Search Tool Internal Systems Automation

Project Overview

Eldor-Wal’s clerk team were being bottlenecked by the demanding data entry requirements of the external systems they used to conduct searches.

They needed a system that their staff could use to automate the low-value repetitive and time-consuming aspects of their work, so they could provide their clients with a higher level of service.

Tandem worked with Eldor-Wal to clarify what the team’s needs were, and determined how each of the external systems functioned.

Within three months of signing the agreements, the entire clerk team had transitioned to the system Tandem delivered.

System Highlights

• Reduced staff time on individual searches by more than 40%

• Reduced staff time on grouped searches by more than 95%

• Application has seen 99% uptime since system launch

• Enforces search best practices reducing mistakes and increasing team consistency

• Eliminated a key bottleneck in growth as the company continues to scale

About the Client

For over 50 years, Eldor-Wal has been a trusted source of search and legal support services for legal, financial, and business firms across Canada.

Eldor-Wal’s dedication to staying ahead of the curve and anticipating future needs has led to innovative and competitive digital services and products that save their clients time and money.

Situation

Eldor-Wal approached Tandem because they needed a software development partner who could quickly deliver a reliable, well designed, and easy-to-use solution.

Their core challenge was that the external systems their business used to fulfill customer orders were inefficient, labor intensive, and clunky to work with. This meant that staff were forced to dedicate their time to low value and repetitive activities instead of spending it addressing genuine customer needs.

They needed an automated solution which could perform the same high-precision tasks at a larger scale to keep up with their growing consumer demand and support.

Managing Director Luke Manca contacted Tandem to see if we could improve the capabilities of their platform while maintaining the high standards of their service.

Project Requirements

Discovery

The Tandem team worked with Eldor-Wal to itemize and break down the project's business requirements into an actionable set of designs and technical specification.

This assessment allowed us to create a clear list of integration priorities based on key factors such as staff time savings, technical complexity, delivery timeline, API demand, and long term maintenance costs.

Service integration opportunities were identified based on these criteria, and we established a process for revisiting these priorities at each delivery milestone.

Having a clear roadmap enabled the Eldor-Wal executive team to confirm alignment of the project with their broader strategic goals while providing an actionable path towards achieving them.

The discovery process was instrumental in identifying key risks and developing strategies to minimize them, while also serving as an opportunity to educate non-technical stakeholders on the relative difficulty of the different types of integrations.

Deliverables

Only two and a half months after agreements were signed, the Ace and Gateway systems were fully designed and launched with the first integration available.

Thanks to a seamless transition for staff and an error free launch, the team was able to move straight into extending the centralized platform to support additional searches and  integrations.

Over the next 5 months, four additional integrations were released along with a number of quality of life improvements. As the system continues to grow, additions like this are expected to continue into the foreseeable future.

Result / Impact

Eldor-Wal received a solution that was immediately adopted by the entire clerk team.

Since release the project has successfully processed thousands of orders across tens of thousands of searches. The Ace system has had a measurable reduction in staff time spent on a repetitive, low value task and a corresponding improvement in clerk satisfaction.

At the same time, the introduction of the Gateway system to Eldor-Wal's internal product development team has reduced the development timelines of related products by months. As the list of supported search integrations grows, development timelines continue to become more streamlined.

The above two outcomes have resulted in the executive team experiencing a higher than expected return on investment, which in turn has provided a foundation of trust that Tandem is the right partner to continue developing their operational infrastructure with.