Umbrella IT

Goal

To automate the management of SLA contracts with the companies supporting cloud infrastructure and to reduce the costs spent on monitoring the execution of SLA contracts.

Obstacle

The client owns 20+ digital brands with a monthly audience of 179 mln. users. The management of SLA contracts with companies supporting cloud infrastructure is performed manually, which takes much time and involves a human factor.

Solution

• We automated the SLA contract management platform and integrated systems for monitoring (Zabbix, Ansible) and collecting information on the infrastructure state in real-time.
• We prepared a system for notifying contractors and automatic calculating the cost of monthly support, depending on the number of failures and downtime.

Goal

To add new functionality to an existing digital archive of the Medici family’s documents.

Obstacle

Since the project has existed for more than 8 years, the architecture and stack of technologies had limitations in the implementation of the new features.

Solution

• We implemented an editor that supports co-editing mode.
• We added new modules that allow executing complex sorting, object grouping, change history viewing, etc.
• We conducted the full system and code audit, and optimized development processes: changes are committed to the staging environment only after testing.

Goal
To develop a virtual makeup system to drive awareness for a new product line.

Obstacle
The challenge was to design a viral product that will be able to reach the broadest audience and to increase customer loyalty.

Solution
We developed a virtual makeup system. After uploading a photo, the user chooses some parameters, ‘try on’ different variants of the makeup and get the information on those they liked.

Goal

To increase data security and improve site performance.

Obstacle

Existing box solutions had limitations due to which site failures occurred with each new update.

Solution

We transferred the application to a custom solution to ensure greater security and optimized the architecture. We used Vue.JS to replace the application front-end with modules unnoticeably for the user without system shutdown.

Goal

To develop a user-friendly marketplace running both online and offline, focused on small business.

Obstacle

In Canada, tax rates for various groups of goods vary in different provinces. All of them had to be taken into account when developing a marketplace.

Solution

• We developed the marketplace for business owners to register their stores and carry on trade online.
• For offline purchases in the store, the instant payment by QR codes placed physically on goods was implemented.
• A flexible tax rate management system requires an initial set up, after which prices are calculated automatically depending on the province.
• We also created mobile apps for merchants and customers.

Goal

It was necessary to optimize the app performance to improve the user experience

Obstacle

The team had a task to study the project quickly, to detect any challenges in the customer journey in the shortest possible time, and to increase the app stability without any interruptions in the app operation.

Solution

The team ran the application diagnostics: it was found that several critical errors caused most of the app failures, and the problem of a slow response from the server resulted from the suboptimal database performance.

We checked the code of the mobile application, made the necessary changes to eliminate errors.

We determined that the authorization query was the heaviest. To solve this problem, we divided the types of authorization and changed the logic of the heaviest query building to the database, and also cleaned the database from redundant and obsolete data. As a result, the database server load was reduced from 100% to 1% allowing the app to work faster. 

A number of interface and app logic improvements were made as well, which allowed increasing the session length and number of daily active users.

Goal


To develop multifunctional iOS and Android applications for private investors.

Obstacle


Before our team joined the project, the application had been developed by several contractors. As a result, the technical debt accumulated to be resolved in a short time.

Solution


The code base was to a great extent revised and improved, the effective cutting edge technical solutions were found and implemented to improve the application stability, speed and loading performance. New features are in process of development and implementation.

Goal


To create a new corporate website that would replace an existing one and correspond to the Company's updated positioning to work as an effective tool within the sales chain.
Obstacle


An optimized structure had to be created to provide flexibility in terms of introducing changes.
 

Solution 


At the initial stage, we collected and analyzed information about our clients and how we communicate with them. We tracked the interaction of the target audience with the product and make improvements based on the data obtained. Relevant content was added, the structure was optimized, the page loading speed was increased, and the site acquired a modular structure allowing for more flexibility.

Goal 

To increase the volume of functionality released
Obstacle 

It was impossible to foresee all possible roles of application users in advance and to differentiate access levels.
Solution
The Umbrella IT team was integrated seamlessly. The activities were scheduled according to the Client's timezone. The UIT team was assigned a small task: to implement the 9GAG Pro purchase option in a mobile version of the site. The task was successfully completed: we added functionality allowing to purchase 9GAG Pro and performed integration with Stripe. Upon completion, the UIT team was engaged for the next larger project for the site mobile version improvement.


Goal

To develop a content management system for the Forbes Arab division.

Obstacle

The CMS was required to be developed taking into account the specifics of the text layout and presentation in Arabic (from right to left).

 Solution

We designed and developed CMS capable of supporting a bilingual format for user interaction with content. The administration panel provided for switching between the English and Arabic versions. We implemented lists management system for Forbes ratings, magazine subscriptions, and issues.

Goal

To cover all application microservices with autotests to eliminate any risk of failure while building and deploying the new application features. 

Obstacle

The site and the web panel shall support 2 languages – English and Japanese. It was necessary to take into account the localization specifics.

Solution

We developed the application with a single backend and functionality to fully support the internationalization of the site and the web panel.

Goal

To identify growth areas of IT in a group of companies with business executives who understood the need to develop the IT direction in their department, but did not fully understand what they needed for that.

Solution

We conducted a comprehensive audit, identified bottlenecks, the intersection of areas of responsibility, possible growth areas. Identified opportunities for improvement in the testing and product release processes. After the audit, work continued as part of a strategic partnership.

To identify growth areas of IT in a group of companies with business executives who understood the need to develop the IT direction in their department, but did not fully understand what they needed for that.

Goal

On a tight schedule to develop a landing with a parallax effect for the advertising campaign at New York Fashion Week.

Obstacle

With lots of things to improve, it was necessary to keep within a fairly short time in order to make it to the Fashion Week in NY.

