Client
A leading U.S.-based educational testing and assessment services company
Goal
Switch from in-person to online testing
Tools and technologies
AWS Serverless, Dynamo DB, Node.js, Typescript, Java, Jenkins, and Angular
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Our client, which provides educational testing and assessment services, faced an existential threat with the pandemic-era lockdowns and social distancing
requirements. The testing centers it operated at physical locations were unable to open, leaving thousands of students worldwide in a state of uncertainty.
Our client had to switch from in-person testing centers to a digital-first or online
testing solution almost overnight. To achieve that, it had to migrate rapidly from legacy systems to the cloud. It also needed to ensure the sanctity and accuracy of its tests while delivering a seamless digital experience to its customers. Other challenges included the ability to dynamically scale up or scale down capacity in response to demand, maintain acceptable service levels, and enable thousands of
expert test raters’ to access and evaluate tests.
SOLUTION
Iris Software stepped in to facilitate a strategic digital pivot in the business model to secure the company’s future. Modernization efforts that were underway at the company even before the pandemic were accelerated as a digital upgrade became imperative. We shifted the data stored on legacy infrastructure was to the cloud. Our team developed a new testing interface that would work overnight across devices, geographies, and different internet connections. Switching the testing operations to the cloud with scalable capacity could help manage the surge in the number of users for the tests Iris also deployed automation and AI tools to deliver superior experiences for test raters. Those who faced challenges while attempting to grade tests were provided with an always-on AI-based solution to automate the troubleshooting and ticketing process.
OUTCOMES
The client now has scalable, digital-first testing capabilities to meet all its testing requirements.
- Cloud-based testing ensures that students, evaluators, and employees have access on-demand.
- The remote testing options are accurate, secure and safe from external threats.
- A strong focus on automation and user experience has allowed for optimized online offerings.
- Surges in demand for tests can be met rapidly and at scale with minimal intervention.
- Thanks to the always-on cloud offerings, service levels are easily maintained.
- The successful digital pivot has led to strong interest in a hybrid operating model to safeguard the business from threats in the future.
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Get in touchThe power of in-sprint automation
Client
A leading securities trading firm.
Goal
Build a cloud-based automation framework to test client’s trading platform.
Tools and technologies
C#, Ranorex, TestRail, Simulators and Selenium.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
OUTCOMES
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Get in touchData consolidation speeds up drug search
Client
A U.S.-based pharmaceutical multinational corporation.
Goal
Reduce turnaround time for APRs (Approval for Product Release).
Tools and technologies
Amazon’s AWS OPCx, Webmethods, natural language processing (NLP), neural networks, and Python programming
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
In pharmaceutical R&D, data is generated from several sources: the process, patients, retailers, and caregivers, among others. Pharmaceutical R&D organizations that use the traditional way of creating APRs manually consolidate paper specifications into binders across all R&D functions.
Specific regional rules, compliance mandates, and external regulations were slowing down the client’s workflow.
The many spreadsheets in multiple formats were leading to errors from manual entry and duplication of data — the inevitable “swivel effect” that results from data being pulled out from disparate, unconnected software packages.
Iris was approached to improve the process of collecting and using data from multiple sources; the improvement would help the client identify and develop new potential drug candidates faster.
SOLUTION
Iris’s team of 12 specialists designed, developed, tested, and deployed a cloud-based application that integrates data from multiple regions and eight different systems into a single, unified interface for the client’s users. Our application unified the creation and management of the client’s workflows across its lines of business and 20 different product families.
The development environment included Amazon’s AWS OPCx; Webmethods; natural language processing (NLP); neural networks; and Python programming.
OUTCOMES
Within a year of the application’s release, 2,800 users were using the application, with 55% of APRs turning around in 10 calendar weeks or less. Thanks to the in-memory data grid, the response time of transactions across the board has been brought down to nearly 2 seconds.
The cloud-based application developed by Iris ensures that data is automatically and seamlessly shared between systems that were previously stand-alone and required the tedious manual entry of data.
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Get in touchCloud-native app opens new markets
Client
The world’s leading provider of trading services for fixed income products
Goal
Create an IT architecture to support growth across markets and products
Tools and technologies
AWS Cloud, Java, Springboot, React JS, React, Redis, Kafka, C#, Ranorex and Test Rails
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client, a market leader in bonds trading, was expanding to new markets, acquiring new businesses, introducing new products and adding features to existing offerings. To support its growth plans, it needed an agile, modern, cloud-based platform.
