Developing these complex portals in-house presented several challenges:
- Resource Constraints: Assembling a team with the necessary expertise in front-end development, integration development, and business analysis (BA) is difficult for most firms. Project Management: Managing a project of this scale necessitates robust project management tools and experienced personnel.
- Technical Expertise: Integrating the portals with existing investment management systems requires specialized knowledge of investment operations, and many software providers often lack the specialized in-house technical know-how.
- Time Constraints: Completing the project within a desired timeframe is less of a guarantee without a dedicated and experienced team.
Partnering with a System Integrator (SI)
To overcome these challenges, the software provider partnered with an SI specializing in investment operations. The SI offered several advantages:
- Skilled Workforce: The SI provided access to a pool of experienced BAs, front-end developers, and integration developers familiar with the investment management domain.
- Project Management Expertise: The SI possessed proven methodologies and tools for managing complex software development projects.
- Investment Operations Knowledge: The SI's deep understanding of investment operations ensured seamless integration with existing systems.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Utilizing an onshore-offshore delivery model could potentially reduce overall project costs.
Technology Stack and Development Process
Empaxis employed a combination of technologies and frameworks for development and integration:
- Front-End Development: The Empaxis team used Frameworks like AngularJS and React to build the user interfaces of the portals.
- Integration Development: SDKs and various scripts facilitated communication between the portals and existing investment management systems.
- Back-End Development: Java can be used used for server-side development.
- ETL Tools: Standard ETL tools were employed to extract, transform, and load data between the portals and other systems.
- Automated QA Testing: Tools like Jenkins and MABL ensured thorough and efficient quality assurance testing.
Timeline and Cost Savings
The project successfully delivered the two web portals within the 6-month timeframe. Partnering with the SI offered a significant benefit:
Hypothetical ROI Calculation: By leveraging the onshore-offshore model, the software provider could potentially save 30% of the budgeted cost compared to an entirely in-house development approach. This is a hypothetical calculation and the actual savings may vary depending on the specific project details and location of the offshore team.
Benefits of the Hybrid Model with Empaxis
- Cost Savings: Reduced development costs compared to a fully in-house team.
- Access to Talent: Broader pool of skilled developers at potentially lower costs.
- Faster Time to Market: Efficient resource allocation through the "follow the sun" model, where development continues 24/7
