The Situation
QuickPass is based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company offers access control and security services to communities and properties around the southwest. Their flagship application included a robust visitor check-in process with an operated security post, visitor announcements, access schedules and a resident-facing web portal.
QuickPass had on staff a small internal development group that was attempting to tackle several technology challenges without much or any related experience, so the leadership of QuickPass decided to locate a technical partner that could help. But leadership was concerned about trusting a partner with what they wanted as a propriety system and needed reassurance that their potential partner could achieve their goals.
QuickPass asked their professional network for referrals, and Envative’s name came up in multiple conversations—so they reached out for more information.
The Challenge
“But, Envative is in New York, and QuickPass is in Arizona. Can we make that work?” While it’s true that the two offices are 2,500 miles apart, Envative demonstrated how its process and project communication methods made those miles disappear via virtual methods. QuickPass then formally engaged Envative, and the team got to work.
The main goal for QuickPass was to create a proprietary IoT (Internet of Things) device to control access gates, doors and entries. They also wanted to create a mobile application for residents, visitors and service providers, while addressing multiple architecture and application scaling issues. QuickPass 1.0 had been developed in 2003 using ASP.NET, and webforms using VB.NET—now dated platforms—so it needed a complete technology update. Costs and schedules were their greatest concerns.
Before Envative could get started, QuickPass leadership first had to understand the depth of effort to develop a mobile app, create a lightweight version of the QuickPass suite (as an initial phase), create an embedded IoT device to control entries, and create a cloud service to integrate all the data associated with the business processes. Leadership also requested timeline and cost estimates before beginning any development so that they could prioritize their goals and make the best decisions for the company.
The Envative Solution
Envative first needed to assess the fitness of the existing QuickPass code base, address an aggressive delivery schedule, and identify and share technical strategies to make sure QuickPass would become a leader in the security industry. Envative formed three project teams: web, mobile, and IoT, and created budgets and timelines for each.
The project manager created independent schedules and reporting for each team, which included each feature as it was being developed and released for testing.To modernize the client’s critical application, Envative reviewed all options and decided on .NET Core.
Today, QuickPass is the visitor management system of choice for hundreds of communities across the nation. The Envative teams not only met all the delivery dates for QuickPass, but by outsourcing this effort, QuickPass also saved 20% on costs compared to their internal team’s salaries. They soon decided to remove their internal technology team because they realized that the cost and delivery benefits associated with using Envative’s expertise better suited the company’s future growth plans.
