Workflow Management Software for Retirement Advisory and Fiduciary Service

Project overview 

Sombra delivered a solution for a leading provider of multiple employer plans and investment advisory. The company provides retirement advisory and fiduciary service for small and mid-sized companies. Sombra as technology partner was engaged in building two separate projects for storage and processing financial data. 

Business challenge 

Our client aimed to create a system helping fiduciary manage Retirement plans for their clients. The company required a fast and secure system capable to process big data volume with hierarchy structure and multi-tenant access.

In its operation, our client used several systems, but they were technically incompatible. The main business challenge company faced was the inability to organize workflow between systems and collect and facilitate diverse information.  

Goal 

According to the client’s business request, we aimed to build an integrated system ensuring aggregation of important information in one place, creating IP for third-parties and integration into the company’s main system. Also, the system should meet OWASP 10 and WCAG 2.0 security standards. 

Project overview 

We’ve developed an integrated system consisting of two modules. The first module is responsible for storing file data, automating workflow, onboarding new clients and easy access to their records. 

The second module enables to create questionnaires, complete the questionnaire and share results with existing and prospective clients. The intent of this application is to use it as a sales tool for the first module. 

New software must meet security standards, be fast, light and easy to use.

Challenges  

• The main challenge was a tight time frame. Our task was to build and implement architecture for two separate projects dealing with large data volumes in 3 months. Our team developed the same coding and architecture standards for both projects. Doing so, we ensured that developers can migrate between projects without wasting time on learning and familiarization with the project. Besides, using Java 11 in combination with Spring and Hibernate allowed a quick first release. While Angular 9 ensured mobility and flexibility to handle specific application requirements.

• Another challenge was related to technical requirements. According to client’s requirements file records must be stored on FTP server. But on the development stage we have found this storage method to be inefficient and heavy, therefore switched to Azure Blob Storage. It allowed us to store large amounts of data, which became accessible from anywhere. 

Project outcome 

To offer effective workflow ecosystem, Sombra team built a new solution using the latest technologies. This solution incorporates:

• document vault for storing all documents of the participant 
• interface for onboarding new clients and their employees
• task log responsible for scheduling activities for each client
• environment for creating questionnaires 
• analytics to interpret questionnaires results

Data storage 

We developed storage for file data, where every client has its document vault with predefined folders. Our engineers used Microsoft Azure as a cloud infrastructure provider, Azure Storage for storing documentation and Azure MySQL for storing structured data. Using Azure Storage simplified file and document management, helped to create hierarchical access structure and speeded up system changes. 

PDF generation 

Our team developed an environment where client’s sales department can create custom questionnaires or use premade ones with a calculated result. Results of the questionnaire can be presented either as a landing page or pdf file sent to email. To generate a custom pdf, we involved PDFBox. Which allowed us to create pdf files reflecting survey results with predefined wireframes and adhering to corporate style.  

Multitenancy 

To provide hierarchical access structure we implemented multi-tenancy architecture into the system. Every tenant (company) have own database and the system retrieve data from the database for a particular user after the login. Multi-tenancy was resolved through Hibernate using its default implementation. 

Business outcome 

Sombra has made a meaningful contribution by guiding the company in a new more technological and optimized path. Strong focus on data management has helped our client provide more personalized services for their customers.  

• Questionnaire module helped our client to promote fiduciary service, get more clients and collect information about them. 
• With the fiduciary system, our client is able to provide a secure and fast workflow for its customers. This results in higher sales results and the ability to expand the customer base.