CASE STUDY

Supporting an Ethical Compliance System Throughout its Acquisition

Leveraging secure, user-friendly, and highly customizable software solutions, the startup successfully attracted Fortune 100 clients and eventually found itself acquired by a prominent ethical compliance organization.

Tech stack/tools we used: Java Spring, PostgreSQL, ReactJS, AWS, Terraform

Web

Our workSupporting an Ethical Compliance System Throughout its Acquisition

Client

In 2017, two startup owners created a web application to help businesses ensure ethical compliance within their organizations.

At first, they worked with a British software engineering company on the application. Together, they launched a multi-tenant app used by several loyal clients who appreciated the startup’s customer-first approach. When the British software engineering company went out of business in 2020, the startup chose Syberry as its vendor.

We accepted the task to scale the system, improve existing features, and customize the system for new clients.

Problem

Effective software development processes that let the business land its dream clients

While the application the previous vendor created was already high-quality, the owners strived to scale up the infrastructure and speed up the processes to be able to land clients of just about any size.

Solution

Self-sufficient data processing platform that can take on clients of any size

Not only did we help the startup acquire — and retain — dozens of clients over the last three years, but we also supported the client through its acquisition by the market’s leading ethical compliance organization. Fast forward a year after the acquisition, we remain the only technical team working on the product. The new owners spread our software engineering processes across their other teams.

40+
tenants in the system
15
business days to deliver an average feature
5
business days for client onboarding
20
languages supported by the system

Challenge #1

Swiftly onboard new clients

While smaller businesses can almost immediately use the system, big enterprises often need new features or the system’s customization before they let their employees join the app. They have requirements when it comes to the branding, the features’ functionality, or security standards. Despite this, enterprises need the system to function as soon as possible. In three years working on the project, we were able to perfect the onboarding process for a swift and smooth transition.

Challenge #2

Customize the application for each client

One of the reasons so many enterprises started to use the product was the ability to completely customize the system as if it was in-house software. We often tailored all parts of the system to individual clients starting from the functionality to languages to colors of each button.

Challenge #3

Scale up the system

To adapt the system to bigger clients, we scaled it up 10-100 times. For instance, the tool for conducting surveys now supports companies with 10,000+ employees. Swift scaling of this part of the application helped the startup retain those clients who considered the product’s competition.

Key features

Averting security risks
When we initially started working on the product, we noticed and fixed its security vulnerabilities. After that, the system successfully passed two security audits with minor comments.
Seamlessly integrating the app with the clients’ systems
To make the clients’ employees feel like they are still using a system in their employers’ ecosystem, we integrated the app with the clients’ systems. The users were able to log in to the app through SSO-authentication, and the app immediately recognized their name, company, and employee ID. Even if the client did not have their own HRIS system for us to integrate with, we could get the necessary data through SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
Translating the app’s UI to employees’ native language
When it comes to ethics, it is much easier for users to communicate in their native language. For Fortune 100 clients, it was important to use one system for their employees around the world. We used an integration with Google Translate to duplicate the system in 20 different languages. For right to left languages like Arabic, we redesigned the system’s UI.