About the Client
MotoNovo specialises in motor finance for the purchase of cars, vans and motorcycles. This case study focuses on findandfundmycar.com, a car aggregator brand launched by MotoNovo to help customers find their perfect car and provide dealerships with a free advertising platform. We handled operations for this digital product, enabling a quick and straightforward move towards operational maturity.
Challenge: Making Outsourced IT Operations Work
With growth on the cards at MotoNovo, the application team was keen to focus on software development and delivery, not management and maintenance. However, compromising on platform reliability and user experience was not an option.
This challenge of balancing speed and stability was front of mind as the team developed enhancements for its vehicle aggregation site, findandfundmycar.com.
Outsourcing the platform’s operations seemed to be the best solution, especially as the business was in the process of switching to a self-hosted model on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Ideally, MotoNovo wanted a personal relationship with a trusted digital-native partner rather than an arm’s length offering from a traditionally managed service provider.
We were appointed to handle the entire process of building, launching then operating a new platform for the product with additional functionality. We scoped the work based on MotoNovo’s initial architectural design, built it on AWS, then ensured a seamless transition to our dedicated managed cloud services team.
“We wanted a managed services partner that understood our business and felt like part of the team. That’s exactly what we got.”
Phil Jones
Applications Development Manager at Motonovo
Solution: Frictionless Onboarding Drives Success
MotoNovo wanted to enhance findandfundmycar.com in line with best-in-class AWS principles. The new platform is built on a serverless architecture, so it can scale quickly and easily without disruption as user numbers grow.
To extend these best practice principles, we focused on long-term operability during the build phase. The goal was to ensure ongoing management and maintenance would run smoothly as the platform scaled. We also integrated the solution with MotoNovo’s existing enterprise authentication platform and deployment pipelines. Using technology that the application team was familiar with made the entire process quicker and more straightforward.
Focusing on operational readiness meant the new product platform was launched with 24/7 availability and support from day one. It is primed to accommodate ongoing growth, increasing traffic and iterative improvements without threatening the quality of the user experience.
We also held a dedicated onboarding session. This is an opportunity to run through the various platform components, determining performance thresholds and break/fix levels. We discussed daily communication and out-of-hours support, as well as processes for logging, tickets and naming conventions.
Onboarding helps lay the foundations for a strong, cohesive and personal working relationship. MotoNovo’s application team met key members of our managed cloud services team in person on a video call. Everyone is on first name terms, and a dedicated Slack channel has been set up to facilitate regular direct communication.
Conversations about ongoing work are frequent and informal. If there is an issue with platform performance, MotoNovo simply contacts us on Slack. This direct interface with people that can resolve issues ensures a fast and effective response before problems escalate. We also hold scheduled fortnightly catch-ups and share monthly activity reports.
Outcome: Streamlined, Unified Platform Support
MotoNovo’s launch of the new findandfundmycar.com platform went smoothly, and the subsequent adoption of cloud managed services was straightforward. The platform has a proportionate level of operational maturity which will expand as it grows. Meanwhile, the in-house application team can direct their energy and attention to innovation, developing and improving the product.
In short, MotoNovo focuses on customer value and competitive differentiation while we keep things running effectively and efficiently in the background.
“[The team] has been flexible and accommodating throughout the entire process. The team took time to understand our needs and ensured they were met. They’ve shown that cloud managed services will be hugely beneficial to our business.”
Phil Jones
Applications Development Manager at MotoNovo
This case study is based on work completed by DevOpsGroup before the team joined forces with Sourced Group, an Amdocs company.
