ABOUT PROJECT
Roobykon thrives on building solutions that generate real value for our clients. One such success story is the Cognition platform, a custom-built Campaign Management Platform (CMP) developed for Global Rev Gen. This innovative platform serves as the backbone for all of Global Rev Gen’s operations, enhancing the delivery of value and giving their team unparalleled control over their digital campaigns.
Cognition was designed from the ground up to fit Global Rev Gen’s unique workflow, enabling them to manage online campaigns with efficiency and transparency. Whether they are analyzing the broad scope of their campaign performance or diving deep into granular details not covered by third-party services, Cognition provides the insights and flexibility needed for continuous improvement.
Key Challenges
One of the first key challenges emerged when the need for a campaign subsystem became apparent. What initially began as a straightforward platform quickly transformed into something much more intricate. The Roobykon team recognized the necessity to build a robust subsystem for managing campaigns, and this required rapid development to keep the platform on track. As the project advanced, the creative briefs subsystem was introduced, adding another layer of complexity. The integration between campaigns, briefs, and publishers became a priority. Ensuring these components worked together efficiently and accurately meant the Roobykon team had to create tight connections between various subsystems, allowing for smooth data flow and interaction across the platform.
Before long, additional functionalities were required, such as Insertion Orders, Prospecting, and Client Invoicing. These features were integral to the platform’s success, but their addition only increased the project’s complexity. Balancing the need for these new subsystems while maintaining performance and user experience was a delicate task.
TECHNOLOGY STACK
Solution Highlights
The Cognition platform was built using Ruby on Rails 4.2 as its backbone, with Apache and Phusion Passenger handling user requests. For backend storage, MySQL 5 with the InnoDB engine was chosen, ensuring efficiency and minimal resource usage. To manage asynchronous tasks, the team implemented the Resque library, while earlier versions relied on cron jobs. On the front end, AngularJS powers modern single-page applications (SPAs) for each subsystem, while earlier developments were based on jQuery. The interface and interactions are optimized with HAML, SASS, and CoffeeScript to integrate seamlessly with the Ruby on Rails stack.
Testing was a crucial aspect of development, with MiniTest used for unit, functional, and integration tests, supported by FactoryGirl (now FactoryBot) and Faker for test data generation. Additional tools like Capybara, Shoulda, webmock, and vcr ensured comprehensive test coverage, while Selenium WebDriver and headless testing validated system behavior. Before deployment, SoapUI was used for performance testing to maintain platform stability under heavy workloads.
The process
01
Requirements gathering & UX/UI prototyping: The development process began with understanding Global Rev Gen’s needs, followed by UX/UI prototyping. Balsamiq Mockups allowed rapid layout creation, while InVision facilitated interactive user flows. These tools enabled seamless collaboration with the client, ensuring a clear vision before moving forward.
02
Design iterations: After UX approval, the design phase began. Throughout Cognition’s lifecycle, it underwent three major design overhauls, each integrating new styling guidelines. A hybrid approach ensured that new subsystems adopted the latest design while existing ones were gradually updated based on priority.
03
Static layout slicing: Approved designs were then sliced using SASS and HAML, streamlining integration with the project. Direct modifications in project sources eliminated extra integration steps, and AngularJS was introduced to enhance interactivity.
04
Front and back-end implementation: Static layouts were converted into functional components, integrated into Ruby on Rails’ asset pipeline. Each feature was developed in a separate Git branch, reviewed internally, and merged after testing. Business logic and data models were structured according to functional requirements.
05
Infrastructure setup: Cognition was deployed across three server environments – Development (for initial implementation), Staging (for QA and client review), and Production (live environment). Each stage was configured to mirror production for a seamless transition.
06
Testing & Quality Assurance: Automated tests were integrated throughout development, covering unit, functional, and integration testing. Before final deployment, the system was thoroughly tested on staging servers, ensuring stability before going live.
Main Features
Real-time campaign tracking with HasOffers
To provide Global Rev Gen with unparalleled insights into their digital campaigns, HasOffers was integrated for real-time tracking. This allowed operators to monitor performance metrics instantly, analyze trends, and optimize campaigns without relying on third-party data providers. The implementation ensured that both high-level overviews and granular details were accessible at any time.
Seamless insertion order management with EchoSign
To streamline the creation and processing of Insertion Orders (IOs), Roobykon integrated EchoSign for digital document signing. This automated the generation, parsing, and full-cycle handling of IOs, reducing paperwork, eliminating delays, and ensuring a transparent approval process for all stakeholders involved.
Flexible nurture stream control with CampaignMonitor
To enhance client engagement and campaign optimization, CampaignMonitor was implemented for flexible nurture stream management. This allowed Global Rev Gen to create tailored email workflows for each campaign or client, automating communications and ensuring that messaging was aligned with performance data.
Task and communication management with RedBooth
Effective collaboration was crucial for a globally distributed workforce, so RedBooth was integrated to streamline task management and internal communication. This provided Global Rev Gen employees with a centralized platform to track issues, assign tasks, and facilitate real-time discussions, improving productivity and coordination across different time zones.
RESULTS
The collaboration between Roobykon and Cognition has delivered outstanding results for Global Rev Gen. From the moment we introduced the first implementation of Cognition, it quickly became an indispensable part of the company’s daily workflow, seamlessly connecting various services used across the organization. The platform has enabled employees to effectively manage digital campaigns at every stage, from the prospecting phase all the way to billing, providing a unified solution that enhances operational efficiency and transparency.
With constant monitoring and support of the service deployment, we ensure that Cognition remains up and running 24/7. This allows us to implement critical updates and upgrades proactively, preventing potential bottlenecks before they arise. The iterative approach to incorporating user feedback ensures that we strike the right balance between time to production, quality, and costs, all while continuously enhancing the platform’s functionality to meet evolving needs.
Lessons from Cognition
During the development of the Cognition marketplace, Roobykon faced significant challenges that shaped our growth. One of the key lessons we learned was the importance of managing both organized and unorganized digital ad inventory, which required us to create a system capable of handling vast amounts of data from global sources. This taught us the value of flexibility and clarity in designing complex workflows while ensuring efficiency. Additionally, ensuring global accessibility and reliability for a distributed team required choosing a cloud hosting provider with robust infrastructure, alongside implementing redundant backup and restore procedures to prevent data loss. These experiences emphasized the need for scalable systems and the importance of infrastructure reliability.
Another major challenge was designing a user-friendly yet powerful interface that could handle complex data management tasks. Balancing usability with functionality, we iterated based on constant feedback from both clients and our team, ultimately delivering a product that met the users’ needs while handling significant data demands. Through these experiences, we demonstrated that collaboration and adaptability are essential for overcoming obstacles and creating solutions at scale.
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