Sketch Development Services

CHALLENGE The world’s most-used online payment processing vendor was struggling with how to manage credit and risk on their broad platform. The vendor needed strong risk analysis tools and an analytics dashboard to answer risk-related questions for both merchants and consumers. As this new initiative was funded and kicked off, a group of high performing engineers and business analysts were pulled together to form a product platform team. This team, led by a highly experienced platform engineer, began to develop features for technical capabilities that would comprise the new intelligence automation platform. It quickly became evident that this team was on a mission to build an intelligence platform – not how to solve a customer problem. They were missing a critical part of the picture – the voice of the customer. What did a credit risk analyst need in order to make risk trade off decisions? SOLUTION Together, we agreed that the primary objective for this phase of the engagement was to plan the first value increment. We further agreed to help the team adopt proven agile concepts. First, everyone aligned behind a common purpose, published a product vision, and used it to drive decision making. Next, we co-created a roadmap and backlog. This leadership backlog provided delivery and enablement teams a clear escalation path to quickly mitigate risks, dependencies and impediments.  Next, we helped the client rethink team structure. This meant breaking one big, slow team into six cross-functional delivery teams, each focused on customer value. This structure supported the requirement of quickly responding to changing business priorities. The client achieved a faster cadence of working and minimized time spent in meetings almost immediately. RESULTS Sketch prepared the enterprise to function in a CI/CD environment. Continuous delivery workflows helped the risk assessment platform team set a product roadmap and execution plan within 10 weeks. Read More

A company that focuses on building custom loan software workflows, managing robust reports, and automating credit decisions was looking to improve their speed to market. They had already engaged with Sketch to build a CI/CD pipeline leveraging a largely pre-selected technology stack. After proving an automated end-to-end pipeline was possible, they hoped to expand upon its capabilities. CHALLENGE Post-POC training the broader technical team is a critical step. Each contributor needs to understand the DevOps mindset and the capabilities they're entrusted to expand upon. SOLUTION Over the course of three days, two of Sketch’s technical trainers delivered a tailored DevOps Bootcamp that incorporated many of the technologies that would be available to the client's team moving forward. The customization of the training made the experience especially relevant and applicable to the participants. They were able to avoid hypotheticals and draw a direct line back to how they would implement and enhance the specific end-to-end pipeline that Sketch had already started. RESULTS Thanks to prior interaction with the client (see Automated DevOps Pipeline Case Study), Sketch was able to provide specific, hands-on, actionable training. The client’s team seamlessly transitioned from the classroom to their real-world environment, picking up where Sketch's cloud engineer left off. From there, the client's internal team could begin adding to the automation capabilities. The pipeline continues to become more robust at all stages. Don't take our word for it – we're proud of this quote from the client's COO: "We are really happy with where everyone is after training, and what they were able to learn and accomplish in such a short amount of time. This was the best development and training we’ve had in a really long time, and is light years beyond any other company that we’ve brought into train our teams." Read More

A Loan Software Company was undergoing a migration from an on-premise data center to Google Cloud Platform to improve scalability, resiliency, and cost savings. To migrate their applications to GCP with the least amount of impact, it made sense to containerize the applications. This strategy, however, demands automation to create and deploy the containers, so they asked Sketch to help build a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. CHALLENGE To migrate, our client needed each of their applications configured, rebuilt, pulled into a pipeline, and then deployed to the cloud. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a team with enough experience to do the development work. SOLUTION Sketch brought in one of our senior cloud engineers to take on the challenge. The client wanted the pipeline to be established first, so their development teams could start leveraging the automation as soon as possible. Sketch started building the pipeline, which included the following plan: Implementing common enterprise DevOps tools) Use Helm along with Spinnaker for deployment SonarQube to ensure higher code quality, application stability, and security Mesh tool for monitoring, logging, tracing (debugging), and complex routing One other primary goal was for Sketch to pair with their employees for the creation of this pipeline, facilitating knowledge sharing during the entire process. Through this collaborative effort, Sketch and the client started with the simplest of applications to prove the success of each stage of the pipeline as it went from build, to test, to package, to deploy. RESULTS After watching the app go through various phases, our client knew the pipeline was complete – an iteration earlier than our originally scoped end date. Sketch then conducted a 3-day immersive DevOps bootcamp taught by two of Sketch’s team members, highlighting what was included in the new CI/CD pipeline. See our DevOps Training case study to learn more. Read More

