Gemini

BACKGROUND

Tell me about your business and your role within the organization?

Gemini is a legal copy service that subpoenas medical records for workers compensation claims, copies and scans them, then provides them to attorneys. I’m the Director of Technology and oversee our IT operations and software engineering team.

OPPORTUNITY

What challenges were you trying to address with FullStack Labs?

Due to changes in the law, our billing operations were going to become much more complicated, and the volume of forms, invoices and documents we would be processing was going to skyrocket. More of our people had to complete more steps. So we decided to invest in software automation and make the process more streamlined. We wanted a more interactive system that would allow our staff to perform multiple tasks in a single transaction.

SOLUTION

What is the scope of our involvement?

We started by targeting the front-end user interface of our Accounts Receivable application, which was used by a team of 40 people.

It’s a very large Ruby on Rails application with a vanilla Rails front-end, and no JS framework. After discussions with Mike Piccolo (CTO of FullStack Labs) we found a way to take this large monolithic application and develop a more modern, user-friendly front-end using React.js.

The initial team included Arthur Tyukayev (he’s a champion of React code, and an amazing developer!). We were able to collaborate with Arthur and FullStack Labs and build an interface that really changed our business operations paradigm. We went from processing one invoice at a time to processing batches of invoices intelligently, grouping them, categorizing them, automating communications around them, and resubmitting them electronically.

Given the size of our company it didn’t make sense to do invoices individually. We were processing 8 to 10 thousand invoices per month. We were throwing bodies at the problem which is how we got up to 40 people in Accounts Receivable. Working with FullStack Labs allowed us to streamline our operations, and reduce our invoicing staff from 40 to 20 professionals, which has translated into significant, ongoing savings for our company.

Now our core system includes all the features and functionality of a modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, including customer-relationship management (CRM), paper billing, electronic billing, order management, court filings management, and records management. It runs the core of the business and integrates with case management software and a number of other systems in a seamless manner, which enables us to focus on our primary mission, increasing our ability to obtain and process records for clients.

The first project went so well that we decided to continue working with FullStack Labs on four additional projects, and we’ve added an additional developer to the team to work on our Ruby on Rails app.

What is the team composition?

Arthur Tyukayev is working on our React app, Gina Filippov is working on our Ruby on Rails app, and Mike Piccolo is helping out from time to time on architecture and other complex technical matters.

How did you come to work with us?

I was working at a consultancy called New Leaders, where I met and worked with Mike for 18 months. I eventually left and started my own consultancy and Mike left and started FullStack Labs. I hired FullStack Labs for a different project, where I got to work with Dave, Ben, Edgar and Gina and was really impressed. I eventually shut down my consultancy and went in-house with Gemini and convinced Gemini to hire FSL.

What is the status of the engagement?

We’re continuing to work with FullStack Labs, focusing on ongoing maintenance and feature development for our React and Ruby on Rails apps. There are many traditional Rails interfaces that need to be moved to React, so the engagement will continue on for some time.

How much longer do you see the engagement on-going?

Indefinitely.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Reduction of the AR department from 40 to 20 employees. Automated and simplified procedures. Improvement in quality of life due to better performing software.

How did we perform from a project management standpoint?

Gemini has project management responsibilities for this engagement.

What did you find most impressive about FullStack Labs?

FullStack Labs is highly skilled with React, and has the ability to solve complex React problems, working at the bleeding edge of the technology. Gemini has a great team of talented in-house engineers, but we still struggled with making technical choices within React, like deciding on which toolset to use. We needed guidance. Mike and FSL were able to provide this guidance and help us make the right technical choices, which allowed us to get the right architecture in place and start leveraging it without wasting time.

Are there any areas of improvement?

Matching expectations with deliverables is always challenging, and I think FSL can do a better job on this, but they are still better than most consultancies I’ve dealt with. It would also be nice to be able to track estimates to actuals more easily, which would allow us to better predict and manage budgets and schedules. But FSL is already leaps and bounds ahead of most other consultancies on this. I appreciate the “buy-in” throughout the team. We haven’t gotten that from other big consultancies we’ve worked with in the past.

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