Technology providers in the education sector have been reluctant to outsource development, when compared to other sectors.
Glancing away from education, I remember reading an article back in 2015 on Entrepreneur highlighting some huge tech companies that used outsourced development. Examples included Slack, Skype and Basecamp. These are all successful at a global level.
Companies like these will have found that outsourcing development offered them scalability, flexibility, in-demand skills, and rapid speed of development, all at relative ease and low cost when compared to continuously trying to recruit in-house.
Below we have summarised three success stories that we have been involved in with developer outsourcing in the education sector.
Outsourcing to develop a powerful school information management system
WCBS provides independent and international schools with solutions across their admissions, administration, finance, academic and alumni departments. Their software was built on legacy code and the in-house team was spending a disproportionate amount of time fixing and patching the system. This meant they did not have enough resources to develop a contemporary solution. They chose to outsource and use extended teams to drive the business forward.
Amdaris redesigned the architecture to allow the product to be enhanced and an API solution was developed. We integrated with WCBS’s in-house developers to rewrite the legacy code.
The result added functionality to the product, allowing the existing customer base to receive an enhanced, more efficient user experience. The APIs created better value for the platform, allowing more products to be delivered to customers – an improved development process was also designed and implemented.
Using outsourcing to develop a robust education platform
Pearson are one of the world’s leading educational software providers. They identified that the management and administration system for one of their courses required updating. With disparate databases and a reliance on paper-based processes and manual uploads, they required a full digital transformation.
The academic cycle provided a further layer of complexity in completing such a task, and the extra resource of an outsourced solution with Amdaris was chosen. Deadlines were met and the first live application was delivered within four months. Pearson’s system has been transformed and Amdaris continue to work with them on a consultancy basis.
Modernising the architecture on a workplace training system
Staffline provide and manage workforces and one of their business units delivers staff training. Their training, qualifications, verifications and compliance software had been continuously modified and it was now difficult to maintain and control. Business requirements had also grown beyond the capabilities of the application.
Looking at the bigger picture, Staffline executives decided that a flexible outsourcing approach would be the best way to update the system. They commissioned Amdaris to provide advice and the extended teams that could help them develop a new version of the software to a satisfactory timeline.
The best method for work was identified as an Amdaris scrum master alongside internal business analysis and project management teams. Testament to the success of the project is that Staffline continue to use our outsourced solution on a flexible basis.
What could outsourcing do for you?
So there you have it! Outsourcing works in the education sector and can deliver fantastic results that align with your budgets and timescales. You can read more about each of these examples as well as arrange a chat to see how Amdaris can help you, by going here.