Some of the business needs the client wanted to address with the new solution were:
- How do we achieve scale with minimal latency in operations and service?
- How do we integrate new businesses seamlessly and without disruption?
- How do we roll out new features faster to improve customer experience and get a competitive edge?
- How can we use data to help customers make better trading decisions?
- How can we monetize the data?
As a solution partner, we had to not only create a new IT architecture for the client’s trading platform but also constantly re-engineer and improve the architecture to quickly meet emerging business needs.
SOLUTION
We deployed a scalable, highly available auctions solution on the AWS cloud using Java, Springboot, React JS, React, Redis, and Kafka.
Optimized algorithms now achieve best matching with minimal latency while offering full price transparency. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) provide greater insight and real-time price discovery for specific asset classes.The new cloud-based architecture enabled the client to create products and monetize market data. Those products helped customers get accurate data in real-time to take better and faster trading decisions.
Test automation across the trade lifecycle using a combination of C#, Ranorex, Test Rails helped the client update user interfaces (UI) without reducing performance. It also eased integration linkages between the acquired solution’s frontend and the client’s existing backend.
OUTCOMES
The introduction of Agile methodology and the cloud-native application has helped the client significantly speed up time-to-market for new releases – it is now able to make releases several times a year.
The new IT architecture now allows the client to offer trading in Muni bonds (an acquired product) and U.S. treasuries (a new service). The solution also enables the client to support Chinese markets.
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Get in touchReal-time tracking of a global container fleet
Client
A diversified global business group with a strong presence in maritime services.
Goal
Real-time tracking of a global container fleet.
Tools and technologies
Microsoft Azure, Node JS, C#, Bootstrap, and HTML5.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The pandemic has made it critical for transportation and logistics firms to manage their assets (or fleets) more efficiently.
Demand is high for real-time asset tracking and tracing solutions. For the marine services business of our client, real-time management of a global fleet of containers required continuous, global tracking.
Tracking the container fleet and meeting compliance requirements was laborious and error-prone, often leading to delays and lost opportunities. The client also did not have a mechanism to track customer usage of pay-per-use containers.
We were tasked with creating multi-tenant based cloud application that would be optimized for cost and yet not compromise the user experiences of customers and field teams.
SOLUTION
Our decade-long experience in radio-frequency identification (RFID) helped us address this challenge. Our information engineers, UX designers, solution architects, and business analysts worked onsite with the customer to test scenarios and create a new architecture along with new user experiences and interfaces.
We built the solution using the latest Microsoft Azure cloud services and BizTalk and RFID middleware for an integrated framework involving multiple customers (tenants) and services.
An offshore team engineered the new application with the capabilities sought by the client; the architecture team helped create new systems and environments for development, quality assurance (QA), user acceptance testing (UAT), and production. The solution was capable of handling large amounts of streaming data with the help of edge services located near-site. Customized workflows captured container movement within each site, while GPS services tracked container movement across the globe.
The application, which was deployed well within the scheduled deadline, enables post-production maintenance and enhancements from our offshore center.
OUTCOMES
We engineered real-time tracking and tracing for the client’s global container fleet, with map support and enhanced personalization for users based on location and asset class. Responsive design ensured that the application could be seamlessly used across various devices.
Our experience with RFID and cloud-based engineering helped us anticipate and prepare the scenarios well in advance so that solutions could be delivered to the client fast. This significantly reduced the time for the client to prepare cost and compliance status reports, and location-based dashboards for KPIs.
The near-real time tracking of containers reduced the time to calculate exact container usage and certificate status from days and hours to a few minutes.
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Get in touchSetting a high standard for member experience
Client
One of the world’s leading retail standards organizations.
Goal
Build a 24x7 cloud-based platform capable of storing and sharing data on billions of products.
Tools and technologies
Java, Python, NodeJS, .NET, Azure PostgreSQL, Azure SQL, MongoDB, Redis, Azure DevOps, Pipelines, Git, Docker, Kubernetes and Azure App Service.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Our client is a global standards organization. Its products and codes are used by millions of brand owners, retailers and supply chain partners around the world.
The organization needed an always-on, scalable cloud-based platform capable of storing and sharing data on billions of products and related information with members and partners across the world.
The client also wanted the ability to onboard member organizations quickly and seamlessly.
