Introduction
Spotler Group is a European provider of digital marketing and communication tools, which helps companies engage customers and enhance their brand experience. The Spotler Group has grown in part by acquiring companies that offer solutions in the MarTech space. As the group expanded, the need for a modern, scalable email editor that could be integrated with multiple products became apparent, and in 2022, the decision was made to begin work on such an editor. ArdentCode, with its experience in similar projects, was chosen to partner with Spotler to execute the task.
Product
The concept of the Email Editor had been analyzed and developed within the Spotler Group for some time. However, due to limited internal resources, it was necessary to open up to an external partner. ArdentCode, with its experience, was the natural choice for the project. As work progressed, the scope changed, and we expanded the team, adapting to the client’s evolving expectations.
Focus:
- Partnership-based collaboration – Spotler Group outlined the requirements based on a POC, for which ArdentCode specialists joined forces to recommend the proposed application architecture and implementation plan
- A mixed team comprised of developers from ArdentCode and Spotler Group, including client specialists in the entire process
- Usability of the application for non-technical users
- The need to provide a version that would be ready for embedding in other applications
- Application performance
Objective:
Implement an application providing an email editor for non-technical users that can also be embedded in existing applications created in various technologies.
Needs:
- Replace previous and costly-to-maintain editors
- Introduce a consistent design across products of one group, facilitating the use of the editor in different applications
- Eliminate the differences between them
- Use and develop Spotler Group’s Domain-specific language for email needs
Approach:
- Take over the internally built PoC (Proof of Concept).
Starting work involved analyzing the implementation of the first version of the editor as a Proof of Concept. We verified the design from both the technical and functional points of view. Based on this evaluation, we provided guidance for the further direction of work.
2. Create the MVP (Minimal Valuable Project).
After the analysis, we formed a project team that joined the existing team, and as a blended team, we completed the first version of the editor in accordance with the specification.
3. Deployment.
After testing, we launched the editor’s production version. Proper implementation in one application was the key, to be followed by others.
Results:
- Reduced maintenance costs. By replacing multiple editors with one common solution, Spotler Group was able to significantly reduce future development costs and streamline the development of a single editor.
- Introduction of a single email editing tool. This change contributed to delivering a vast amount of functionality to several products simultaneously, implementing AI assistants, creating a unified brand management system, and integrating with external service providers.
- Verification of the internal idea. The editor uses a descriptive markup language (SPML) created specifically for this project. The project’s success confirmed that creating SPML was a good direction, as the application is not dependent on external solutions.
Conclusion:
The implementation of the Email Editor allowed for the optimization of various applications offered by Spotler Group, significantly reducing the costs of maintaining the teams responsible for the product operation and creating a wide range of new possibilities. The universal application of the new solution also contributed to simplifying deployment procedures for end clients, who, having access to diversified solutions from Spotler Group, could quickly and easily adapt to new functionalities.