Kuder, Inc. CASE STUDY
THE SITUATIONSingapore’s government wanted to change the country’s career environment, so they planned a national Skills Future initiative. Two driving forces were behind this movement.
Singapore’s workforce has seen an increase in skills obsolescence due to economic restructuring and technological advancement, a change in the profiles of the resident workforce as well as theneed to continuously upgrade the skillsets of olderworkers.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) similarly identifiedthe need to introduce and reinforce the concept of education career guidance as a key focal point of the initiative. The MoE operates primary, secondary and pre-university schools.
To bring this initiative to fruition, the MoE wanted to develop a portal called MySkillsFuture to be usedby the workforce and students. This project was jointly executed by an IT provider in Singapore, NCS, and an American company, Kuder Inc.
Kuder's assessment product has robust features,but some customizations were needed to meet Singapore’s specific needs.
WORKFORCE
LaunchITcorp.com
STUDENTSHeadquarters: Adel, Iowa
Kuder is a career guidance solutions provider, offering comprehensive tools and resources for career planners at all life stages while supporting collaboration between education, business, and community stakeholders to drive economic success. Over 165 million people worldwide have been assisted by Kuder's services.
For software customization, Kuder turned to the expertise of LaunchIT.
LaunchIT was able to leverage its existing staff in India, which allowed for few time zone concerns and less extensive, costly oversea travel. Development was accomplished in India, and requirements gathering and implementation were completed in Singapore.
RESOURCES
Singapore
4-5JAN. 2016 - ONGOING
.NET and SQL
DURATION
TECH STACKONSITE
OFFSITE &
LAUNCHIT'S SOLUTIONLaunchIT resources converted all the business logic of Kuder's product into a set of web APIs. The resources provided the web APIs to NCS, who developed the front-end model of the portal.
Segregating the existing code required a clearly defined API contract document. The document contained the input and output parameter values and how to invoke the API by the http GET or POST method. All values were provided in JSON format.
Four assessment modules were originally included in Kuder’s product. Three were provided by Kuder, and the fourth was provided by a Canadian company. However, Singapore sought an additional module. LaunchIT created one, Goals and Reflections, from scratch. Kuder has since completely integrated this module into theirproduct.
A project of this size required several vendors coming together, all with unique code bases and business practices. LaunchIT addressed this challenge using a tool called Swagger to test APIs, and used HP LoadRunner and Dynatrace to conduct the performance testing. LaunchIT installed the product in multiple testingenvironments, including two government data centers, before launch.
LaunchITcorp.com/LaunchITCorp
4430 NW Urbandale Drive Urbandale, Iowa 50322 515.243.0167
@LaunchITDSM /launch-it-corp
Going above and beyondLaunchIT believed that evaluation should be an ongoing, thorough process. Though not part of the initial agreement, LaunchIT stepped up to create a comprehensive Function Specification Document (FSD). LaunchIT carefully read through the MoE's RFP and analyzed the product carefully to identify the gaps and clearly define the scope of work for Kuder, which highly appreciated by their IT staff.
“First, let me congratulate you on the quality of the design document which
you entrusted me to read. I have written many design documents in my lifetime, but probably none as comprehensive
and detailed as this one. You and your team have masterfully taken some general career guidance theory and
some specific tools provided by Kuder and added very helpful localized
components and tools.”
- Dr. JoAnn Bowlsbey
Kuder Executive Director of
Product Development
What made LaunchIT different? Execution.
LaunchIT’s installation was smooth and errorless. Minor errors associated with other vendors were revealed from LaunchIT’s testing process. LaunchIT quickly provided a solution that was well received by the client and the other vendors to ensure a successful product launch.
Coding for the current phase is almost complete. The soft launch for the student modules was in August 2017, and the workforce modules will go live by the end of October 2017.
Today
In the future Kuder anticipates EXPANDING THEIR SERVICES.Based on Singapore’s success, Kuder specifically foresees opportunities in other southeast Asia countries.
