Reed Graduation

Reed Graduation Services needed a solution to help universities organise graduation ceremonies with efficiency and ease.

Industry

Education

Solution

Website, mobile app, desktop app

www.reedgraduations.com.au

Project Summary

Reed Graduations Services needed a website where universities could sign up for graduation services. The site was to
also act as a platform where students can select the goods and services they wanted.

Apart from the site, they also required an iOS app (named GradPOS) which would facilitate QR code scanning of identification documents on the day of the graduation ceremony. Since RGS wanted a well-rounded solution, they wanted a photo sorting, transferring and filtering solution for photographers in the form of a desktop app (named “GradCapture).

Technologies Used

WordPress
WordPress is the CMS with the highest number of users all over the world. It also offers a massive number of plugins that can extend the usability of a website.

CakePHP
CakePHP is an open-source web framework distributed under the MIT license. It is written in PHP. We used it to develop the university site as part of the RGS project.

.Net
.Net software framework offers programming language interoperability. Thus, software developed within it can easily compile in a diverse language-based platform.

Swift
Swift is a sophisticated programming language that is used for developing apps for the iOS platform. We used it to develop the QR scanning app for RGS.

Client Overview

The management team behind RGS is a group of ambitious and innovative people. They have been observing the graduation process of Australian universities for a considerable period.

Based on this observation, they came up with the idea of a complete solution to manage the entire graduation procedure. Since they desired to serve all universities in Australia, they agreed with our idea of a robust multi-platform solution.

Key Challenges

A huge challenge was to develop a customisable solution to meet the unique needs of universities. The registration process for graduation on the RGS website for universities had to be versatile to facilitate this.

The certificate frame loading feature on the desktop app wasn’t loading and syncing with the server properly during the test phase.

The SecurePay API did not allow customisation necessary to blend effectively within the website cart page. Thus the page required significant renovation for proper integration of the API.

The captured images were not appearing automatically on the desktop app. As a result, they were not available on the server end.

Our Solution

Our solution involved the website, an iOS app and a desktop app.

The iOS app allows scanning the QR codes on the tickets of registered students. It also syncs the entry and graduation pack reception data across all the platforms and devices.

On the server end, the bandwidth was enhanced to ensure smooth delivery.

The desktop app automatically pulls the image, check it for any faults (blur, improper focus), create separate folders against each unique g-code (unique for each student) and load it on the server. It can also detect any USB drive connected to the device and back up the images in it.

Development Process

To develop the entire RGS solution, we relied on the Scrum framework. That is because the project had hundreds of segments that needed to function and sync with each other perfectly. At every level, we discussed with the client to ensure our development efforts produced the desired results.

Even though the challenges were complex, our team managed to stay focused on the end-goal. Quality was guaranteed at every iteration, which eventually led to a stable and competent solution.

Final Result

The client found all components of the completed solution to sync with each other perfectly.

Each requirement was met without any discrepancy. The client thus was happy with it. For our development team, this was another certificate of competence when it comes to building multi-platform solutions of massive scale.