“People want more than an ‘impersonal’ corporate vendor,” declares Alwyn Francis, Founder of VIRTUTEM. “People want a partner who is invested in where they want to go and how they want to get there. This is why my team at VIRTUTEM designs business solutions around achieving our customers’ goals and objectives. We’re in it for the long haul.”
In February 2011, two business ventures came together to discuss partnership and brainstorm the development of a new Software as a Service (SaaS) concept. “A decade ago, there was a marketplace that did not yet exist in the fire compliance arena,” explains Matt Rice, Co-founder of BRYCER. “My business partner, Bryan Schultz, and I had approached VIRTUTEM, a leading technologies consulting company, for their technical expertise to help us build a web-based application that would help drive compliance in the fire protection services sector. We brought them in as consultants, but really, VIRTUTEM became a very close business partner.”
The initial brainstorming session brought together Schultz and Rice with VIRTUTEM’s top brass, Alwyn Francis, Founder, and Robert Wayne, Director of Technology.
“Matt’s an adept problem-solver with an insurance background who truly understands risk management, and Bryan has a great grasp on process and an unbelievable amount of fire system inspection knowledge. It’s really no surprise that The Compliance Engine is so successful.”
WHEN BRYCER DECIDED TO MOVE THE APPLICATION ONTO AMAZON’S AWS CLOUD PLATFORM, VIRTUTEM WAS THERE TO EXECUTE A SUCCESSFUL MIGRATION.
After a few ideation sessions, BRYCER and VIRTUTEM moved forward with Rapid Application Development. Over the course of 8 months, the teams designed the database, developed advanced structures, and determined the basic flow of the application, keeping in mind the unique needs of each user in this multi-user application, designing the necessary security features throughout the cloud-based application.
“I REMEMBER LISTENING TO BRYAN AND MATT’S IDEAS AND REALIZING JUST HOW INCREDIBLY KNOWLEDGEABLE THEY WERE IN THEIR SPECIFIC FIELDS,” SHARES WAYNE.
“We went live with our first report submission in early October of that same year,” shares Wayne. “Working together, we developed a complete end-to-end solution in a relatively short period of time. They were able to demo the original software mid-summer, which was really exciting when you think about these building management and fire safety authorities gaining a tool that helps them keep communities safe.”
Schultz and Rice understood the challenges that their target users faced – lots of hard-to-track paperwork and a lack of resources to properly manage annual and five-year inspections. When they saw the need, they developed The Compliance Engine to be a simple, web-based service for code enforcement officials to track and drive inspection, testing, and maintenance code compliance for fire protection systems through their third-party inspection reporting and maintenance software system.
“It’s been pretty incredible to watch them go from serving 7 AHJs (authority has jurisdiction) to over 600 today,” shares Wayne. “The adoption of BRYCER’s SaaS by jurisdictions nationwide continues to grow exponentially due to their deep understanding of how ordinances and procurement work within each jurisdiction they serve. And it’s not just fire departments anymore – they’re supporting backflow prevention, elevator safety, and building inspections. The entire system has really evolved over the past decade. VIRTUTEM designed the software to be highly configurable and extensible, so that any direction they wanted to take it, we were agile enough to move along with them.”
“We were always very progressive with the tools we were utilizing to build our application,” states Rice. “From the early days, using Grails at the beginning for rapid deployment of our application, to now, as we move away from Grails and employ modern technology – VIRTUTEM is a valuable partner. They understand our business logic, and they were able to give us what we needed in a minimally viable product to make that work as we were a growing organization. I think that it’s much appreciated that they didn’t try to oversell, didn’t try and overbuild – they gave us what we needed to get to the next level.
“One of the reasons BRYCER chose to work with VIRTUTEM a decade ago is because of their willingness to be a partner in the business,” continues Rice. “I know that word gets thrown around a lot, but there was a sense of trust that they were as invested in being successful as we were. Fast forward to 11 years later, we have brought the programming in-house but have retained the architect who put the first line of code into our application and knows the application from a technical perspective better than anybody. I have nothing but positive comments for Alwyn, Robert, and VIRTUTEM.”
ABOUT VIRTUTEM
VIRTUTEM is the technology and business expert bringing business data to life so decision-makers have better information on the health of every sector of their business. We deliver 360˚ solutions to seamlessly integrate your entire business. From transforming your accounting system to automating your supply chain to managing your customer relations — VIRTUTEM provides world-class business solutions that help you compete in today’s ever-changing business environment. We’re your technology partner.
VISIT WWW.VIRTUTEM.COM TO SEE IF THEY ARE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY PARTNER FOR YOU.
ABOUT BRYCER
BRYCER’s mission is to deliver proactive services and technology to ensure jurisdictional compliance with inspection, testing, and maintenance laws. Our solutions are developed to be economical, efficient, flexible, and scalable to meet the needs of code enforcement officials, inspection, testing, and maintenance companies, and consumers worldwide. We strive to create a safer environment for all!
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BRYCER’S SAAS, VISIT WWW.THECOMPLIANCEENGINE.COM.