Uplifting the Student Admission Process through Integrated and Responsive Web Design
EDUCATION
THE CHALLENGE
Our customer is responsible for assessing students’ academic and non-academic qualifications and for ranking eligible applicants for tertiary education courses.
As part of their strategic plan, the organisation sought to integrate new and innovative methods to drive greater efficiency and unlock additional value in the student admissions process.
A key component of their technology strategy is the delivery of a holistic capability, which is crucial for enabling the delivery of other projects in the future. Chamonix, as a trusted technology partner, was approached to assist with a roadmap to modernise their systems in accordance with their technology strategy.
Addressing ageing platforms was a pivotal step towards a modern transformation, which was a central part of this initiative.
The primary focus was on their admissions portal, a core element of the business’s operations. Chamonix was engaged to advise and subsequently facilitate the transformation of their application, addressing several key issues:
- A legacy application nearing the end of its life.
- Costly on-premise hosting.
- A complicated security boundary that required an uplift to mitigate against the changing threat landscape.
- Limited opportunities to extend existing functionality.
- Poor support for mobile and tablet use.
- A lack of consistent identity for applicants between application periods.
- Data duplication and re-entry across multiple applications.
SOLUTION
Chamonix’s initial engagement involved a comprehensive review of the organisation’s existing application landscape. During this review, Chamonix’s experts evaluated:
- The range of applications in use.
- The methodologies for development and deployment.
- The documentation, ongoing maintenance, and support processes.
- The technical skills present within the customer’s team.
The review aimed to identify any capability gaps within the team and to explore strategies for upskilling the existing workforce. To design, develop, and deliver the new application, a hybrid team approach was adopted. The organisation’s objectives for this approach were to:
- Establish best practices for agile software development.
- Integrate DevOps practices into the application development and operations teams.
- Enhance the skills of their personnel in modern development methodologies and frameworks.
Our Recommendation and Solution
In line with a hybrid approach, Chamonix collaborated with the organisation to create a scoping and implementation plan. This plan pinpointed the essential components for implementation to achieve the desired benefits, including:
- The creation of a new Angular-based front-end web application.
- The introduction of a contemporary identity management and authentication system.
- The adoption of new API management practices utilising APIM and Azure App Services.
To rapidly deliver value and allow the development team to concentrate on key outcomes, the existing business processing engine was maintained with tertiary institution integrations. Interfaces were enhanced with a modern API layer that included enhanced security controls and compatibility with contemporary web application frameworks. A dynamic resourcing model ensured the hybrid team had access to the necessary expertise on demand.
Chamonix experts took charge of the architecture, application design, and development leadership, collaborating closely with the customer’s development and QA teams, following the guidance of the application owner and subject matter experts (SMEs).
This project marked a significant transformation in the organisation’s approach to application development and maintenance. At the heart of this change was the adoption of a DevOps culture, emphasising automation, standardisation, and the minimisation of manual interventions, especially concerning patching, configuration, and deployment processes.
BENEFITS
The modernisation of the admissions system brought several key benefits:
- Responsive and accessible modern UI supportive of use across desktop, tablet and mobile devices
- Modern technology platform to:
- Reduce the cost of development and maintenance
- Increase the accessibility of skilled staff within the marketplace
- Increase platform longevity
- Cloud first approach including reduction of operational costs
- Increased security posture in line with evolving threat landscape
- Better visibility of the application and offer process for students and staff
- Dynamic branding for institutions through white labelling providing a better user experience with their systems and processes
- Establishment of standards and best practices for Angular development and DevOps
- Upskilling of existing customer technical teams
- Reduction of error rate and event response effort
- Reduced friction for the user registration and general experience, leading to a higher volume of applicants
SOLUTIONS & SERVICES
- Application Development
- Web Development
- DevOps
- Testing
- Integration
- Delivery Management
- Project Management
- Business Analysis