Sketch partnered with a Fortune 500 pet care company to develop a commercial-grade version of a previous application concept. The app had a social media aspect as well as photo editing functionality. Sketch started by placing an emphasis on agile practices at the forefront. This ensured the team would be able to experiment through the build, maintain the app for the life of the product,and replicate to build any new apps at a better pace. CHALLENGE We were asked to introduce agile practices to a traditionally waterfall team. This client partner was first introduced to Sketch after going through a few facilitated Agile Fundamentals Bootcamps. After the first day, the lightbulb turned on for the client’s leadership team: This was exactly the approach they needed to leverage to get their newest app into the marketplace. The ideas were there, and the team was in place, but the agile mindset and framework weren missing. SOLUTION First, we needed to put new methodologies into place for a team that didn’t know how to develop software following agile principles. After meeting with the developers, one Sketch agile coach and two Sketch developers crafted a 10-sprint development and training plan. The plan entailed developing ceremonies, creating a backlog, defining refinement, writing stories, working on features, automated testing, structuring pipelines, eliminating silos and improving communication within the team. Being able to introduce these concepts allowed us to establish a resilient foundation to move forward with the actual development of the app. RESULTS In 6 sprints, our developers and coach helped accomplish what the client’s team had been trying to do for over a year utilizing a traditional approach to new product development. The application hit the Apple App Store within three months. The client was so impressed with their results they continued working with Sketch for several more years to help the new process stick. We've released multiple apps together. Read More

One of the largest payment-processing corporations reengaged with Sketch to leverage recent experience related to their rewards system. The client needed to create a single standalone site that can serve multiple merchant programs to allow cardholders to view recent transactions and apply earned rewards points. They wanted to ensure the cardholder would also be able to set preferences on applying rewards to upcoming purchases. CHALLENGE With a growing number of merchant partners, our client wanted a new solution able to offer a low-touch integration between their merchant partners and our client’s own rewards platform. Current solutions required a lot of heavy lifting on the merchant’s part and could take a long time to implement. Sketch had to consider multiple challenges here: Using the merchant's SSO mechanism for authentication across sites White-labeling features while ensuring a consistent UX Allowing users to register merchant-branded cards and enroll in the rewards system SOLUTION Sketch created a new multi-tenant application from the ground up, incorporating our client’s security frameworks and best practices including fully automated tests and deployments, and adherence to accessibility standards. Each merchant integration includes single-sign-on capabilities, highly customizable white-labeling options, feature customization, and strict authorization controls to ensure privacy of merchant and cardholder data. The solution supports internationalization of currency and language for diverse merchant partners. RESULTS After we implemented the solution, our client is now able to offer its merchant partners seamless integration with its rewards platform. Onboarding new partners takes minimal effort, providing easy access to a customizable, feature-rich environment. World-class security and scalability allow the client to onboad far more merchant partners. Read More

One of the largest payment-processing corporations came to Sketch to incrementally modernize and renovate their consumer rewards web experience. Before Sketch engaged, the platform already hosted an experience for issuers of merchants’ branded loyalty program. Each program had a customizable reward offering and the branding of the program is configurable to match the client’s brand standards. The platform was being used, but there were many pain points and challenges that the client needed help to resolve. CHALLENGE The client had a laundry list of pain points: Difficulty launching and changing the website Limited flexibility around content and formatting Lack of stability Poor user experience Absence of key features Lack of smart recommendations and personalization Further, the client needed to plan for an eventual full rewrite of the legacy system. They wanted Sketch to design and implement a strangler pattern for all new features as well as could be used to replace the remaining system features incrementally. SOLUTION Sketch prioritized feautres, then implemented them with an iterative approach. Over time, the engagement addressed multiple priorities through collaboration with the client's internal design team: Enhance the existing app with new components to achieve a modern, interactive UI Enhance site content and enable translation into multiple languages Organize code into a mono-repo using the Nx build framework Automate interface testing with Cypress Integrate new technology to the legacy app, allowing for incremental rewrites RESULTS Sketch executed the client's vision for a revived application whiel leaving space for new ideas and priority changes later. The client has a working pattern for implementing new features or rewriting existing features using new technology that works alongside the legacy components. Changes no longer require development freezes or the risk of flash cut releases. Read More

An insurance brokerage needed a more reliable data system for their clients. The company provides innovative solutions through proactive risk assessment based on industry insights, market trends, and in-depth data analytics. They had been providing these insights through manual efforts including the cumbersome task of gathering data from multiple third-party data repositories. CHALLENGE The client’s data sprawled across disparate systems, hindering accuracy, delivery, and utilization. The need for a centralized solution was paramount, requiring an overhaul of their existing data landscape and presentation layer. The challenge was to streamline operations, elevate decision accuracy, and enhance customer service. They were looking for a solution that would integrate data insights into a “single pane of glass” for them to leverage both internally and externally. SOLUTION Sketch started by standing up a hosted environment in AWS. As product development began, two-week iterative sprints allowed the client to witness progress, provide feedback, and steer the product to best benefit the organization and their customers.  Using HTML Canvas Graphics, Sketch developed a custom drawing capability to replace the manual drawing of “towers” which demonstrate potential liabilities like gaps in coverage.  Sketch created a custom data ingestion framework to import information from Salesforce and the Applied Epic agency management system. The custom solution includes rigorous data quality checks, a user-friendly interface, and real-time user analytics. RESULTS Tthe client has been able to streamline their operations and offer a proprietary solution. A significant boost in operational efficiency reduced redundancies, improved overall workflow, and enhancing decision accuracy. Realtime access to data drives more informed decisions. Finally, improved data architecture yields faster, more personalized customer experiences. Read More

