Faster development with infrastructure in order

Navigil’s AI-based solution consists of the Navigil 580 watch and a cloud service with a set of views that allow the user or care staff to monitor the user’s condition. They can, for example, track the user’s location if necessary. The solution can also be integrated into the systems of various healthcare providers, so that critical information is immediately available to care and emergency personnel, for example.

Challenge: managing the infrastructure as the development team expands and requirements grow

Navigil’s development team grew significantly in 2018, so managing the product development environments and infrastructure became increasingly important. And besides the team growth, the infrastructure also became more complex as Navigil expanded beyond hardware, into cloud services and applications supporting telephony.

The company found that it had few resources of its own for this and that there were many benefits to be gained from outsourcing infrastructure management, including additional expertise.

The search for a partner started in August 2018. Navigil contacted Eficode because Eficode’s operating model and mentality seemed to be reliable and a good match.

Navigil was quickly convinced by Eficode’s practical approach and the benefits of the comprehensive Eficode ROOT service. So the cooperation kicked off with the first workshops as early as the fall of 2018.

Solution: tools and processes as a managed service

The main tools selected were Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence, and a Git-based source code management and version control system. These are complemented by tools such as Jenkins and JFrog Artifactory. 

The tools are managed through Eficode ROOT Managed DevOps Platform, which ensures that all tools are always up to date and harmonized by specialists. As the service brings together the best tools from different providers, any tools Navigil needs in the future can be easily added. 

For us, the main thing was not which tools were chosen, but that they would be available at all times. This has worked well and any problems have always been fixed quickly, says Jari Huuskonen, Service Manager at Navigil.

Result: reliable infrastructure and improved deployment frequency

According to Huuskonen, the biggest tangible benefit has been the significant acceleration of how often new functionalities are deployed. Lead times are also shorter and requirements can be moved from the backlog to production more quickly. Also, the new, harmonized, infrastructure makes it possible to fix bugs faster after deployments.

Jari Huuskonen continues: “We have four or even five environments for development, testing and production, and a separate environment for the US. With Eficode, we have been able to automate this process, making almost everything faster and easier.”

Before introducing Eficode ROOT, Navigil’s management of tickets and requirements was inconsistent, and the introduction of JIRA has significantly streamlined the process.

Eficode ROOT is ISO 27001 certified. This has been particularly useful when dealing with large partners, since many global players consider good data security a key issue, and pay a great deal of attention to it.

Jari Huuskonen has been satisfied with Eficode’s services: “If we were to look into the same issues again, we would definitely contact Eficode, and I absolutely recommend Eficode to other companies developing their product development infrastructure. Don’t do it yourself, contact an expert!”

Results of the cooperation:

• Eficode ROOT takes care of the infrastructure and tools to allow Navigil to focus on the essentials, streamlining its operations and speeding up the release of its products.
• The service ensures that the tools are always available and up to date, and Navigil can manage all DevOps tool users in one place.
• Navigil's developers have all their software development tools managed ongoing by specialists, ensuring that best practices are followed.