Modern Architecture

Modernizing the system to optimize growth

When a group of Houston entrepreneurs acquired a successful ecommerce platform specializing in custom signage, they engaged Softway to modernize the company’s legacy systems and optimize for growth.

The Client

A group of Houston entrepreneurs who had recently acquired a successful e-commerce platform specializing in custom signage.

The Situation

The retailer’s existing systems were less than user-friendly. They had a dated customer-facing website that wasn’t mobile responsive, an inefficient ticketing system that caused communications issues with internal production teams, and legacy frameworks that were quickly becoming obsolete. As a result, the business was struggling to compete in the custom signage space. But they had an ambitious plan for growth.

The Ask

Enable business growth through tailored technology solutions to reach and engage more customers, maximize business efficiencies, and support enhanced website functionality.

Services

Software Development
Cloud Migration
User Experience Design
Product Strategy

The Approach

First, we established an integrated team that combined agile design thinkers with experts in modern tools and technology. This enabled us to make strategic improvements to the client's complex legacy systems—and enabled the client to scale and achieve their goals without a complete overhaul.

What We Did

Modern architecture

We leveraged cloud native infrastructure to support modern applications, and used microservices to build an API-centric architecture that can be scaled up and down depending on workload demands. This approach reduced both cost and resource consumption.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

We collaborated with the client to choose the right cloud provider for them. In this case, GCP was the best fit, with services like cloud storage, container registry, databases, virtual machines and auto scaling services for high demand times like Black Friday.

Online Design Tool

We rebuilt the client’s online design tool—a critical part of their customer experience that enables customers to create custom signs and banners—moving this 15-year-old software from Flash (now obsolete) to HTML5 with the latest web technologies and frameworks. To optimize performance, we used a CDN to get the images and templates closer to the user.

Results

Our solution vastly improved customer experience, enabling them to complete their orders autonomously — where before they had to call the client’s sales team for help with banner design creation.
The new website is fully responsive across all devices, and by reimagining the custom design tool — we reduced lag time from one minute to just five seconds.
Migrating the client’s infrastructure from on-premise servers to the cloud decreased their maintenance costs annually by 25%.
With a modern systems architecture, cloud native solutions, and user-friendly design tools—our client is ready for whatever comes next.