Solution

To be on time, we decided to reduce the scope. Together with the client’s team, we prioritized the tasks. We worked the second shift on our part to increase the number of working hours per day. We used every opportunity to meet the deadline and to avoid any impact upon the final quality.

Goal
To create a streaming platform for a woman community portal.

Obstacle
StyleCaster TV is just one service of the portal. It was necessary to provide retention of users so that they would not want to go to specialized streaming platforms.

Solution
We have worked the UX out, providing an easy-to-understand structure.
We built in a convenient video player, providing streaming video.
Each video has recommended thematic articles to diversify the content and increase retention.

Goal

• To spread the business influence and attract more clients.
• To offer an easy and interactive process of choosing residential properties.

Obstacle

The challenge was to find a unique way to promote and present the properties according to clients’ needs.

Solution

We created an AR-based application by implementing Vuforia and Unity to overlay the target image with videos of specific properties. As a result, users enjoy an immersive experience.

Goal

• To develop a platform for data aggregation and processing.
• The system shall support contract customization and aggregate information around the ‘Client’ entity.
• To create an API providing access to other systems’ data.
• Data shall be collected and processed without delay.

Obstacle

• A huge amount of heterogeneous information located in several sources requires manual processing.
• There is no opportunity to customize contracts.
• There is no aggregated data on all customer’s contracts: only one contract data can be accessed.
• The aggregated data (by customers or by a period) are collected manually.
• The manual data processing does not allow to react in real-time.

Solution

• We unified the data structure and format.
• The user can customize contracts by more than 15 parameters.
• The data are available with minimal latency.
• The aggregated data are automatically collected into a single report.

Goal: To extend dating app functionality.

Obstacle: The existing app architecture allowed the load of 2k users, whereas the business required 100k users.

Solution: We changed the architecture so that the application withstands the required load and asynchronous interaction for a real-time chat. The functionality was extended: the real-time chat and more accurate profile settings were added. The front end was developed in accordance with the new design.

Goal: To develop from scratch an application for creating time-lapse videos from captured clips or photos with the possibility to export them to social networks.

Obstacle: As a video was to be created from several photos the smooth transitions from one frame to the next one were required.

Solution: When overlaying photos, we made each previous photo as a semitransparent layer for the user to align the next photo. Thanks to this, the user manually stabilizes the video and receives a smooth frame transition.

Goal: To design and implement a solution for mobile traffic analysis as an integral part of the client’s team.

Obstacle: It was necessary to create a solution for mobile traffic analysis that had no analogues on the market and ensure its scalability.

Solution: We developed a mobile traffic tracker with instant post-click analysis and an option to set up user redirection to the chosen advertisement. The platform includes a traffic distribution system by geolocation, operating system, mobile device type, mobile operator, as well as the ability to build visualized reports.

Goal: To prepare a landing page for an advertising campaign to be launched by Disney together with SHE Media.

Obstacle: The landing had to be created in a very short period – less than 2 weeks.

Solution: We brought in an IT Reсque Team. We developed the landing page integrated into SHE Media ecosystem. We set up a tag system for the Google DFP platform and created a customized quiz for fans.

Goal: To develop a new paywall and add an archive subscription.

Obstacle: Variety’s previous paywall was developed as part of a monolith.

Solution: 

• We developed the new paywall connected to the core via API and removed the old one.
• A counter tracks a number of the articles read by users and displays a notification upon reaching the limit.
• The unsubscribed users can read only a section of the article.

Goal: To move 600,000 users from BlogHer to SheKnows and update information about their profiles.

Obstacle: It was necessary to merge accounts that doubled each other without information loss. To provide the centralized user management regardless of the platforms where they were registered previously.

Solution: All the users were moved from the old database to the ID Manager, that redirected to the global SheKnows oAuth service. 7,000 user profiles were merged with their duplicate accounts.

Goal: To update the existing data infrastructure of the company after 5 years without an update.

Obstacle: During its existence in the market the project accumulated a lot of data. The audit revealed that 70% of this data was not used. It was nonetheless important to store this data for future use.

Solution: We checked the relevance of the data. Following this, we archived about a petabyte of data to reduce costs and transferred it to another, cheaper service. As a result, the cost of supporting infrastructure and data storage decreased by about 20 times. Data updating and transferring were performed within a month.

Goal: To develop a service allowing to select colored contact lenses online based on a client’s photo.

Obstacle: It is necessary to correctly recognize the iris on the downloaded photos taking into account head movements and position of eyelids and eyelashes.

Solution We analyzed the solutions offered on the market and chose the most appropriate platform. We integrated VisageSDK into the CMS allowing to upload the photo and to virtually select colored contact lenses prior to purchase. 

Goal
To work out a strategy how to develop a new e-commerce website and seamlessly integrate it into an existing system.

Obstacles
Hamleys uses an out-of-the-box ERP solution. Only the ERP vendor can make any changes, which can take months. Some useful features remain unavailable because the vendor isn’t ready to implement them. The new e-commerce website has to be seamlessly implemented into an existing system instead of the previous module.

Solution: We designed the architecture of the new e-commerce module. The solution is to plug the new module into the current system via the ESB bus without violation of data integrity.

Mobaff Tracker is a mobile traffic tracker with post-click analysis and 30 million commercial transactions per month sold for $6000000.

Goal: To modify the platform to support high loads and improve performance to make loading faster.

Obstacle: StyleCaster witnessed a drastic growth in the number of users (50 mln users per month). The website had to be optimized to the higher load saving the various site content (images, videos, graphics, audio content, etc.).

 Solution: 

• We performed lossless compression of the content.
• Then we took some load off the server by providing an extra reverse proxy server.
• We partially refactored code to extra accelerate the speed of the website.