Event Management System for Educational Non-Profit

Background

Praxent delivered a fully functional platform that successfully completed the complex project requirements. The system services 11,500 students. While they were quite costly, the workflow was effective and they did a great job of following the requirements. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former executive director at Keller Williams Kids Can, a national nonprofit educational organization.

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Opportunity / Challenge

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We needed scalability for our new educational program. Our team needed to be able to educate and onboard our volunteer trainers. We wanted to provide a tool for them to create events, generate marketing pieces, register, and make orders to deliver materials. This digital system would do as much of the work as possible. Nothing in the marketplace was adequate for the complexities of our specific strategy of digital delivery.

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Solution

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided full-scale development from the frontend consumer interface to the backend. They built a technology platform from scratch. The core function is an event management system. However, it doesn’t only organize events, it also allows us to onboard the volunteer trainers from all over the country. Many of the students enrolling were under 18, so it was typically the parents who were doing enrolling and donations. We needed a system that could handle the many variables. Sometimes a student would book the event and sometimes the parent would do it for them. Sometimes somebody else would donate to cover the expenses for others, or just donate outright. Because of these moving parts, Praxent developed a custom solution in Symfony for us.

Uniquely, all of the trainers were Keller Williams agents. They built a gateway for prospective trainers to accept the role, watch training videos, and read and download materials. Upon completion, they were able to create their own event and sent it out to the general public, and students could register and donate on that link. The platform needed video integration. It also had a very versatile database that we could make available to any trainer so that they could download the training materials, documents, and PowerPoints. We were also able to categorize the system—if you wanted to teach high school, you could go into the high school section. There was also a location for students where they could see the videos and other content.

What is the team composition?

There were 4–5 people at peak moments. After we got past the first release, we were able to trim that down. They were very flexible. When we needed more people, they were able to bring people in. They also worked with us to manage expenses.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

I called around to people that I knew. I met Kevin (Managing Partner, Praxent) and I liked him because he was able to speak my language as an entrepreneur and as a non-technology person. He really understood what I wanted to do. He was also able to communicate with our technical team. I then met their team and they listened to what I wanted. They brought back a presentation and how much it was going to cost. Even though they weren’t the lowest, I chose them because of their understanding of the vision of where we were going.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $500,000 in about 24 months of working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2015 and the work is ongoing, though now is more maintenance. We created the original platform to easily accept a new curriculum, new phases without any substantial investment.

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Results & Feedback

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The platform pretty much managed everything. Events could be started and people would be getting trained and thousands of kids being taught all over the country. The platform also continued to have onboarding for instructors. The website automatically delivered materials. Very little hands-on work was needed.

While we were building the first iteration of the website, we were still designing the content. When we fully launched in September 2015, we had zero trainers at that moment. Within 1.5 years, we had 380 trainers and taught over 11,500 students. They’re still using the platform now and have added new curricula and events tools. After I left, KW Kids Can had only one employee running the entire system by herself for a year, proving that we could deliver an educational product across the country with minimal labor.

They added a few really cool features since I’ve been gone, and I’m very proud of what we built. It’s an excellent platform that allows them to run the business with minimal human interaction in the system, educate young people all over the country, raise money, and communicate the message of unlimited potential.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a few hiccups here and there because we were moving very fast. There were times I needed them to slow down to manage the expenses, giving us time to determine our immediate goals as it relates to the site. We had a high level of conversation to make sure we were in the right spot. They used a system that allowed them to say where they were at and what they got done today. Quarterly, we’d look at everything that was on the roadmap and decide when it’s a deliverable and when it has to be done.

They were really good at prioritizing and getting things put in the right place. They were also able to tell us what would take longer than other tasks. They offered to put another person on it or we could wait an extra month. They were also really good at navigating speed versus investment. There were things we had to redo because maybe they didn’t come out exactly the way we planned it, but that’s normal when building something that intricate and large. Most of that was cosmetic and not operational or process-oriented. I have pretty high standards and I was completely happy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did a really good job of listening when I had something to say. I’m not a technical guy, so I talked to their project manager about what I want. If I needed to be really clear about the expense versus the deliverables, they did a good job of interpreting that and really meeting me in a place where we needed to be. I liked that they’re honest and candid. I’d rather work with someone who tells me the truth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, they had some communication processes that I felt took up a lot of time. They had meetings where there were three people in their office talking to us for an hour. At $180 per hour per person can be very expensive. After a few weeks of that, I talked to them about it. They came up with a different process that worked better for me. However, they weren’t ready to shift into that other process until I flexed a little muscle and told them I needed them to do it. I respect the fact that there were some things they didn’t want to change. Eventually, there are some things they were willing to change because it made sense after they heard me out. Eventually, we really ironed it all out and got moving very well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear upfront. They’re not cheap, but they’re very good. Take your time. Before signing the contract, be willing to really get clear about what you want. After they present it to you, take a step back and make sure that’s what you want. Once we got going, we were going full blast.