— Our Work
Cornwall Wildlife Trust
How Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Environmental Record Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly achieved a digital transformation breakthrough!
How CWT and ERCCIS streamlined the way they provide species and habitat data
The Opportunity
Manually collating data was a dead end
The Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT) and The Environmental Record Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (ERCCIS) had a new idea to help transform their internal processes.
The idea was to use the Geospatial species and habitat data gathered over the last fifty years and create an effective way to deliver it to people and businesses that need it.
Formerly, retrieving the information required ERCCIS employees to manually search their database, collate the right information, put into the correct format , then, send it over. This was a lengthy process that badly needed optimisation. The reports were an important revenue stream for ERCCIS, so we needed to find a better way.
The change had to happen and their teams knew how to it. Through a digital transformation. Taking the lead of this project was the ERCCIS manager, Martin Goodall.
CWT
What happened
A bespoke digital product to collate data and provide customers with an easy-to-use experience
The project with CWT and ERCCIS was a simple but incredible idea that we were excited to help with.
Together, we clarified the objectives and formed a vision of a unique digital product. It would have the functionality for ERCCIS clients to self serve, by creating accounts, and purchasing reports on a geographic location. Data would then be retrieved from their database then converted into a PDF in realtime, by our web app.
Discovering the project users
Our founder and head of technology Matt Ville took the CWT and ERRCCIS team through a discovery session and created a journey that their users would take, from ‘Home ‘ to ‘Order Success’.
Many post-it notes later, we clarified how users would search, account types, search fields, and the PDF layout.
This gave Matt all the information to string together a wireframe that would be the infrastructure of the product, meeting the requirements of the end-user.
Developing the product sprint-by-sprint
Using an Agile approach we utilised several technologies to overcome a massive amount of Geospatial data, in the region of 5 Gigabytes.
Building the product, we come across new ideas and better ways of developing the product. At every sprint, we discussed with Martin and the entire team utilising transparent communication through our project management tool Productive. Soon enough, we had built the product.
Key technical elements:
- Language: C#, Javascript, CSS3, HTML5
- Server-side: ASP.net MVC Web API
- Client-side: Vue.js,
- CSS and UI: Bootstrap CSS
Testing and developing the new product alongside its lifetime. Time to go live!
We carried out automatic testing, fixing errors or any major problems. Now, it was time for a soft rollout. The CTW and ERCCIS directed their clients towards the new digital product. Over time, as the clients started using the product, we worked with the ERCCIS team to monitor, and intercept any problems that came along, however insignificant. We iterated development to resolve the problems and introduce new functionality.
The Result
Customers are now buying rich data more than ever
Overall, the result has been fantastic. The platform is working fluently with the users, providing information about Cornish Wildlife that is only a few clicks away. Helping Martin and his team achieve their vision was an absolute delight. Working for a cause that helps foster change for the better is something that as an organisation we love to do.
An optimised landing page so that the product is visible to those looking for the service.
Do you have a digital idea that could transform your organisation?
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