Case Study - Compunnel.com

Case Study
Case Study
Mobile Application DevelopmentiOS School Rating Application and
Web-Based Administrative Console
A+ Educators (Education)
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© 2013 Compunnel Software Group
Mobile Application Development – iOS School Rating Application and
Web-Based Administrative Console
Transforming School Education with Mobile Technologies
A+ Educators is dedicated to helping K-12 schools meet the needs of today’s learners by offering the
highest quality and most effective education support services available. With over 30 years of
education support experience, the company offers customized, innovative services to help schools
meet and exceed their education goals. The solutions include:
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iSeries
Online Course Library
Coaching for Achievement
Digital Nation
Common Core Connect
JATO
A+ Educators also provides school districts with insights and recommendations about their schools
and educators. One of the key elements of this process is a “campus walkthrough”, where staff of A+
Educators tours the campus including classrooms, provides ratings around classroom environment,
teaching and learning efforts, and curriculum viability. The ratings form the basis of a comprehensive
report that would help identify improvement areas for the school administration. Reporting via
‘classroom walkthroughs’ has always been a time consuming process, the company felt the need for
optimizing this process through the use of innovative technologies.
CompunneI is a leading global business technology services company with over 20 years of
experience. Compunnel has a specialized practice for application modernization and development
solutions. We have a dedicated practice for application modernization to help our customers address
connection and integration with modern technologies—mobile devices, iPads, smart phones, tablets
and social access from anywhere using the web.
Compunnel delivers business process excellence through innovative solutions that drive efficiencies
through the meaningful use of technology. Compunnel was selected to analyze the business
processes of A+ Educators and design a solution that delivers long term value and significant
improvement in workflow efficiency.
The Customer’s Business Challenges
A+ Educators conducted ‘campus walkthroughs’ to collect data against several critical factors that
drive the performance of schools. One part of the challenge was to capture data in conventional
formats and to rate them. The second part of the challenge was to create intelligent reports that help
identify performance gaps.
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A+ Educators required a tool that could support data collection on-the-go.
The desired tool was envisioned to provide reports customized to specific business processes.
Along with stringent security measures, the tool was expected to be very user-friendly for
educational professionals, i.e., minimally complex.
Mobility was the biggest driver for improving the workflow efficiency. A+ Educators wanted
Compunnel to develop a tool which could be accessed and worked with on the move, eliminating the
need of first collecting the data and then manually uploading the data collected in the systems.
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© 2013 Compunnel Software Group
Case Study
- With over 30 years of
education support
experience, A+ Educators
know how to listen,
analyze, understand and
respond to all types of
education needs.
- The company’s online
course library has content
for reading, writing,
mathematics, science, and
social sciences -for twelve
grades. Representing over
6,700 hours of instruction,
the online library contains
over 6,000 lessons with
more than 100,000
exercises.
Compunnel’s Customized Solution
Approach to Solve the Customer’s Requirements
Compunnel analyzed the company’s business processes and workflow involved in rating schools and
their education systems. Majority of the rating lifecycle involved on-premise visits and hence mobility
was the biggest driver for a successful solution. Users of the desired tool being educators,
intuitiveness and simplicity were important to successful adoption of the solution. With these
considerations, Compunnel proposed an iPad-based solution to fit customer needs.
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Apple’s iPad provides the best of intuitive features and maximum real estate that makes it the
best fit mobile device to match customer needs.
The ability to deliver iPad apps through the iTunes store with a mix of commercial and enterprise
options brings the added advantage of incorporating security protocols for specific needs.
For enhanced security, Compunnel proposed development of a native iPad-based app and webbased administrative console. This would enforce 2 levels of security, a one-time password
required at the first time a user logs in and second, the ability of the administrator to generate a
new password using the web-based console.
Compunnel adopted a Scrum methodology to deliver the following benefits during the development
lifecycle:
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Prioritized delivery: Features were delivered in a sequence that ties to business value.
Status transparency: Enhanced transparency allowed quick incorporation of feedback.
Adaptive delivery: Learning from the previous iterations/releases were efficiently incorporated
into the process for betterment.
