Workerbee — a digital marketplace for software consultants

Time frame:

Dec 2021 - now

Project discovery

Web development

Workerbee — a digital marketplace for software consultants

Time frame:

Dec 2021 - now

Project discovery

Web development

Our client provides IT consulting services and has an internal team of tech specialists. However, they needed extra capacity to launch a new marketplace for software consultants, so they asked us to build one from scratch.

Country

USA

Industry

IT consulting

Established

2014

Company size

51-200

What our client says

Heiko Roth

Co-Founder, COO at Agilea Solutions, СЕО Workerbee

Nevada, USA

“

We’ve found a great team with good expertise and value.

Clockwise Software has been able to plan a great project with a limited budget. They’ve adhered to that plan, making us trust their work in every sprint that we start with them. The team has been able to deliver and be cheerful and friendly despite being in the middle of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine — it’s been genuinely inspiring. Clockwise are valued members of our team, and we don't see that changing as we grow.

Project background

Workerbee was founded by Agilea Solutions, a company that specializes in modernizing and integrating HRM, CRM, and ERP systems. As Agilea continued to grow, it faced a lack of resources to cover all the needs of its projects. Finding specialists with niche skills for short-term projects was time-consuming and costly.

Project background

At the same time, Agilea Solutions saw that its specialists wanted an option to provide on-demand services and choose when and where to work rather than being limited to fixed hours.

To address these problems, our client came up with an idea for a custom platform that could help connect customers with the talent they need and give software consultants more flexibility and autonomy in their work.

With years of experience in their industry and an understanding of their customers’ needs and challenges, our client realized that their product must also involve other software vendors. Thus, Workerbee was designed as a multi-vendor marketplace where software consultants can offer their services and businesses can find experts skilled in integrating and configuring business systems, ultimately benefiting the entire ecosystem.

Reasons to partner with Clockwise Software

Having a business idea and a developed proof of concept, Agilea Solutions wanted to move further and build an MVP. Although the company had in-house technical specialists, their team was engaged in other projects. That’s why they sought out a full-cycle software development partner with experience building B2B platforms.

With expertise in developing marketplaces, Clockwise Software became a reliable partner for turning Agilea’s idea into a real product.

Process

Discovery
phase

We started by conducting a project discovery phase. Through this phase, which involved in-depth analysis, research, and planning, we were able to:

Define core business processes and needs and understand the target audience
Identify functional and non-functional requirements
Decide on the platform’s features and user roles
Create a plan with key milestones and a detailed development timeline

Process

MVP
development

After the discovery phase, we started working on marketplace functionality. As the project progressed, business requirements changed, leading to adjustments in software requirements.

Working within a Scrum framework, our team was able to pivot quickly and adapt to the changing requirements. As a result, we delivered a minimum viable product with functionality that ensured a seamless user experience and met all of the client’s requests without missing deadlines.

Process

Further development
& support

During MVP development, our team showed great performance and technical expertise. Therefore, our client decided to continue their partnership with us.

After the MVP launch, we worked on marketplace improvements to meet evolving business requirements. We have delivered functionality for a new user role (software consulting agencies), improved the payment system, and worked on optimizing the platform’s speed.

Challenges we had to solve

During project development, we focused on tailoring the product’s functionality to user behavior and users’ needs. With new insights, the client’s business requirements changed and new challenges appeared. We had to find effective solutions to create a user-oriented platform in line with evolving requirements.

Challenge #1

Time-consuming search for consultants

Before hiring a consultant, a customer typically checks that they have relevant experience, skills, and availability. But browsing specialists and checking each profile can take much time, slowing the search.

Solution

To improve the search for potential consultants, we implemented a matching score. The system uses matching algorithms to compare a customer’s requirements with data on each consultant and agency. As a result, the system provides a list of service providers with matching scores so the customer can easily find a consultant who suits their request.

Challenge #2

Clients’ payment processing needs

Workerbee customers initially had two escrow payment options: credit card or ACH transfer. To cover specific payment processing needs for some customers, our client requested adding an option to pay on net 30 terms after receiving the ordered service. With this option, customers can receive monthly invoices and have up to 30 days to pay. However, this option added complexity to financial operations management, requiring administration of accounts on net 30 terms.

Solution

To ensure effective management of accounts on net 30 terms and on-time payouts for consultants, we added two modules to the admin panel: Purchase Orders and Enterprise Invoicing.

The Purchase Orders module enables a Workerbee admin to add new contracts with customers, record funds added to customers’ accounts, and indicate the contract duration.
The Enterprise Invoicing module enables a Workerbee admin to oversee weekly reports submitted by consultants, generate invoices based on these reports, and manage payouts.

Challenge #3

Insufficient functionality for a new partnership

After the marketplace was launched, Workerbee partnered with a leading human capital management solution provider. The new partner wanted to direct all of their clients’ requests for software configuration and integration to consultants on Workerbee.

However, the marketplace’s available functionality didn’t support the processes involved in the new partnership. To overcome this issue, our team had to rapidly implement additional features.

Solution

We added a lead manager role for our partner’s representatives who oversee and manage preorder requests from their clients. After a new preorder appears in the system, a lead manager can review it, edit it if necessary, and assign it to several agencies. If the first-priority agency declines the preorder, it is offered to another agency. If a lead manager changes a preorder, the client is notified and asked to confirm the changes, which guarantees transparency.

Product overview

Workerbee is a multi-vendor marketplace where businesses can find software modernization and integration specialists. It serves several types of users: individual software consultants, software consulting agencies, software vendors, and customers.

To ensure that the marketplace provides a great experience to each user and supports convenient cooperation between consultants and businesses, we implemented diverse functionality and integrated services such as Stripe for escrow payments and Twilio for communication.

As a result, the marketplace offers:

Streamlined search

Fast and secure checkouts

Convenient order management

Straightforward user management

Team

Project
Manager

Business
Analyst

UX/UI
Designer

2 Frontend
developers

2 Backend
developers

QA
Engineer

Technologies we used

React

Material UI

Recharts

Redux

Google Cloud

Nest.js

TypeScript

PostgreSQL

Stripe

Pipedrive

Twilio

MailJet

Results

Workerbee is now live and has successfully entered the market. The marketplace has attracted not only individual consultants but also agencies who want to reach a wider pool of potential clients. The Workerbee launch also resulted in a partnership with a human capital management solution provider, leading to an increase in the size of the customer base, enhanced company credibility, and overall business growth.

We’re continuing to work on the Workerbee platform, ensuring its stable performance, and plan to develop a Workerbee mobile application for iOS and Android.

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