Table of contents
About the client
Service Year Alliance is working to make a year of paid full-time service a common expectation and experience for all young Americans.
There are over 65,000 opportunities in America that offer varying lengths of commitment, issue areas and geographic locations. All service years share one thing in common: they provide a paid, life-changing experience.
Along with making an impact in the community, a service year will help young people grow personally and professionally. Service years provide an opportunity to develop new skills, participate in training and professional development, and receive financial support.
Business challenge
Service Year Alliance was looking for a partner to help increase customer engagement on their platform and optimize the total cost of ownership.
The goals were to improve user experience, design and enhance features, and seeking new data monetization opportunities. The platform consolidates service year opportunities in one place and is a crucial part of the organization’s activity, allowing young Americans to leverage the potential coming from participating in service years.
The costs of the AWS Cloud infrastructure and operational costs of development could be optimized, and the application needed to be verified in terms of its security and resilience.
Through the hands-on experience, Service Year Alliance learned that the platform needed to be optimized and ever-evolving to change along with the new generations’ approach – they started with Millennials, now they work mainly with Gen Z, and in a couple of years the target would be changed to Generation Alpha. The application’s accessibility was taken care of only on a basic level before, and it needed to be improved. Our client wanted to make sure that the system can be accessed by all.
The organizations involved in creating service year opportunities are managed in different ways, so the application had to be universal to be able to incorporate them all.
>225k
user accounts on platform
>50k
certified opportunities
Future Processing has been very helpful and allowed us to focus our limited resources on our most important priorities at any given time all within one team. There were times over the years when we needed more extensive UX design work, more intensive workshops. Recently, we had a handful of different needs – security, infrastructure, and how to get the most value out of the data. As an NGO, it is extremely valuable to us to have one partner that has all the expertise and competencies, and Future Processing has been that partner for us.
Focus on cost reduction and ROI
40% cost reduction was brought by moving from standard development to the Managed Services model. A Cloud FinOps and Security assessment resulted in further 12% cost reduction as well as improved security and resilience.
We recommend the best solutions when it comes to potential gains (ROI), risk assessments, and the impact that our work would have on the client’s business. Our actions brought significant cost optimizations and compliance with data protection, legal, and accessibility requirements.
Future Processing started the collaboration with Service Year Alliance as a technology expert following the client’s roadmap, only to become a trusted consulting partner over the years.
We maintain a very close relationship with SYA’s CEO, Kristen Bennett, who knows that whenever there is a new challenge, we can advise on choosing the best approach, e.g., concerning cybersecurity, infrastructure, or UX issues.
We ensure that our services are of the highest value, suggest the possible solutions, and remain flexible.
Partnership that delivers
Service Year Alliance highlights that working with Future Processing allows them to work in a flexible manner, as we can add new features and address feedback and end-user requests quickly, bringing them more value over time. The platform is a crucial part of the organization, enabling our client to bring their vision to life and making service years more accessible for youth across the country.
Our client is dedicated to delivering the best quality to their NGO partners and the end-users of the platform that we work on. They conduct a lot of different and thorough activities to make sure that ServiceYear.org is intuitive, targets the right people, and that it serves its purpose. For example, SYA does regular user testing on both sides, thoroughly analyzing the data to make sure that the end-users are succeeding and converting in the ways our client wants them to and that the NGOs have all features they need to get the most out of the platform.
Watch the interview
Listen to Kristen Bennett, CEO, talking about how Service Year Alliance provides opportunities for Gen Z, how the pandemic has changed young people’s lives, and more.
Accessibility
Over the years, accessibility has become a crucial and legal requirement for any webpage.
To ensure that accessibility becomes an inseparable part of the further development process, we conducted a thorough accessibility audit, analysing the critical user path and recommending the best solutions on how to improve it to meet accessibility guidelines. We also organised accessibility workshops for the team.
Our work encompassed:
- Web content structure – greater emphasis on using semantic HTML elements, which aids screen readers and assistive technologies in understanding and presenting information to users.
- ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes – to provide additional information to assistive technologies, making it easier for users with disabilities to navigate and interact with the web application.
- Keyboard navigation – Service Year Alliance’s website is designed to be fully accessible with only a keyboard. This way, users who cannot use a mouse or other pointing devices can access all the features and functionalities.
- Color contrast – making the color contrast appropriate for users with visual impairments.
- Accessible forms – with clear labels, form elements, and error messages that are easily perceivable by screen readers and other assistive technologies.
- Focus indication – a clear focus on interactive elements to assist users in navigating the page.
It is a pleasure to work with the talented and hard-working team at Future Processing. We are grateful for their partnership, their dedication, and their impressive results.
Main benefits of our partnership
- 40% cost reduction was achieved thanks to the Managed Services model. A Cloud FinOps and Security assessments resulted in additional 12% cost reduction,
- We worked on and improved the system’s accessibility, which became an inseparable part of the further development process,
- We advise on the best solutions when it comes to potential gains (ROI), risk assessments, and the impact that our work would have on the client’s business, presenting possible different outcomes,
- Service Year Alliance confirms that the quality of conversion within their application is much better than before
- Young people find the platform user-friendly and easy to navigate, the application is streamlined thanks to the UX work
- Our client gets the expertise they need right away and in one place, thanks to our comprehensive portfolio of services
- We collaborate very closely, enabling SYA to answer their end-users and NGO partners’ needs fast and in an effective way
Technologies used in the project