Compunnel’s Mobile Application Development Solution:
iOS School Rating App and Web-Based Administrative Console
Compunnel’s project team worked with A+ Educators’ officials in a collaborative mode to meet the
goals of increased efficiency and tight timelines for the project. The application’s key features
included:
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An easy-to-use graphic interface for user authentication, adding new checklist items to the
campus walkthrough, sending records of the walkthrough, viewing reports and changing settings.
Users were able to view other pages by clicking the navigational links provided.
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For proper branding, the application’s home screen spoke about the website and its objectives in
clear, easy-to-understand instructions.
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The user now had the ability to take pictures using a native camera and attach them to area(s) of
the walkthrough.
Once the user is done with all of the categories, all of the data is compiled into an editable/Excel
format and is saved to the iPad memory for easy access.
The user had three options for viewing reports:
o Show all reports
o Show reports within a date range
o Show only reports with information entered in specific sections (that will be the
categories referenced below)
If required, users have an option to add and edit the categories of the walkthrough. Or, they can
enable/disable certain categories, if they do not want to use them in their reports.
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A one-time password generated by the administrator mapped to the UDID of the iPad device
provided added security to the entire solution.
© 2013 Compunnel Software Group
Case Study
- Technologies used for
the web-based Admin
console:
MySQL
HTML 4.0
JavaScript
PHP
- Technologies used for
the Mobile Client
Application (iPad):
Objective C
XCODE
Benefits & Outcomes
Mobile Application Architecture
Case Study
- The application features
an easy-to-use, graphic
interface for user
authentication, adding a
walkthrough, feeding
walkthrough records,
viewing reports and, a
web-based admin console
for centralized user
management.
- The mobile application
was tested on actual
handsets. The testing
included specifications for
functionality and
performance, as well as
testing corner case
scenarios (e.g., application
testing in areas where
network coverage is low.)
Business Benefits
Compunnel successfully provided the right mobile application to achieve the company’s
modernization objectives. The application enabled the A+ Educators team to judge how the school is
doing based on numerous factors while on the move. It also saved a lot of time and money by
eliminating the need to first collect the feedback on paper and then manually updating it on the
system. Other business benefits through the use of this seamless mobile application included:
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Compunnel’s mobile application solution helped A+ Educators advance its iSeries solution by
harnessing the power of mobility solutions, thereby increasing the efficiency of teachers in the
data collection process.
Improved overall time-to-result of the data collection and reporting process.
The overall mobility solution presented a unique value proposition for the A+ Educator’s
customer community. The solution delivered true educational partnership between iPad’s digital
technology, teachers, administrators, and students.
© 2013 Compunnel Software Group
Case Study
The Compunnel Difference
Compunnel – The Right Choice
Compunnel has been providing successful customer outcomes to global organizations for nearly 20
years. Backed by deep domain expertise in multiple industries, we offer specialized application
development and modernization solutions along with exceptional project management based on
processes perfected over the tenure of its existence.
Compunnel provides consultative advice on the most effective approaches and ways to save on
costs. We explain how we will ensure that each project is primed for success. We provide roadmap
assessments and consultative guidance, discovery, design, building, deployment, and operational
support. Compunnel works from a foundation focused on data governance and architecture. We
provide highly specialized and cost-effective teams—drawing from our expert IT resources of 1,000+
worldwide. We help organizations significantly reduce costs, typically up to 40% less, with our flexible
onsite and offshore model.
For more information about Compunnel’s
Application Development & Modernization Solutions,
visit www.compunnel.com, call (800) 696-8128 or email us at
[email protected].
Compunnel Software Group is a leading global business technology services company. Recognized
for our comprehensive portfolio of technology services and outsourcing solutions, we combine
extensive industry knowledge with highly tailored application development and information
management services.
Application
Development
5
Cloud
Solutions
© 2013 Compunnel Software Group
Business
Intelligence
Learning
Solutions
IT Staffing
Compunnel provides
end-to-end
transformation of legacy
applications into a set of
flexible, streamlined
applications and
processes. We offer
roadmap assessments and
consultative guidance,
discovery, design,
building, deployment, and
operational support.