Case Study: Spring IM

To us, technology is the future. Digital transformation can fuel smarter decision-making, accelerate processes and scale operations for businesses. That’s why here at The Summit, we were very excited by the opportunity to harness the latest tech tools and processes to build Jersey's first regulated digital investment platform for our client, Spring IM.

Spring IM’s vision was to jump ahead to becoming the leader in the market with the best reporting and a cutting-edge platform. After spending time in a discovery phase with them, we knew the potential was there, and we could apply our tech expertise and wider systems thinking to refine a solution that would deliver on every level. 

To us, this translation between a client’s ambitious vision and a fully-functioning digital experience that works and makes sense to the users is at the heart of a successful technology partnership, and something that we pride ourselves on achieving. 

For the Spring IM platform, it was vital that the customer experience was seamless from end-to-end, from the very first interaction on the website, to becoming a fully onboarded, actively invested and reported-to customer with multiple functions in between. For our team, it meant we had to adopt a MVP mindset from day one, with the whole team making intelligent decisions around what, where and how to ensure we were optimising the technology and hitting critical milestones to get the product to market. 

The Summit operates as an agile, connected team, which meant we were able to balance the tight timeframes with a strict project management mentality, assigning experienced smaller teams to the key areas of the portal and reporting, while other team members worked alongside to co-develop parts of the solution, with daily sprint meetings to coordinate and stay on track.

Acting as Spring IM’s technology partners, we had to ensure that the key considerations for the platform’s architecture, UX/UI and solutions were tackled up front. The investing world by its very nature is quite complicated in terms of terminology, language and concepts. So when you are bringing that world to consumers, the challenge is to integrate that language, reporting and complexity while making it easy for users to understand exactly what they are doing. How could traditional paper form content be adapted to work on screen while delivering a customer experience that makes sense for users? What would make the platform simpler to use, easier to understand for a wide consumer base, and ensure it was futureproofed for longevity? 

A pivotal moment in the project was when we went from a hybrid solution to a fully cloud-based solution, using the Microsoft stack to its full potential, which offered far better opportunities for futureproofing. That is one of the key benefits of approaching a project from a tech perspective; we are designing for the now, but with an eye on how it can evolve and develop into the future. It requires more consideration, thought and presents more challenges, but it is something that is necessary to achieve that optimum result. 

Our partnership style means truly being a partner; consulting, listening, and perhaps suggesting alternatives, rather than just acting as a service provider. With the Spring IM platform, we have been able to implement the leading cutting-edge Microsoft technology, working in the way it was designed to. For us, that is innovation at its best, enabling us all to hold true to the original vision and delivering a far more quality product, both for customers and stakeholders.

“We are definitely seeing a shift towards more fintech-first businesses, rather than businesses converting to digital and simply beginning to optimise what they have. Spring IM saw the opportunity to take a fintech approach from day one, and then with the right effort and the right partner, they have been able to embrace technology innovation and the benefits it brings. As technology grows and develops, these opportunities will grow in themselves, with the benefit of more people who can think digitally and have the experience, knowledge and teams to architect these types of solutions.”  Ben Symonds, Founder & Managing Director of The Summit. 

Technologies used:

Microsoft Power Platform

• PowerApps Portals
• PowerApps (Model Driven App)
• Dataverse
• Power BI 

Microsoft Azure

• Azure Analytics Server and Tabular Data Models
• Azure SQL Cloud DWH
• Azure B2C with MFA
• Azure Data Factory
• Various API Integrations
• SFTP Integrations (XML/JSON)
• GraphQL
• Azure Virtual Server
• Azure Logic Apps
• Fully Automated DevOps Routines
• Azure Automation & Monitoring
• Power BI Embedded