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Casestudy Category: Web Development

AFTA Drupal Development Case Study

AFTA Drupal Development Case Study

Drupal Development

About the Americans for the Arts

The Americans for the Arts (AFTA) is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education. Their mission is to build recognition and support for the extraordinary and dynamic value of the arts and to lead, serve, and advance the diverse networks of organizations and individuals who cultivate the arts in America.

Executive Summary

AFTA was leveraging NetForum as their Association Management System, and was looking for a technology partner to help them integrate their Drupal front-end website with NetForum. AFTA was looking to implement an Art Services Directory functionality on their Drupal website that allowed end users to quickly find all types of arts organizations throughout the United States, based on different search criteria, including geolocation. Pumex was also requested to implement several other enhancements to their Drupal platform, which included UI/UX changes, implementation of a Donations/payments functionality (using Salsa API) and integrating different datasets with their NetForum AMS.

Pumex worked with AFTA stakeholders to understand their specific requirements for their front-end website and was able to successfully implement the requested functionality on their Drupal website utilizing integrations with different services, including NetForum xWeb API, Google’s Geolocation API and Salsa’s Donation API.

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AFTA was looking enhance their Drupal website experience by implementing an interactive search functionality within the Arts Services Directory, wherein users could search for organizations not just by the traditional search fields, but also by zooming in on a specific location on a map. AFTA had previously tried implementing this functionality with a different vendor without success. Once Pumex successfully completed this project, AFTA was looking to implement a new donations module by leveraging SalsaCRM’s donation module within the Drupal website, and then integrating the payment information with the NetForum AMS database.

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Considering that AFTA’s membership data resided in their AMS system, NetForum, Pumex had to build custom integrations within Drupal to push/pull data via the NetForum xWeb API. Pumex build an additional organization interface on the Drupal front-end through which organizations could subscribe to be displayed in the Arts Services Directory search results and assign roles for individuals who had access for the organizations directory listing. Pumex was also able to successfully implement Google’s Geolocation API to display the directory listings on a map interface, allowing for users to zoom in/out, display pins with the organizations information and contact the organization from within the map. Pumex also successfully implemented the SalsaCRM’s donation module with the Drupal website, also creating an admin module on the Drupal backend where AFTA staff could approve a donation prior to pushing the data into the NetForum database.

Current and Future Results

All UI/UX, Arts Services Directory and SalsaCRM donations integration projects were completed on time, in budget, and to client quality expectations.

Pumex is currently working with AFTA to determine enhancements and changes required on their Drupal website when AFTA upgrades their AMS system from NetForum to Nimble.

Future Plans

Pumex is continuing to work with AFTA from a CTO/CIO consultation perspective to help them take their technology to the next level. Pumex is also working with AFTA to cleanse and migrate all their data from NetForum AMS to Nimble CRM utilizing Pumex’s proprietary Unity Data Sync platform.

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NFB Affiliate Website Development

National Federation of the Blind

Affiliate Website Development

About the National Federation of the Blind

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the oldest and largest nationwide organization dedicated to blind Americans. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, NFB has 56 affiliates, chapters, divisions, and partner organizations across the U.S. Their mission is to provide, coordinate, and lobby for programs, resources, and services that defend the rights of blind Americans, support the community, and create a future of opportunity and accessibility.

Executive Summary

NFB engaged Pumex to develop a unified brand of websites for its 56 affiliate members across the United States. This allowed the NFB to standardize its brand, its collection of member data, and its management of affiliate web infrastructure.

One of our major accomplishments on this project was keeping a consistent UI/UX for our target audience that conformed to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 Level AA standards and Section 508 compliance.

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NFB needed major adjustments done to their 56 affiliate sites across the US including easier to read text, optimized content display, mobile friendly navigation, touch-friendly page elements, faster download speeds, and that the sites would meet all current accessibility standards. NFB also needed cross-browser testing to ensure that all affiliate website designs were optimized for the two latest versions of Edge, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers. Pumex was tasked with deploying a robust production environment for the solution that could easily manage traffic and speed of access SLAs for all 56 sites.

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Pumex implemented an Agile Development method and phased approach to elucidate, refine, and detail all the requirements to define the look and function of the new websites. The data collected during the requirements analysis phase was then used to inform the choices that were made while developing the graphical UI (User Interface) design of the website, functional recommendations, and other technology choices. Pumex architected an entire DevOps pipeline and Azure Cloud Architecture for the production environment. which is secure, universally available, and has DR built into the solution. The architected solution leverages key cloud infrastructure technologies to ensure scalability, performance, and consideration of long-term costs.

Immediate Results

Phase 1 delivered on time

on budget, and above quality expectations – Phase 1 consisted of Site Choice Templatization Design, Data Management, CRM Integration, Form Integration, and Deployment. Despite additional requirements regarding data portability, syncing processes, and automatic content pushes, Pumex completed a quality Phase 1 on schedule and within budget constraints.

No escaped defects during UAT

Especially concerning Accessibility, due to visually impaired users of the site, we achieved no escaped defects during UAT.

Phase 2 commenced ahead of schedule

We were able to begin Phase 2, migrating the existing affiliate websites to the new Drupal platform, ahead of schedule. With a 3-week sprint, Phase 2 is currently being delivered on time and within budget constraints.

