Expensive off-the-shelf software

The customer support team was using an off-the-shelf membership management software. While this initially allowed them to avoid building a custom solution, the high annual subscription fee was adding up over time and costing more than building a proprietary app. 

eCommerce limitations

SCTE serves members individually, as small groups, and as organizations. Although their existing software allowed for the purchase of individual items, batching purchases for groups was time-consuming and unintuitive.

Unintuitive user interface (UI)

SCTE’s existing software was built as a one-size-fits-all solution for any membership organization, so it was littered with unnecessary UI elements and overly complicated workflows. For instance, simple tasks like finding a user record required a convoluted process that was frustratingly slow. 

Data management & API challenges

SCTE stores and retrieves data from a number of sources, including Salesforce, a Learning Management System (LMS), and their legacy databases. The APIs connecting these sources weren’t implemented using best practices, putting their data integrity and response times at risk. On top of this, inconsistent input conventions led to duplicate and/or incorrect data entry. 

Streamlined core customer support workflows

We identified the most common reasons people contact customer support and streamlined the processes required to address these issues. We also created programmatic data entry guardrails to prevent human error related to incorrect or incomplete data. 

Scalable data governance

CSAW now serves as the central hub that connects Salesforce, SCTE’s internal databases, and their LMS. Because we built the application from scratch on a modern tech stack (Vue.JS + Node.JS), we were able to eliminate technical debt left by their previous system and lay a foundation for growth and future feature development.

Fresh & modern user experience 

Building CSAW from the ground up not only eliminated technical debt, but also allowed us to implement modern user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) principles. As a result, the app looks clean, feels snappy, and is intuitive to use.

Better business logic

We helped SCTE develop business logic that informed how they rebuilt the API. CSAW now uses a single API that pulls all relevant data from third party sources, and structures that data so it can load on a single screen. This simplifies their process and improves the app’s page load speed and performance. 

Powerful custom eCommerce solution

One of the most common reasons people contact SCTE’s support team is to purchase new products, such as memberships, bootcamps, online courses, or certifications. This process can become quite complex, since each item needs to be linked to a specific member during checkout, product pricing is determined by that individuals’ membership status, and overall cost is affected by custom payment/discount codes.

Since the complexity of these conditions exceeded the capability of an off-the-shelf solution, we built a custom eCommerce functionality within CSAW. It includes a Salesforce API, Paypal payment gateway, discount/payment codes, membership pricing logic, and the ability to structure and generate receipts.