The Background
A UK-based ticketing platform focused on the fine arts space wanted to extend their market reach into North America. They wanted to add features that they knew their audience would expect, such as donations and CRM integration.
The Need
The client needed to have their mature ticketing platform evaluated to see if it could support the requirements of expanding into a different region.
They were also interested in understanding if it would be more cost efficient to simply start over. Starting from scratch would give the client the opportunity to build with modern technologies that are mobile first, access better encryption methods, and other contemporary features that older technologies can struggle to support.
Still, it was important to know what was feasible at that time, and what could wait. The client would be able to plan their market entry efficiently and grow their business strategically.
Softjourn undertook a technical assessment of their existing product to find out what was going on under the hood.
The Solution
Once Softjourn had access to the code, we proceeded with a technical assessment using the following criteria:
- Assessment of the core code/database, including:
- Are versions out of date?
- Are basic must-have features achievable?
- What is its current maintainability level?
- What is the current database structure?
If we found that the current code was capable of supporting must-have features, we then would attempt to answer the following questions:
- How could the must-have features be added?
- Are nice-to-have features attainable with the current codebase, without significant modification?
- Production Environment(s)
- Apps, any web interface? Location?
- Does any test environment exist?
- System structure:
- Is the architecture scalable?
- Review security for immediate obstacles to getting more beta sites; we recommended that, if existing codebase is kept, penetration testing is needed (Softjourn performs penetration testing through a partner company)
- Is the performance capacity sufficient to significantly increase the client base?
The Benefits
Once we completed the technical assessment, our client gained the following benefits:
- Written assessment of the code.
- Thorough opinion on the existing state of the application.
- Our recommendations on next steps.
- If the current codebase could handle the new requirements, we fully defined the must-have and nice-to-have features in terms of architecture, UI/UX design, and time/cost estimate.
Conclusion
As a result of Softjourn's technical assessment, our client was able to understand what was realistic from a business perspective. They had the information they needed to make a go/no go call on big decisions like whether they should upgrade their existing code for their market expansion plans, or if they should rewrite to support new requirements. This gave them the insight needed to be able to reach profitability faster.