A SKIN CARE COMPANY'S
ONLINE TRAINING SOLUTION

A Novobi Case Study on combining cloud architecture with Odoo development to build an online training solution for a prestige skin care brand to educate salon professionals

Solution: Odoo Implementation & Cloud Migration
Industry: Personal Care Consumer Goods, Education

THE CLIENT

A Prestige Personal & Skin Care Brand 

This skin care brand is a subsidiary of a  €50 billion  multinational consumer goods company. Their product portfolio encompasses multiple skin care products and protocols in addition to a robust and industry-leading educational offering to train skin care professionals.  In addition to alignment with the core mission of the brand, education also represents a substantial revenue stream.

OBJECTIVES

Architect an online training solution for the client that:

  • Allows time booking, course registration, and tracks a user’s progress over time towards certification

  • Has the company’s branding and utilizes a consistent look and feel for users

  • Utilizes a user-friendly single sign on

  • Runs on AWS cloud hosting

  • Becomes a key differentiator among competitors in the industry

THE CLIENT

The client is a multinational and well respected brand in the personal care industry that is largely differentiated by its dedication to educating skin care professionals on product fluency and best practices in skin care.

As a brand that has been building its product portfolio and educational offering for over 30 years, many of the technology systems they rely on are largely dated and difficult to innovate with. The primary challenge is twofold: first, a new system must be architected to support the needs of their online training including customized branding, seamless integration with existing systems, single sign on, and custom logic with user progress tracking for various certifications. Existing SaaS solutions offer some of these benefits, but it is clear that a more customized enterprise solution is necessary to deliver the exact experience the client requires.

Second, legacy systems must also be migrated to AWS in order to utilize cloud resources across 5 global regions. This is necessary to reduce costs for the client and access the benefits of a multi-national cloud hosting platform that supports their global reach and scales more effectively.

The complex infrastructural challenges for this client are balanced between cloud architecture and application development for a robust training solution. In addition, the solution must also fit seamlessly with existing systems as only portions of the stack are being modernized. 

Novobi's Approach was to Utilize:

  • Cost effective architecture on AWS that is scalable, and affordable and allows for global access and rapid development

  • Odoo, a mature open source business application platform  to focus on rapid development and functional requirements rather than reinventing basic technical principles

  • Cost effective architecture on AWS that is scalable, and affordable and allows for global access and rapid development

  • Odoo, a mature open source business application platform  to focus on rapid development and functional requirements rather than reinventing basic technical principles

  • Application customization to enhance out-of-box functionality to meet enterprise caliber needs of the client such as SSO, enhanced usability, and seamless data movement

  • Cross cloud disaster recovery for the highest possible system up-time and redundancy to prevent data loss

  • Application customization to enhance out-of-box functionality to meet enterprise caliber needs of the client such as SSO, enhanced usability, and seamless data movement

  • Cross cloud disaster recovery for the highest possible system up-time and redundancy to prevent data loss

THE SOLUTION

Novobi was tasked with building a modern, powerful enterprise training platform to replace legacy systems and upgrade processes. By combining software with cloud-based technology and data analytics, they created an innovative, efficient, and most importantly scalable solution for the client.

Novobi built upon the open source framework of Odoo, an enterprise software platform that can be expanded with custom feature development aligned to the unique needs of the client. Development encompassed 2 key features for a powerful, single solution:

A Training Platform: Novobi developed and delivered an enterprise-caliber training platform to the client that fit seamlessly with existing systems and expanded their ability to offer educational services and resources to users . Built on Odoo’s cloud-based framework, this powerful training solution is centralized, user-friendly, and can be accessed anywhere.

Expanded functionality in the platform allows users to book training sessions with a single click, schedule their sessions in advance, track and save their progress through training, utilize video chat, and work through certification curriculums built on custom logic workflows. All of this can be managed through a global single sign on to a user portal that has the client’s custom branding. The system has supported the client’s educational services as a powerful revenue stream that scales effectively to meet the needs of their users in across 5 global regions.

Cloud Architecture: For complex infrastructure deployment, it was necessary for Novobi to migrate legacy systems and utilize AWS cloud hosting for the new build. The client’s internal IT team lacked the resources to adequately manage migration so Novobi drove the project, migrating systems from Rackspace to AWS as part of the project scope. As a result of the new system being built and deployed on AWS, the client was able to save hosting costs as well as leverage the global benefits of cloud hosting.

Novobi was tasked with building a modern, powerful enterprise training platform to replace legacy systems and upgrade processes. By combining software with cloud-based technology and data analytics, they created an innovative, efficient, and most importantly scalable solution for the client.

Novobi built upon the open source framework of Odoo, an enterprise software platform that can be expanded with custom feature development aligned to the unique needs of the client. Development encompassed 2 key features for a powerful, single solution:

A Training Platform: Novobi developed and delivered an enterprise-caliber training platform to the client that fit seamlessly with existing systems and expanded their ability to offer educational services and resources to users . Built on Odoo’s cloud-based framework, this powerful training solution is centralized, user-friendly, and can be accessed anywhere.

Expanded functionality in the platform allows users to book training sessions with a single click, schedule their sessions in advance, track and save their progress through training, utilize video chat, and work through certification curriculums built on custom logic workflows. All of this can be managed through a global single sign on to a user portal that has the client’s custom branding. The system has supported the client’s educational services as a powerful revenue stream that scales effectively to meet the needs of their users in across 5 global regions.

Cloud Architecture: For complex infrastructure deployment, it was necessary for Novobi to migrate legacy systems and utilize AWS cloud hosting for the new build. The client’s internal IT team lacked the resources to adequately manage migration so Novobi drove the project, migrating systems from Rackspace to AWS as part of the project scope. As a result of the new system being built and deployed on AWS, the client was able to save hosting costs as well as leverage the global benefits of cloud hosting.

RESULTS

IT Results of the Project

  • Migration: Existing Rackspace systems and data were moved to AWS hosting for cost savings on secure, cloud servers.

  • Managed Support: Novobi provided managed support in the time following deployment to ensure the client was comfortable and confident in the new system.

  • SSO: Global access and user account management was deployed with the option for cloud or on-premise hosting systems.

  • Disaster Recovery: With globally expanded systems, Novobi opted to initialize cross-cloud disaster recovery to ensure up-time and data retention.

Business Results of the Project

  • Custom Branding:  A new training system and user portal provides a strong and consistent user experience with the client’s custom branding and Odoo’s user-friendly platform.

  • Introduction of Innovation:  Additional developments to the system resulted in enhanced functionality such as one-click training booking, live video chat, SMS, and payment processing 

  • Scalability:  The system is now able to deliver a custom training experience with unique logic and workflows plus progress tracking toward certification to any user on demand.