senchacon 2016: creating a flexible and usable industry specific solution - don schenker

Creating a Flexible and Usable Industry Specific

SolutionDon Schenker

President and CEO, Synergistix

Introduction

About Don Schenker

• Education• Previous Positions• Current Company• Family• Hobbies

3

About Synergistix

• What we Do

• Mission

• Vision

• Core Values

• Awards and Accolades

4

Awards and Accolades

5

MSHUG - Best Enabling Software

Company Pinnacle Award - 2 timesCEO of the Year Ranked 3rd among Top 100 South FL Businesses Ranked among fastest growing companies – 4 times

CEO recognized among 100 Most Inspiring People – 3 times

Served on the PDMA Alliance Board – 12+ Years

Great Places to Work - 2015South Florida Top Workplaces - 2016

Our Solution

The CATS SystemCustomer Analysis and Targeting System

System History

• 2002: CATS Version 1

• 2003: CATS Version 2

• 2008: CATS Version 3

• 2011: CATS Mobile

CATS-Mobile

System Goals

• Easy to use- Touch Enabled

- “One-Click to Anywhere”

- Intuitive GUI - Limited Training Required

• Multi-Platform- Designed for iPad as the Primary Device

- Needs to work with Windows Tablet and Android Devices

- Smart-Phone Compatibility

System Goals (continued)• Fully Configurable

- Menu Options

- Fields and Labels across all screens

- Powerful workflow system and options

- Multi-Language, Multi Currency, International Zip Code Support

• Compliance and Security - System functions in a regulatory environment – need to be compliant with FDA/CFR Rules

- Security access based on roles (different menu options, screen layouts, edit rules)

- Full audit trail and back-up mechanisms

- Ability to work off-line and on-line transparently

HOW DID YOU DO IT?

How We Did It

• Employed a SCRUM (Agile Development) methodology

• Set Clear requirements

• Full support from the management team

• Utilized a graphic artist that specialized in GUI design

• Employed Customer Engagement throughout the process

Utilization of a SCRUM MethodologyBenefits of SCRUM

• Features listed on “The Backlog”- As items move up the backlog, details are

added

- Priorities can be changed quickly

• System broken down in 2 week “sprints”

• Progress measured daily

• Results reviewed by executive team

Clear Business Requirements

• We had the benefit of a previous system, which included most of the functionality

• We had clearly defined goals and GUI standards

• Standards and best practices reviewed at each of the “Stakeholder Review Meetings”

• QC Team involved early and throughout the process.

Full Support of the Management Team

• At the end of each SCRUM Release cycle (about every 3 Scrums or 6 weeks), the development demonstrated the work in progress to management team

• Each developer presented their portion of the system

• Managers provided un-restricted feedback (both positive and negative)

• Changes and enhancement requests were folded into the next Scrum cycle

Graphic Artist

• System Palette

• Standard Icons

• Created specific “look and feel”

• Implemented GUI Standards and Workflow Processes

• Consistency of Objects

• Clean Design

Customer Engagement

• “Customer Roundtables” 3x per year

• Review backlog and system enhancements quarterlywith ALL clients

• Include feedback in design direction

Design Considerations

Why We Choose SenchaFlexible Architecture • Unified Framework

- Allows applications targeting both desktop and mobile devices.

- Initially developed for tablet devices

- Significantly increased the performance of our teams to build a common platform across our teams

- Increased knowledge transfer between developers, enabling portability of libraries and components.

• MVC/MVVM Architecture: - Enabled us to better organize the source code of our projects and reuse components

- Gained independence of all target platform(s)

- Common components reduced development time, allow updates across all applications and reduces testing

Why We Choose SenchaSupport and Compatibility• Components

- Leveraging the rich set of components enabled focus on business needs and user experience.

• Support- Sencha active developer community features strong support forums

- Sencha Premium Support provides fast turnaround times on questions

- The framework has an extensive set of widgets, examples, and developer documentation to minimize the learning curve of new developers.

• Cross-Browser Compatibility• Quality

System DesignCustom Controls• Multi Selector

• Date Picker

• Carousel

• Calendar

• Signature Field

• Geo-Targeting

System DesignCustom Processes • Dynamic Visual Components

• Custom Workflow

• Synchronization Mechanism

• Seamless On-Line/Off-Line Functions

• Multi- Language Support

DMZ

Web Services

Internet

Tablet/Convertible

Backend Interfaces (Web Service or SFTP)

v3

Back End ProcessesMaking everything work seamlessly• Reliability of Data

• Integration with External Data Sources

• Managing the work-flow

• Error identification and tracking

What’s Next

What’s Next

• Continuing development of our Backlog- Currently 224 items listed,

- 35 items with high-priority status

• Building out the administration Module- Allows end-users to self-configure the system

- Improved workflow for data management and workflow

• Deeper analytics sub-system- Rich “Cube-based” data query capabilities and Artificial Intelligence

- Scheduling and management of report generation

Final Thoughts

My Top 5 List

1. Build a great team- We would not have been successful without the incredible developers and DBAs on our team

2. Find great partners- Sencha has been a great partner to us – when we encountered issues, the Sencha team had

supported us, and worked with us to find the best solution (and quickly)

3. Plan Up-Front- By planning the system and design ahead of time, we eliminated much of the rework and issues

4. Engaged and committed management and stakeholder involvement

5. Be Grateful

… and One More Thing

• Enjoy Your Work!

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

 – Steve Jobs

QuestionsContact Info: Don Schenker

don.schenker@syncrm.com