Sketch Development Services facilitated product improvements for an IT Security Firm that outgrew their low-code solution. Even starting from scratch, the Sketch developers built a complete MVP quickly. Sketch also selected a framework that enabled the firm to improve and maintain the app down the line. CHALLENGE Our client didn’t have full-time software developers on staff, but rather technically-minded individuals very capable of leveraging a no-code/low-code solution. They built something good enough to help themselvs outgrow the capabilities of such a solution and necessitate custom software. They needed a custom application worthy of a modern enterprise. The also had to be able to manage ongoing maintenance, even without full-time developers. SOLUTION The solution had to be affordable, scalable, performant, and relatively hands-off. AWS Lambda is the perfect choice to meet these needs. As a serverless solution, Lambda offers cost-effective pricing where you only pay per execution request. It's an operations-free model where no server patching, updates, or maintenance are required. Theoretically infinite scaling is available as the user base grows.  We also leveraged AWS Cognito and RDS. These managed services offer enhanced production capabilities thanks to redundancy, fail-over, and security. Infrastructure-as-Code concepts and tools expanded the platform to multiple environments at the push of a button. Lastly AWS’ CodeBuild and CodePipeline CI/CD solutions allowed faster deployment cycles while developing the software. Getting client feedback along the way ensured the client received the exact solution they needed. RESULTS Following Agile software development practices, we created a minimum viable solution that served all the client's needs at the lowest possible expense. We deployed to production two months ahead of schedule and kept hosting costs well under what the client expected. Read More

A national manufacturing company reached out to Sketch Development Services with a distinct challenge. They wanted to streamline their sales process, reducing the burden on their lean sales team. But more than that, they envisioned a tool that would enable their customers to design custom railing systems, an unprecedented level of self-service for their industry. CHALLENGE Without an in-house software development team, this manufacturer required a reliable partner to bring their ambitious vision to life. They needed an advanced yet userfriendly drawing tool - one with features often found only in complex CAD applications. The goal was not just to automate their sales process, but to revolutionize the way their customers interacted with their products and services. SOLUTION A two-person team at Sketch accepted the challenge. Employing SvelteKit for front-end development and integrating Google’s suite of Cloud offerings, the team built a web application that went beyond the conventional. In just two iterations, they delivered a drawing tool to let customers design railing systems directly on Google Maps or on building blueprints. The solution was even able to generate material cost calculations and shipping estimates for the end products. Despite the complexity typically associated with such features, the team delivered a simple user interface that all users could navigate with ease. RESULTS The solution surpassed all expectationsby reducing the quoting process from hours to mere minutes. It also gave customers an innovative way to interact with the product.  The manufacturer had a working MVP that satisfied their core need in half the time projected. That left time to deliver the client’s stretch goal of a custom drawing capability for construction quotes, which was not initially believed achievable in such a short engagement. A thoughtful handoff allowed the client’s internal team to manage the content, database, and scalability of the web application going forward. Read More

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics engaged Sketch to build an automated installer for updating the operating system and software of bacteria testing devices used in clinical applications. CHALLENGE The Company came to Sketch with a problem: the current process for updating their clinical testing devices is manual, entails many steps (mostly undocumented), and is inherently error prone. Exacerbating the situation; the only person that knows the manual installation process has taken another position.  If that wasn’t bad enough, the existing process for building the devices’ base image takes two full days to complete; it installs six different software packages, includes at least 10 reboots, and makes Windows configuration updates. This whole process is required more than 20 times each year. SOLUTION The Company believed automating the installation process end-to-end was infeasible, maybe impossible. At Sketch, we took this as “Challenge Accepted!”  We started by documenting the entire process. Then our developers pinpointed opportunities to eliminate or automate steps, focusing especially on reducing the required number of system reboots. Moving the development to a virtual environment accelerated automation, shortened feedback loops, and enabled iterative progress. The delivered solution now includes two main benefits. Firstly, it provides clear status tracking and logging. Secondly, it includes an alerting system that, should an error arise in the automation, it pinpoints the section of code where the required fix will need to be addressed. RESULTS At the end of the ninety-day engagement, a manual, error-prone, 100-step, multi-day process was reduced to a single button push. Read More

