its first dashboard solutions.
In addition, with the developing market research industry, the end-user wants to control the process of creating a questionnaire, in order to actively involve themselves in all project steps.
Last but not least, client experience management programs have begun to adopt a new paradigm in the last few years, namely that companies not only have to measure customer satisfaction but also actively participate in the process of managing customer communication.
That’s why in 2015 Gemseek decided to create a complete IT platform to manage client experience programs that could be used directly by companies and their employees. This places Gemseek not only as an analytical company but also as a technology consultant who implements IT solutions for the needs of their clients.
The platform was later called RecommendIT and is already successfully implementing in several major companies in Europe and Australia.
Specific tasks
For several months in 2015, the Gemseek and Code Runners teams worked on the platform’s specification and on the first tests. In early 2016, the development of the platform was already underway.
The first task was creating the key server modules:
- Module for creating and managing polls;
- Module for creating and managing users;
- Module for system administration;
- Authentication module for the user and the device on which the application is running.
The following features had to be implemented through the server modules:
- Creating Research;
- Storing the research on the central server;
- Export and import of studies in classical formats (eg csv, word, etc.);
- Editing of studies;
- Export data to standard formats (ASCII, csv, xls, xlsx).
In the middle of 2016, Gemseek and Code Runners were already working on a module for analysis of large volumes of text generated by open research questions:
- Tonal Analysis (Positive, Neutral, Negative Comment).
- Automated Keyword Analysis – Automatic Cloud Word Creation
IT solution
The IT solution covers the entire life cycle of a Net Promoter Score (NPS) research.
The first step is collecting the data by end-users, completed by filling an online survey. The poll is highly personalised, depending on the data for each individual client received from the CRM system.
The data is visualised with a dynamic dashboard that allows knowledge to be acquired for different client segments, and the data to be enriched with information from the client database. Moreover, the visualisation allows you to do drill-downs and is highly optimisable for consumer needs, in order to answer the most frequently asked questions.
Based on the collected data, initiatives are being developed to improve the delivered services, such as faster product delivery or improved maintenance.
The improvements are documented and communicated with customers to provide an optimal solution that meets the widest range of respondents.
The purpose of the application is to be modular and easy to expand according to the needs and specifics of the particular implementation – to adapt to the processes of the client.
Technical details
Due to the confidentiality of the accessed data, a cloud-based solution would be an unjustified operational risk. Therefore, the infrastructure is fully leased, with certain segments being virtualised. To ensure rapid action in different parts of the world, three different data centres are used. One in the US, another one in Germany, and a third in Hong Kong. Additionally, static content is delivered through a CDN network with presence points in 15 countries.
The software solution consists of two complementary web applications – one implemented using .NET and the other (responding to the rich virtualisation and dashboard) integrated through AngularJS. The system has a restricted API interface that allows integration with other systems.
Infrastructure is complemented by a MSSQL database physically separated into a different hardware. The divide (web application / database) allows the scaling of the necessary resources for each of the two segments.
The software is bilaterally integrated with various CRM systems, SAP CRM, Salesforce, MS Dynamics, IBM Notes, Siebel, Pipedrive. Other integrations are related to payment systems.
Effect from the IT solution
First and most obvious effect is more efficient work:
- Survey data is stored on a central server with access at any time from anywhere in the world. Available for both Gemseek and
the users who purchased the license to the platform.
- The analysis of information is instantaneous through the implemented algorithms for calculation, visualisation and text analysis.
- Customer feedback management is done with a centralised Task Management module.
Additionally, there are also quantitative and qualitative indicators of the benefits of the new IT solution:
- Speed optimisation of work done on studies by up to 70%.
- Automated data analysis to filter information by different criteria. Defined by Gemseek’s customers as a “revolutionary” step forward.”
