Kadabra IT

Overview: CADTH is a government-run program whose primary role is to supply healthcare decision-makers with detailed reports and assessments of drugs, drug classes, medical devices, and technologies. The objective evidence they generate is intended to help critical stakeholders make informed decisions to improve public health and related programs.

Challenge: If we were to help CADTH achieve its goals on their nearly impossible timelines, a lifeline was needed. The Rescue Team got right to work. We deployed a product owner and project manager to quickly assess the core business, review the state of the project thus far, and provide suggestions as to how to move forward.

The Rescue Team is like first responders for IT emergencies, diving into the opportunity to push a project through short timelines and deliver beyond all expectations, no matter what stage of the project.

Solution: The most urgent need was in adapting the Drupal 7 live website to accommodate new requirements and workflows. Specifically, they needed to present reviews on new drugs and medical technologies, and organize them under a new, more efficient, and secure file structure.

Next, we were to continue their Drupal 8 website redesign project. We first evaluated the status of the project and established a roadmap to take it to completion.

We also designed a solution to make their content uploads faster and more efficient. Users can now upload and manage content on the same page, significantly reducing the time it takes to accomplish their work.

Success: The new CADTH website complies with the most stringent international data privacy policies and regulatory frameworks. It is flexible enough to support whatever changes and growth they might face in the future.

Overview: Within the framework of the development of the Uruguayan State's portal for AGESIC, Kadabra was chosen for the implementation of Gub.uy distribution in Drupal; a single point of access to all government information and processes. Gub.uy was launched in 2018 and involves more than 200 websites including Uruguayan Presidency, Ministries, and main Bureaus.

Challenge: Uruguayan Government needed to integrate all Government portals into one and unify their communication and designs in a scalable and secure CMS. Their top priority was meeting the needs of the citizens with an intuitive experience where the citizens could find all the information easily.

Solution: We began defining the site architecture to ensure we meet the website goals while delivering a great experience for users. Gub.uy is a distribution of more than 200 sites. To build and support those sites we built a Drupal profile and use Jenkins and Git for the architecture deployment.

Success: Providing integrated and unified access to Central Government’s services and developing a new single point of access to public sector websites and services, allowed Uruguay to joined in 2018 the D9, the most advanced digital government group.

Overview: Sequel’s strengths are in UI/UX development, but they were looking for a technology partner to enhance their technological solutions. In doing so, they would be able to expand their services to support several highly complex, large-scale web development projects that they were about to take on.

One of them was a comprehensive rebranding and web redesign for one of the most important investment management companies in the U.S. Founded in 1864, the firm manages approximately $109 billion in assets for institutional and individual clients and has annual revenue of $100 million.

Challenge: Tasked with implementing a new website and communications platform for the client, Sequel partnered with Kadabra to augment their extraordinary UX/UI capabilities and bring the project to fruition.

The end client was an investment management firm with a complex set of financial products. Sequel was undertaking a comprehensive redesign of the firm’s brand and communications platform, and the challenge was nothing short of titanic. Timelines were short as they had to complete the job within five months. Kadabra joined the team as a strategic partner to help them complete and implement the new website in the stipulated time.

The work had a high level of technical complexity, not the least of which was compliance with the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) regulations.

Solution: We applied our Managed Team service to the task—a multidisciplinary team with multiple specialists taking on various roles at different project stages.

The tools and functionality we brought to the table resulted in a flexible, user-friendly tool that the client’s content editors could use to communicate efficiently, which they had been unable to do before.

Success: The new website elevated the client’s web presence to the next level, providing a renewed and improved experience to its clients, who welcomed this transformation with great enthusiasm.

Overview: The American Council on Education (ACE) leads advocacy efforts that shape public policy, helping colleges and universities.

ACE’s peer-to-peer online learning platform, Engage, was developed to improve equity, expand access to colleges and universities, and diversify the higher education leadership pipeline. ACE needed to add new functionalities and tools to improve community interactions within the platform, which was a feature that their current technology did not support.

Challenge: The project was a high priority for ACE, and they requested a short window. We had less than three months to complete the work—but that wasn’t the only complication.