In a previous engagement, Sketch Development Services provided this client with a Cloud Enablement strategy, laying out a plan to productize CCoE’s services and tools for easier cloud adoption by our client’s development teams. The client then asked Sketch to engage with them to establish a backlog of items to help along the strategy’s journey and to build out some of these products leveraging AWS’ Cloud Development Kit (“CDK”). This co-development program helped a Fortune 50 company ensure technical excellence into the future. CHALLENGE This enormous client needed to lower the learning curve to implement CloudFormation templates, shell scripts, Python CDK staks, and CCoE expertise across the entire organization. To add a layer of difficulty, this client is in an industry where security and compliance cannot be compromised in the least. SOLUTION There were four main objectives in this engagement that we focused on to achieve the mission: Build a toolset (CCoE’s “product”) for adoption by client’s development teams. Establish CCoE’s delivery strategy of these tools. Automate speedy delivery of the toolset to the consumers when new features or bug-fixes need to be released. Eliminate barriers for development teams to implement the product in their own environments for their own successes. RESULTS We helped the CCoE team build: A product line of 11 CDK constructs that generate Infrastructure-as-Code templates, approved the client’s architectures A mechanism allowing CCoE to create the product line once, yet providing it to development teams in five total programming languages (Go, Java, .NET, Typescript, and Python) Automated processes to test, build, and deploy updates and enhancements to the product line Samples and documentation that teams can reference to help with successful adoption Sketch gave the CCoE team an established path to provide tools and materials to other development teams, enabling efficient migration of applications from on-prem to AWS. Read More

A newly established infrastructure and network security company leveraged an initial prototype to gain funding and grow the company quickly. With their rapid growth and focus on time to market, they stacked up a lot of tech debt. Upon recommendation from one of their developers, they engaged Sketch to help bring Agile into their fastpaced environment. The goal was to learn to develop at a sustainable pace and improve predictability. CHALLENGE Our client had many challenges in their way which included: The team's incomplete understanding of the application The product owner’s constant priority shifts Only a 55% chance of planned stories being completed 6 developers working on different parts of the application, with poor testability and feedback Rarely having the software in shippable state  Further, they needed to upgrade their automated testing strategy in a way that would be scalable. SOLUTION Sketch started by delivering a 2-day Agile Bootcamp, followed by a high-touch coaching engagement. The client improved their ceremonies, finalized team roles and responsibilities, and measured goals until a level of predictability and scope churn were established.  During this time, Sketch focused on: Internal team coaching to set goals Facilitating discussions to keep executives caught up with team updates Outcome-focused story mapping Capacity planning and prioritization to understand the applications Keeping product owner priorities consistent and protecting the sprint so that plans only changed if necessary RESULTS The client benefitted in the short and long term.  Everyone knew what was expected of them, which allowed the team to spend more time in the codebase.  They got control of the size and value of their stories. They learned to slice stories vertically for consistent estimation and delivery. The product owner gained control of the backlog. They developed an intentional plan for reducing tech debt. The startup has since been acquired for an undisclosed amount. Read More

A Fortune 500 chemical manufacturer engaged Sketch to develop a mobile app that increased sales through partner channels. CHALLENGE The client, a chemical company, makes protective coatings and window tints. This creates upsell opportunities at car dealerships. Unfortunately, sales reps had to return to their computers to enter VINs to see tint options. Separating reps from customers was hurting momentum and killing deals. The reps needed a mobile app to scan VINs and capture upsells in the moment. The chemical company hired a large consulting partner, but the consultants failed to deliver any software after many months. The enterprises's internal team, juggling other priorities, weren't able to produce the mobile app either. The initiative was stalled out. SOLUTION The chemical company needed more than just software development services. They needed to upscale their technical staff with modern development frameworks. This was the perfect time to introduce the team to more agile methodologies, more test automation, and automated delivery pipelines. The first step was to write better feature stories for the mobile app. It became evident the product owner needed help representing the needs of all stakeholders. Some training made the team far better at scoping and prioritizing features. Soon, the product owner, scrum master, and developers were functioning like a world-class team. Sketch technical experts also worked with the development staff to build continuous integration capabilities. The team took control of the versioning and branching of their iOS and Android builds while also learning React Native. This combination of efforts helped the teams estimate, develop, test, and deliver features with newfound speed and accuracy. RESULTS After just over two months, the chemical company had an app deployed through the Apple app store with beta users across a dozen dealerships. The app started driving more revenue, and the team continues to make superior software. Read More