They wanted the business capabilities developed on a platform to be available as modern and secure enterprise-level APIs.
SOLUTION
We chose a microservices architecture for high agility, loose coupling, independent deployability and maintainability.
We followed an API design-first approach and designed according to the standards-based API specification (OpenAPI Specification).
In line with best practices for securely publishing and maintaining APIs, our team deployed the Azure API management solution. We used Azure APIM developer portal to deliver a superior developer onboarding experience. The solution had other features as well:
- Design and implementation of the Azure Virtual network for securely hosting the platform.
- A cloud-native architecture using the Azure AppService and an Azure-managed Kubernetes platform.
- Comprehensive performance testing and optimization at all levels to meet strict SLAs.
- Security testing and vulnerability assessment to ensure secure APIs.
OUTCOMES
- A robust and secure API platform that handles 200,000 API requests per day
- 50 million codes uploaded in 40 product categories across more than 130 countries
- Delivered a developer portal for quick onboarding of application developers
- New 7-step verification mechanism led to the creation of new revenue streams
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Get in touchA robust platform for investment advisors
Client
A leading brokerage and wealth management firm based in the U.S.
Goal
Create a best-in-class platform for registered investment advisors (RIAs).
Tools and technologies
Pivotal Cloud Foundry, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud Gateway, Angular 6, TIBCO AMX BW, SQL Server, Hybrid Automation Framework (Selenium, Appium, Perfecto) and AppDynamics
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
With growing competition from nimble fintechs, custodians are under pressure to provide RIAs a differentiated experience. Many of them are looking to use advanced technology solutions such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and data and analytics to help RIAs improve the end consumer experience.
Our client had multiple legacy platforms built over the years that was preventing it from providing their RIAs with a secure, integrated and cost-effective solution.
SOLUTION
Iris has been played an integral role in transforming the client’s technology landscape from a legacy system to a modern, open, API-based architecture. The solutions we have implemented include:
- An open access platform with API architecture as part of the client’s go-to-market strategy. We continue to work on integrating third party vendor applications and RIA back-office applications onto this platform.
- The platform is highly reliable and secure with protection of data at rest and in motion using encryption. We have enabled encryption of data in transit to protect over 100+ integrations outside the client environment. We have used SAML and OAuth for user authentication.
- An SSO solution provides multi-factor authentication (MFA) and a framework for privileged access management to secure customer information. The Iris team has also ensured mobile security for iOS & Android devices and helped the client plug platform vulnerabilities.
- Developed responsive design as part of the UI transformation initiatives for core trading, advisory and educational solutions.
- Transformed monolithic application into micro services-based architecture.
- Provided flexible development capabilities with distributed Agile teams and extensive test automation reducing time to market and achieving significant cost savings.
- Digitized end-to-end client onboarding with features for bulk onboarding, advisor authorization and ability to submit statutory documentation online and offline.
- Created back-office solutions for money movement and cash and asset management that allowed RIAs to get a holistic view of clients and serve them on the go.
- Customizable workflow to serve needs of individual advisor firms.
OUTCOMES
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Get in touchGain speed to market with DevOps solutions
Client
The client is a leading wealth management firm in the U.S.
Goal
DevOps strategy to shorten production timelines and speed time-to-market.
Tools and technologies
JIRA, Jenkins, GitHub, AWS, ECR, Docker, EKS and Helm.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client used multiple legacy applications with a highly complex codebase to run its operations. As a result, it had long production lifecycles and spent several person-hours in integration and deployment.
On the technology front, the client faced challenges in the way server-side applications were defined, stored and managed. Its IT team also had to manage the deployment of multiple Kubernetes manifest files.
SOLUTION
Iris recommended that the client move to a microservices ecosystem. Here’s how we deployed the solution:
- We defined an enterprise-level DevOps strategy using Helm
- Identified the scope of apps that needed to be on-boarded across the enterprise
- Implemented a DevOps pipeline for microservices on the Kubernetes cluster
- Deployed the infrastructure, dependencies and applications with Kubernetes using Helm
- Delivered continuous improvement through Helm release updates and rollbacks
OUTCOMES
The DevOps pipeline significantly improved time-to-market for new releases.
- 20x faster release cycle
- 40% improvement in quality with end-to-end traceability
- 15x improvement in the mean time to deployment (MTTD)
We also put in place robust security control and validation processes; and provided for auditable release requests.
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