Perhaps the biggest challenge was in the implementation itself. As the foundational LMS platform would not change, the new tools needed to integrate into Engage and behave like they were part of the core system.

Solution: We created microsites in Drupal Opigno and Drupal Open Social and then embedded them into Engage. This approach enabled us to design a seamless UX that did not force the site user to gain the new interactive functions or make it look or feel like they were leaving the site.

We accomplished it using the “Learning Tools Interoperability” specification, which allowed us to embed Drupal web applications within the interface and sync accounts and user credentials, among other things.

Features included (WCAG) 2 Level AA Conformance, SCORM compliance, and integration with H5P, which allowed ACE to create interactive videos, presentations, and quizzes, plus fully interactive timelines, and more.

Success: The implemented solution enabled ACE to realize substantial improvement in the flexibility of their Engage platform. The new functionality provided them with a tool that markedly improved its community’s communication, interaction, engagement, and collaboration.

We finished the project and launched well within the expected three-month timeframe, enabling the Engage community to truly engage.

Overview: Sequel Studio is an NYC-based Marketing and Advertising Agency focused on brand activation through strategy, design, and technology. They were looking for a technology partner to enhance their capabilities to support highly complex, large-scale web development projects.

One of these projects involved a comprehensive website redesign for a publicly-traded, full-service bank operating more than 150 branches in New York and New Jersey.

Kadabra entered the canvas as a strategic partner, working alongside Sequel Studios to augment their remarkable UX/UI capabilities and successfully re-engineer and implement the new website.

Challenge: This project had several technical challenges in its execution and integrations with several third-party systems. One of these was Yext, an AI Search Solution, which enabled the website to provide intelligent responses to client queries.

Additionally, the site needed to support sophisticated marketing campaigns, including ad groupings and a system for managing, prioritizing, publishing, and displaying those ads.

To solve these challenges, we launched a short discovery phase, during which one of our Architects and Project Managers identified the client’s business needs. We documented the architecture that the new website should have, which was summarily validated by the client.

We got down to work.

Solution: We applied our Managed Team service to the task—a multidisciplinary team with multiple specialists taking on various roles at different project stages.

The tools and functionalities we brought to the table resulted in a flexible, user-friendly tool that the client’s content editors could use to work, create, deploy, and communicate more efficiently than the previous one. As a result, their marketing teams could accomplish more in less time and design and launch highly efficient, fully trackable campaigns within the system.

Overview: Like organizations in the private sector, governments thrive when communication is made easy. However, the opposite situation exists. Departments operate in isolation, getting things done without significant input from other agencies, even those with complementary functions.

The Presidency of the Republic had patchy intranet coverage and was interested in rectifying the situation.

Challenge: Presidency operates under a complex hierarchy that includes executing and dependent units. There is quite a bit of interdependence between all the players involved, and critical information commonly needs to be passed up and down the chain of command.

They needed a single, unified intranet that allowed the entire Presidency to communicate directly. However, each unit had to communicate internally, so they wanted separate intranets.

Solution: The first thing we did was formulate a plan for unifying nearly 20 separate intranets into one still with a degree of autonomy.

We designed a multi-domain architecture with WordPress, which allowed the same intranet to be accessed through different URLs. For example, AGESIC would access the intranet through the URL: agesic.intranetpresidencia.gub.uy

Each unit was assigned a URL in the same manner. Only the subdomain (the bold section) differed with each. It allowed us to identify which unit was requesting access. Then we engineered a system that permitted both global and unit-specific content to be displayed separately within the same framework.

Success: Communication blossomed across the entire Presidency and within individual units. Departments that had never had intranet access were blown away by how easy it was to keep tabs on essential matters. The President and his staff finally had single channel access to every unit within the Presidency.

The Presidency was grateful to finally have a fully-interconnected intranet system designed to their precise specifications and impressed with the work that went into its creation.

Overview: When Sugey One needed help with Drupal implementation for a website they were developing for a government agency, they came to us. The project required rigorous planning and design and a DevOps background to aid in getting the completed build up and running in production.

