IWSR

IWSR, a global leader in market analysis for the alcohol industry, gathers vast amounts of data through a network of specialist researchers. Its previous system, a desktop application called Collector, was ripe for a refresh.

Added to over time, Collector had ended up with a somewhat Frankensteinian interface, and relied on offline data collection, to be synchronised when researchers had a decent internet connection.

The result? Blind spots for the central IWSR team, who couldn’t monitor how researchers were progressing and faced last-minute data dumps.

With new investment and big ambitions, IWSR knew it needed a user-friendly application that could evolve alongside market and technological changes.

Clear that a complete overhaul of the Collector was needed, we suggested a progressive web app, accessible from any device with a browser. We’d host it on AWS, for maximum robustness and scale.

By turning the tables and researching the researchers, we’d get a clear picture of wants, needs and any frustrations, creating a slicker, more intuitive user experience.

And, as was crucial at the time, it would function offline but with tools for real-time progress tracking, so the core team had the full picture at all times.

We kicked off in 2019 with that extensive study of researcher pain points and ways of working.

Armed with a deep understanding of existing challenges and opportunities for improvement, we wireframed the new application, giving it a more spreadsheet-like interface, so researchers could happily work on and update their data and creating a clear, streamlined user experience.

Over the next two years, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collaborated closely with IWSR throughout the development process. Face-to-face meetings switched to video calls, with everyone determined to keep up the momentum and make sure the project stayed on track.

When you’re managing intricate, comprehensive data on everything from French wine to British craft beer and Jamaican rum, the data fields get pretty numerous.

For example, in champagne sales, bottle size is a big consideration, but it’s much less important if you’re selling chardonnay. Beer makers range from some of the world’s largest multinationals to artisanal brewers working from a single premises.

This new version of Collector had to handle all this, and more, quickly and clearly.

The progressive web app needed to work seamlessly, online and offline. The team designed a sophisticated, incremental synchronisation process, to avoid researchers losing vital data if their internet connections weren’t reliable.

And we made sure the core IWSR team could track researcher progress in real time, spotting any potential problems earlier, as well as feeling reassured that the work was on schedule.

Case study

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