Future Goals

Pumex continues to support the NFB with their affiliate website needs. This project is slated to continue through 2020 with the migration of the remaining sites to the new platform. Pumex expects to continue meeting all budget, quality, and timeline metrics to optimize the migration. Even with changing requirements, Pumex is up for the task of creating a universally accessible, user-friendly new platform, without sacrificing security.

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RAPS Website Development

Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society

Website Development

About the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society

The Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS) is the largest global organization for those involved in the regulation of healthcare and related products, which include medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biologics, and nutrition products. RAPS helped establish the regulatory profession and continues to actively support the professional and lead the profession as a neutral, non-lobbying nonprofit organization.

Executive Summary

Pumex was tasked with taking on a highly visible web development project for RAPS on the Kentico CMS platform. The project touched highly trafficked areas of their website, the Home Page, and their Regulatory News page. Due to previous vendor cost overruns and failure to meet project timelines, RAPS technology was under significant pressure to produce the desired results. Pumex was also able to help quickly mitigate a DDoS cyber-attack on their website which recently took place.

Pumex helped rescue RAPS from a previous vendor’s that was not delivering on quality or promises. Our work with RAPS highlights our attention to on-time product delivery within budget and minimizing risks through project management.

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RAPS was facing challenges with the development and design of its public-facing website. Their previous web development provider was unable to deliver a quality website due to late product delivery, budget overruns, and delayed project management/communication of risk. This was particularly unsatisfactory since RAPS’ web presence acts as their primary form of communication with their members, dissemination of relevant and useful industry information, center for e-commerce, and portal to their LMS. RAPS was also faced with a sophisticated DDoS cyber-attack originating from a foreign entity. This attack involved multiple IP addresses, a friendly bot disguise, and complex countermeasures.

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Our experience in Agile Development and success in creating repeatable success processes with Project Management, Communication, Risk Management, and Delivery assisted us in delivering their enhanced website. We were also able to redesign the RAPS homepage and create an improved “Regulatory Focus” news page using the Kentico CMS. Both projects were delivered on time, within the allocated funding, and above quality expectations. When RAPS informed Pumex of the cyber-attack, our IT team was immediately available to start troubleshooting and worked to quickly mitigate the attack by the following morning with Imperva.

Current and Future Results

Updated website

Using rich media content, Pumex enhanced the RAPS website using their preferred .NET CMS, Kentico, with an MS-SQL backend.

Data driven enhancements

Pumex leveraged data driven metrics based on information gathered about how RAPS site users navigated the website to make informed decisions about site enhancements which further drove user engagement.

Secure website

Pumex was able to resolve the RAPS website’s DDoS cyber-attack in less than 24hrs, restoring full security to the website within that time.

Future Goals

Pumex is RAPS vendor of choice for all web development, cloud infrastructure management, and cybersecurity requirements. Pumex is proud to continue supporting the overly complex RAPS website with many custom web parts and their ongoing infrastructure support needs.

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IAIW Salesforce CMS Website Development

Internation Association of Ironworkers

Salesforce CMS Website Development

About the International Association of Ironworkers

The International Association of Ironworkers (IAI) union assists in securing stronger benefits, better pay, safer working conditions, and a higher level of job security for its 120,000 members across North America. Their members have been involved in major construction projects such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the World Trade Center, and the Freedom Tower.

Executive Summary

IAI engaged PUMEX for the redevelopment, integration, and modernization of their information system’s architecture, applications, and databases. These applications run most of IAI’s business processes and workflows, making the nature of our work on these systems critical to their operations.

Since 2008, IAI’s legacy software applications had been under costly development, following a haphazard process and lack of task prioritization. Pumex was able to create upgraded versions of these applications.

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IAI was using legacy, custom software that ran critical internal business processes in a disconnected environment. Applications included their IWITS, IWATS, and WCP platforms. They relied on manual export/import processes, lived in silos, lacked functionality to properly record information, and were complex and costly to manage. It was determined that all applications would need to be re-built, due to inequities in code and database schema.

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Pumex implemented an agile SDLC with two-week sprints. This approach followed a System Design Document that detailed system architecture, DB design, application design, security and controls. We leveraged DevOps processes including CI/CD, test automation, and Git to manage code tracking and merge. Our solution contained a database schema redesign, consolidating four separate databases, rewriting the code base with industry best practices, redesigning the UI/UX for improved user efficiencies, implementing OWASP and Cybersecurity best practices, automating workflows, and migrating to a Gold Source Database.

Immediate Results

Self-Service Member Portal

Pumex implement this portal as a user-friendly dashboard that enables IAI to gain efficiency and save costs by significantly reducing the time needed to support members.

New System Design

Our solution included a modern design and development in parallel with the redesign, re-build, and integration of the legacy applications.

Improved Features and Functionality

Pumex integrated and improved the applications, modernized the platform/environment through code reengineering and re-development, and implemented new code

In the Cloud

Pumex implemented a cloud-based solution in Microsoft Azure along with its IaaS (Infrastructure as a Services) and PaaS solutions.

Future Goals

Pumex recommended a phased roll out of the consolidated legacy systems to allow decommissioning over time while the systems continued to run in parallel through the development process. This will ensure easier organizational onboarding and help to relieve training burdens by reducing productivity issues and employee downtime.

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