OVERVIEW
A secure web application created for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) as a digitalised case management alternative to the paper-based system of old. Thus streamlining the workflow process and providing better process oversight for all parties involved.
BUILT USING
- PHP 5
- Symfony 2 Framework
- Doctrine ORM
- HTML5/SCSS3/JavaScript
THE BRIEF
Highlands and Islands Enterprise required an application to automate/digitalise the Financial Advice Case process in operation between HIE and their clients, advisors and suppliers.
A single common interface was required where users of all roles can securely login and provide the sensitive data needed for HIE to provide specialist advice. This interface needed to be intuitive and easy to use; with a reduction in the need to ‘look’ for data. Thusly, the system would reduce working pressures and save man hours; whilst additionally providing a responsive design which could be fluidly used on devices such as mobiles.
THE SOLUTION
Using the consultation data collected from HIE combined with intuition, SwarmOnline’s UX/UI design team created the modern and flexible interface of the application. Designed to be responsive and user friendly, the interface had to match existing brand guidelines from HIE. Therefore, the final interface was shown and demoed by the design team to HIE before development of the new user experience started.
The application was developed with close observation from HIE, as an up to date build of the app was available externally throughout the development stages. This allowed for constant testing and clear progress updates straight to the client from SwarmOnline. On top of this, SwarmOnline and HIE engaged in regular scrums to discuss the current development path and cover an overview of the application’s progress.
The SwarmOnline development team utilised Bitbucket to operate professional version control throughout development and implemented testing-aware programming to ensure the application is as bug-free as possible. Additionally, every build of the application underwent unit testing as curated by the development leads.
SwarmOnline and HIE determined that the system would be built using PHP5.5 with the Symfony2 framework to form the base structure of the application. The front-end was generated with Javascript and Bootstrap using data from the MySQL database and Doctrine 2 ORM back-end. This structure for the system allowed the application to be dynamic and efficient; resulting in a fast and smooth experience for the user.
For the deployment of the app, an external 3rd party host was chosen by HIE and SwarmOnline took on the responsibility of deploying the application. Furthermore, a defined set of future support was arranged between SwarmOnline and HIE for covering application maintenance.
