About The Project
Apprix has had a focused mission: to provide companies with very appealing web-based courses to their customer’s employees and subcontractors. Interactive web-based inductions came to the founders during the time when customers struggled to create inspiring training content. PowerPoints were very common but usually make the training less interactive and fun, and eventually make it less productive than expected. The founders of Apprix decided to step in and modernize this market niche.
The Challenges
The idea was widely welcomed by Finnish corporations, and Apprix’s services were mostly delivered as one-off projects. The team realized that they need to find a way to scale up their services for larger audiences and to provide even more flexibility for content creation. The answer for this is a SaaS solution that allows clients to use the tool for different types of training and stylize the tool according to their corporate identity: Apprix Builder was born.
More specifically, Apprix’s clients should be able to produce content with text, images, videos, multiple-choice questions, surveys, and feedback, and preview content before publishing. Employees and subcontractors (i.e. end-users) should interact with content easily and in a fun way. All of the content should always be up-to-date and available immediately on all the devices. User analysis is also needed for content creators to understand how users have been using the tool and what kind of content is performing well. Understanding these technical challenges, the Apprix team came to Loop4 to extend its tech resources and capabilities.
The Solutions
With a tight timeline Apprix had for the project, we sat down with their team from Day 1 to go through all the requirements and make an evaluation of different technologies to be used. Effective communication channels were set up (e.g. Slack, Teamworks project management, etc.) to allow both teams to easily communicate with each other. We then started building Apprix Builder from scratch with the implementation scope including back-end, front-end, database schemes, server installations, etc. We supported Apprix 24/7 by answering their inquiries, fixing reported bugs and issues during the use phase of the services. In less than six month we were able to deliver a complete solution which went beyond their expectations, and which enabled first completed sales to several customers of Apprix. Over time Apprix Builder has been continuously further developed by Loop4.
What makes the “Apprix Builder” stand out amongst competitors is the ability to create 100% custom solutions for each client while still keeping everything functional in a common online service. This was achieved thanks to a plethora of APIs and a carefully designed system for applications within an application, including the provision of online coding tools within the service for front-end developers. Since the standards for a unique looking and easy-to-use service were set very high, every layout element was custom made by Loop4 team.
To highlight some features which we developed for Apprix Builder:
- An easy-to-use learning module system: made to help the education content creators to easily view, create, update, preview, publish content and questions and review courses performed.
- User roles: there are different user roles, e.g. Apprix admins can also quickly go through content created by different accounts/clients. Content creators can be assigned roles to administrate their own users. Possibility to specify group and individual based default and course specific access.
- A user-friendly admin dashboard: An all-in-one dashboard that allows a seamless management by simple configuration of roles and functions.
- Tagging system: A tagging system was added in order to make it easy for users and admins to search and manage content.
- Statistics views: A simple summary of published, deleted and all the modules. Users can find the published date and the name of the publisher with relevant stats, as well as review what answers were given to questions.
- Service integrations: Many integrations to Apprix customers’ systems have been also realized by Loop4, which interweave Apprix and customers’ systems seemlessly and allow for re-use of important information in both directions.
- And of course, a few advanced features: Going the extra mile to deliver more than what the customer expects is our all-time motto. These advanced future-ready features made Apprix Builder unique and renowned in the market. To name a few: possibility to download courses for installation in customer premises, different logging and auditing features, single-sign on, randomizing of questions, hierarchies of learning modules, advanced security features, etc.
Today Apprix is providing their engaging digital learning and communications solutions to dozens of Finnish Fortune 50 clients including Cargotec, YIT, NCC, Altia, Stora Enso, Väestöliitto, STYL Safety and HKScan. Loop4 team is glad to further assist Apprix in maintaining and further developing the service.
