FORZA³™ 150 Project Complete
Our clients spoke, and we listened.
One point of distinction we claim is that we genuinely welcome and embrace feedback from our clients. ESP President Shaun Murray has long held that our clients are partners in our mutual success. The FORZA³™ 150 Project is an excellent example of collaboration between vendor and client.
“A partnership is built through communication, listening, and follow-through. Our goal is to provide an environment where communication can flow freely, preferably unfiltered and honest. We rely on feedback from our clients; it makes us, the client, and the industry better.”
When ESP's flagship software FORZA³™, a core banking platform for credit unions, was developed, cathode-ray tubes (CRT) monitors were the standard. These old monitors took up a lot of space on a desktop; in fact, office furniture had to be specially designed to accommodate them. The glass used to create CRTs contained 20% lead to improve optical quality and to shield the user from radiation generated by the electron beam.
If your office was lit by old fluorescent tubes, a subtle strobing between the frequency of the light and the refresh rate of the CRT would drive eye strain. Remember when screen savers were necessary? Screen burn-in would ruin a display - not to mention the color would fade unevenly over time, adding a color cast. Plus, CRTs consume a lot of power and often put off a considerable amount of heat. Screen resolutions were as low as 640 x 480 pixels. FORZA³™ was developed to maximize this real estate.
Twenty-five years later, massive strides in technology have made CRTs obsolete. Due to the leaded glass, CRTs are now actually considered industrial waste. LED (light-emitting diode) displays are the current standard and provide incredible brightness and stunning color reproduction. They draw very little power and emit very little heat, making them perfect for smartphones and tablets. They don't suffer from the same screen burn-in or color shifting problems. Plus, LED displays are thin and lightweight, making it possible to place them on a narrow desk or hang them on a wall.
With all these advancements in technology, it became possible to manufacture LED displays with a much higher resolution than was ever possible with the old tubes. Currently, 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) is the standard for computer monitors. Even the once-mighty HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) monitor is now considered old tech. Prices have also fallen, making a 4K monitor affordable for almost everyone. These advancements in monitor resolution caused FORZA³™ to be smaller than initially intended.
One vital piece of feedback we received from clients that purchased new monitors is they wished FORZA³™ could be resized to maximize screen space of 4K monitors. We listened. We created the FORZA³™ 150 Project to make FORZA³™ compatible with all modern monitor resolutions.
The FORZA³™ 150 Project had four specific requirements: it must have minimal impact on the end-user, require no training, be rolled out to clients with a regular update, and most importantly - not charge clients for the added functionality.
ESP's in-house Development Team took the project on and determined that they could meet the requirements. Multiple programmers worked on this project for over seven months. The code was procedurally generated by a separate application and built to current best practices to ensure compatibility moving forward.
Jacob Brown, the lead programmer on the project, put his master's degree in Computational Science from Central Washington University to good use. To streamline the development process, Jacob created a separate application with over 3,000 lines of code. This custom application allowed him to more easily modify the 50,000 lines of code needed to transform FORZA³™. Close collaboration among other members of the ESP Development Team brought the project to fruition.
“Resizing the tabs and the lists of data in FORZA³™ took nearly 80% of all effort put into this project - while we completed most of the element resizing in just two weeks. Working closely with other Development Team members allowed me to easily isolate edge cases and find a dynamic solution for resizing. ”
After the initial build, a working alpha version was rigorously tested in-house by our Client Services Team on popular monitor resolutions to ensure compatibility. Client Services will soon be the front-line of providing support for this functionality. Client Services Manager Shelly Rogers is a staunch advocate for internal testing as it guarantees that Client Services will be well-versed in its use before its general release.
“For Client Services, in-house testing is our introduction to new functionality. We discover issues before our beta testing clients ever see them. Plus, we document procedures of operation and determine the best way to support the new functionality in the future. ”
After internal testing was complete, we released a beta version for real-world testing with selected clients on a testing database. These clients cover a range of representative demographics in order to ensure compatibility across all clients. Clients easily resized the FORZA³™ window to the appropriate screen size. Beta testing returned several issues that were immediately implemented into the build. Overall, beta testing was extremely positive.
In conclusion, the FORZA³™ 150 Project is a success. We took input from our clients and made a better product because of it. Best of all, we successfully extended this functionality to our clients with no financial impact on their operating expenses.
The FORZA³™ 150 Project will be released on December 15th to all ESP clients. FORZA³™ users only have to update the software as usual, and the project will automatically be added. We will have webinars to assist clients in understanding its setup and operation.