Ensuring Subsecond Loading Times for an E-learning Platform

Summary

Brief results of the collaboration:

• The company was able to improve its e-learning platform and mobile apps, facilitating customization to the needs of 20+ global fashion brands.
• Thanks to several performance optimizations, the provider reduced platform loading times by 10x.
• With automation, the customer can deploy new features 3x faster.
• With enforced security measures, the organization protected sensitive corporate information—e.g., sales strategies or brand positioning—from common cyberattacks.

The customer

Based in France, the company provides sales training to the fashion and luxury goods industry. Over 15 years in the market, the customer created 300+ educational programs for global brands like Dior, Chanel, Hermes, etc.

The need

To enable uninterrupted educational process, the provider developed a Microsoft Azure–based platform to manage e-learning workflows and iOS/Android apps to study on the go. Representing experts in sales, the company had to outsource the development, but at some point was no longer satisfied with the results. Meanwhile, the business was facing pressing deadlines to fulfill its obligations to the clientele—e.g., customizing mobile apps for each retailer.

Relying on .NET and mobile expertise at Altoros, the company wanted to optimize the platform, facilitate the delivery of new features, update the apps, and ensure ongoing maintenance.

The challenges

Under the project, the team at Altoros had to address the following issues:

• The platform’s code base did not follow best practices—e.g., some business logic was duplicated. In addition, the components were tightly coupled. All that significantly complicated maintenance and upgrades.
• There were major performance issues—it took the system at least 10 seconds to load.
• The platform was using a deprecated encryption algorithm, leaving sensitive information (sales strategies, passwords, etc.) vulnerable.

The solution

Stage 1. After analyzing the requirements, engineers at Altoros reviewed the existing architecture and code base, identified bottlenecks, and delivered an improvement roadmap.

Stage 2. For the sake of maintenance/upgrades, .NET developers decoupled the platform's back end in accordance with the Model-View-Controller architectural pattern. The team also favored code reusability, as well as each enabled business logic unit to perform a single task.

Stage 3. To optimize performance, engineers at Altoros implemented best practices (e.g., memoization), disabled unnecessary functions, limited requests to the database, etc. This helped to achieve subsecond loading times, with the reduction by 10x at least.

Stage 4. After replacing the outdated encryption mechanism, the developers also delivered security measures to prevent cross-site scripting, JavaScript injections, etc.

Stage 5. The team at Altoros delivered modules responsible for managing educational content, assessing knowledge (quizzes), as well as tracking and sharing progress.

Stage 6. Using Azure WebJobs, the engineers reconfigured CI/CD pipelines and automated background jobs. This led to 3x faster feature delivery. Then, the developers fine-tuned the disaster recovery mechanism to minimize the impact of unsuccessful deployments.

Stage 7. The mobile team at Altoros redesigned the architecture of iOS/Android apps to make components loosely coupled. This dramatically facilitated app customization for 20+ retailers. The engineers also ensured ongoing maintenance and support (including publication to app stores), as well as upgrades of underlying technologies.

The outcome

Partnering with Altoros, the company improved its e-learning platform and mobile apps, facilitating customization for the needs of 20+ retailers. The customer optimized platform performance by 10x, achieving subsecond loading times, as well as sped up the delivery of new features by 3x. The security measures helped to prevent common cyberattacks and potential leakage of sensitive corporate information. The architectural approaches promoted ease of maintenance and upgrades.