Rebuilding the development process for one of the world’s leading security technology companies.
- Digital Intelligence + Strategy
- User Interface Design
- Program, Project & Service Management
THE BACKGROUND
One of the biggest names in security, Vicon Industries, produces a wealth of security solutions — from high-end AI-driven security cameras to access control equipment — for universities, correctional facilities, hospitals and government agencies worldwide. But central to their strategy is their video management system (VMS), Valerus: it is the central hub where security operators engage with video feeds, perform forensic investigations, and manage various inputs from a multitude of hardware.
With extremely high development costs and infrequent software releases, they trusted CXR Agency to identify inefficiencies, augment their team, and chart a new path.
THE BACKGROUND
CHALLENGES
CHALLENGES
- Reduce multi-million-dollar development costs
- Increase software release frequency
- Uncover and reduce inefficiencies in a massive codebase
- Learn complex application and numerous integrations to begin augmenting development in under six months
THE SOLUTION
- Improve and augment existing development process and team
- Prioritize critical infrastructure improvements to improve codebase stability
- Restructure teams to clarify responsibilities and new process
- Create improved QA process to increase software release stability
THE SOLUTION
FEATURES + PROCESS
After an extended discovery phase, we uncovered a host of costly inefficiencies. For example, several developers shared redundant responsibilities. We also uncovered several instances where unreasonable duties fell onto the wrong party. Our solution was to restructure the team, clarify responsibilities and augment their existing team with leadership from CXR Agency, who would ensure a consistent process throughout the transition.
CXR Agency developers had limited knowledge about Valerus’ infrastructure, so we began by learning more about its backend. Our team is very comfortable acquainting themselves with other developers’ code, but this one required learning a new codebase, but also a multitude of shared languages and integrations. We jumped right in, assigning the core team to Valerus and smaller teams to the ancillary hardware components so we could provide a complete solution and expertise for Vicon.
By defining and following process and clarifying responsibilities, we were able to reduce redundancies, cut out unnecessary slowdowns, improve ownership and create a more positive development culture. This helped reduce the redundancies created by overlapping responsibilities. It also ensured teams were dedicated to their areas of expertise, rather than having the developers design the UI/UX and perform QA, for example.
In just a short period, we felt comfortable creating new features within the tight timeframe. With our new structure and clearly defined responsibilities, we were able to release a new version of the product within months. According to Vicon’s support team, reports of critical bugs were down over 60%, making this one of the most stable and reliable releases yet.
RESULTS
- Reduced development costs by 76%
- Stabilized the codebase to create more reliable releases
- Increased annual output from 1 release per year to 2 – 3 per year CXR Agency continues to work with Vicon to make Valerus more intelligent and maximize its efficiency.
RESULTS
