redburn / softwire - financial research site case study

• Financialnewsandresearchportal

• AngularJSsinglepagefront-endapplication

• CustomOAuthauthenticationsolution

• IntegrationswithexternalXMLfeeds,databases,andemailsasdatasources

• ASP.NETMVC/WebAPI,C#,EntityFramework,SQLServerback-end

At A Glance

Softwire built a sophisticated financial news and research site for Redburn, a leading equity broker, with a high degree of UI quality.

The Challenge

SoftwirebuiltafinancialnewsandresearchsiteforRedburn,aleadingequitybrokerandresearchprovider.Redburnwere looking fora freshdirectionfortheironlineinvestmentresearchofferingandneededacompanyabletoimplementtheirdesiredgraphicdesigntoahighdegreeoffidelityandtechnicalquality.

Theprojectposedanumberofchallengesforourteamincludinghighfidelityimplementationofdesignswithoutcompromiseonfunctionality.Itwasvitalthatthesitewasresponsivelydesignedformobile,tabletanddesktop,aswellashavingahigh-qualityappearancewhenprinted.Theteamwerealsorequiredtoensurethesmoothintegrationofmultipledatasources(APIs,databases,emails)fromavarietyoforganisations,inaliveupdatemanner.

We delivered the project in anAgilemanner, and in close collaborationwiththeRedburnproductownersandstakeholders.Wealsoworkedwithend users to elicit feedback about releases prior to go-live, which wasincorporatedintotheproductbacklog,andultimatelyresultedinapositivelyreceivedlivelaunch.

The Outcome

Ourinvestmentintestingandtoolingdeliveredsignificantvalueoverthecourseofdevelopment,andcontributedtohigherqualityandlowercostofownership.Ourin-houseUXanddesigncapability,andourstrongfrontenddevelopersmeantwecouldquicklydeliverthehighqualityUIrequired,whilstusingourmanagementandconsultancyexpertisetorefineRedburn’sbusinessrequirements.

WearecontinuingtosupportandextendtheresearchplatformforRedburn’sinternalusers,anditwillberolledoutgloballytocustomersinthenearfuture.RedburnhaveadditionallycommissionedSoftwiretocarryoutfurtherphasesofworkonthisprojectafterhavingreceivedverypositivefeedbackfromitsinternaluserssincerelease.

The SolutionWearchitectedandbuilttheplatformasaresponsivewebsiteusingaMicrosofttechstack,withourdesignteamprovidingiterativeupdatestotheoriginaldesignsfollowinginitialuserfeedback.Forthefront-end,wechosethemodernframeworkAngularJStoprovidethelookandfeelRedburnwerelookingfor.Asignificantamountofsystemlogicwasimplementedclient-side,improvingresponsivenessanduserexperience.

Whenfacedwithareasoftechnicalrisk,weundertookatechnical‘spike’earlyonintheproject,ashortburstoffocusseddevelopmentwiththesoleintentionofreducingoreliminatingtherisk.Onesuchexamplewastheriskaroundthirdpartydependencies:integratingthirdpartyAPIs,variousRedburndatabases,andinparticularparsinghuman-writtenemailstointegratecontentintothesystem.

Inkeepingwithourcultureofautomation,wedeliveredafullsuiteofautomatedtestsatalllevelsofthesystem,includingcode-leveltests(JavaScriptandC#),integrationtests,smoketestsandbrowsertests(viaSelenium).

ThesystemishostedinthecloudonMicrosoftAzure,anddeployedautomaticallytothreeenvironments(UAT,stage,live)withablue/greenproductionsetup(runningidenticalenvironmentswhichtrafficcanbeswitchedbetween,providingzero-downtimeupdatesandanimmediaterollbackpathincaseofissues).WetackledriskyareasearlyandcommunicatedfrequentlywithRedburnstakeholderstoachieveasuccessfulresult.