Accelerated Product Development for Semestry

Company Name

Industry

Client

Semestry is an educational technology company providing smart and adaptable scheduling for educators and students. Through dynamic timetabling technology, they help schools and similar organizations surface the information they need to enable flexible use of educational resources, and provide greater transparency into curriculum design.

Business Challenge

Semestry was a highly successful startup, disrupting the legacy landscape associated with timetabling software, which up to that point was dominated by inflexible and on-premises based software applications. Cloud-native from day one, the solutions were conceived with expert insights from education industry practitioners. The company established projects in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Iceland, with specialist colleges, as well as public and private higher education institutions, including the University of Cambridge and Universiteit van Amsterdam. Acquired by Tribal in April 2021, the company continued to grow and is now rapidly establishing itself as a market leader in course and examinations scheduling.

During the first 90-days as a company within Tribal Group, the decision was made to increase the development velocity to accelerate the product roadmap. It was clear this required a rapid scaling, as well as a wide breadth of front-end, back-end, project management and business analysis skills. To support scaling, Semestry also wanted to consider whether the development process needed to move toward an enterprise approach.

DataArt was chosen as the partner that could guide Semestry though the process. Together, we built an IT structure capable of continuous delivery and adaptive scaling necessary for a company on the path to becoming an enterprise.

Solution

The client was looking for a partner capable of supporting:

expansion of the leadership function
risk reduction and solution quality improvement
improved velocity
scaling
additional skills and competencies.

The engagement started with DataArt building a roadmap for the transformation of Semestry’s IT department. Not long after, DataArt’s presence in the team numbered over a dozen developers working to fulfil Semestry’s obligations to its clients and grow the delivery pipeline.

DataArt built immediate capacity focused on supporting development-related tickets, laying the groundwork for new developments in a full stack structure. The Semestry software is highly specialized and required DataArt to identify engineers capable of the assimilation of complex modelling based on industry-specific practices.

DataArt developed a staffing strategy with Semestry, carefully augmenting existing teams, and providing additional leadership support for the significant scaling required. A single executive structure was established, jointly staffed by DataArt and Semestry. DataArt initiated a management reporting cadence with weekly and daily reporting, maintaining a high focus on the key improvements being sought by Semestry in terms of velocity, risk reduction and quality of the solution.

Highlights

We knew we needed to find a partner that could quickly adapt to our company’s priorities and goals, provide guidance, and augment teams when needed. The engagement with DataArt provided important and impactful value. We are proud of our partnership with DataArt, who share our passion for delivering success to our customers.

Mathew Boice

Corporate Development, Tribal Group

Together, our joint teams have built software that enables customers to plan, build, deliver, and operationalize the right schedule for everyone, helping their institutions better serve students and faculty.

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