We rolled up our sleeves and jumped into the fray.

Challenge: The most problematic issues were surrounding the providers’ account creation and management. They tried multiple implementations before our involvement, but all were missing the mark for one reason or another. Compounding difficulties were seemingly insoluble challenges affecting the execution of the users’ permission. Once fully functional, the site required four different types of users, each with a specific set of permissions.

Solution: First, we developed a new methodology for managing provider accounts, which avoided previous pitfalls and significantly reduced operational overhead.

We created a custom framework for dealing with the complexities of the sites’ user permissions, cross-referencing user categories with site functions and access levels. This meticulous process resulted in a roadmap that Sugey One and we could follow as we built out the code and overarching design.

Simultaneously we were scrupulously implementing a DevOps solution that worked for our client and theirs. We also applied the same approaches to our work, ensuring a consistent, efficient, error-free production system.

Success: Even before site completion, our work was already paying dividends. New providers flocked to the site, setting up accounts in record numbers. Previous difficulties had undermined their faith in the project, but once they saw people getting involved, they grew in confidence.

We solved the user permissions issue as well. As a result, countless people will get the help they require from the professionals best suited to their needs.

Overview: Garotas is a leader in the wholesale stationery market. Their sales channels extend from physical locations to phone sales and an e-commerce website. They offer over 5,000 products in a variety of categories and have developed a large and loyal customer base over the years.

After weighing several firms, Garotas chose Kadabra IT because of our deep expertise in Magento, a full-featured e-commerce platform.

Challenge: Their e-commerce site allowed purchases, but it did not connect their accounting, warehousing, or stocking systems. When orders came in, there wasn’t a systematic procedure for fulfillment.

Sales came in at such a frenetic pace that orders were lost, and their pipeline overflowed. Their packing and shipping logistics couldn’t keep up, causing extended delays.

They needed a single system that integrated orders, processing, fulfillment, and shipping across all three sales channels. Additionally, they needed to model the physical logistics center of this new system to meet demand efficiently.

Solution: We moved to implement a restructuring of their sales systems, starting with their e-commerce site. Along with a more user-friendly design, we built out a modernized architecture using Magento, integrating it with the company’s ERP.

These optimizations led to daily sales increments of over 120%, an exciting prospect for any company.

Success: Optimizing their order processing led to impressive gains in fulfillment productivity. Not only was Garotas able to handle the increased daily activity that our news sales structures made possible, but they also sailed through their first busy season without a hiccup.

Now, 60% of their sales come from their e-commerce presence.

Garotas was thrilled with the results. They now had the infrastructure they needed to scale their business without being overwhelmed by it. They found our implementation easy to use and perfectly tailored to their needs.

Overview: Creative agencies are full of great ideas but don't necessarily have the staff to realize them. They'll often contract out the creation of final deliverables to production companies, print firms, and web design companies.

Cake is a graphic, digital, experience, and creative design company in Tempe, AZ. Not only do they conceptualize creative campaigns, but they do most of the design and execution as well. But there's one skill set they haven't invested in internally — web development.

Challenge: Cake was already busy handling the creative side of the business. They didn't have time to micromanage their vendors.

Previous attempts at hiring outside help ended in poor service, incomplete deliverables, and substandard work.

The ideal partner would have the talent and the infrastructure to manage complex web projects, allowing Cake to pass implementation duties with full knowledge that work would be well done.

As luck would have it, they were developing a high-traffic website for a company dedicated to automated testing tools development and commercialization.

Solution: We quickly got up to speed on the technical implementation of their design. As we worked through the project, it became clear that we would need to re-engineer the system architecture elements.

To streamline development efforts, we introduced Cake to the continuous integration concept. Under this model, developers merged branching code changes into a shared repository several times daily.

Success: Cake's client was delighted with the project results, and Cake was thrilled by our collaboration. They saw the value of continuous integration and moved to standardize the methodology for all future projects.

Our partnership, now three years old, has allowed Cake to pursue more extensive and complex web development projects. Their client base has expanded, boosting their earnings and reputation.