• Read more about What Goes into a Firm-Fix Engagement Model?

Today's software ecosystem is drenched in competition, scope creep, and costs. The average IT project failure rate is over 10%, and one in six IT projects go 200% over-budget. To be clear, this isn't only a modern problem. Companies have been dealing with project failure for decades. In 2004, The Standish Group Report showed that 72% of projects went over-budget. So, we're all still worming around the same core issues that we've been dealing with for years.

Despite advances in technology and the hefty tech stack we all have packed under our armpits, the simple truth is: launching projects is still problematic for the majority of businesses. So, how do you minimize these failure rates and eliminate pesky cost overages? For many, the answer to this question (and often the source of the issue) is their engagement model. Your engagement model is the plan that identified project execution and launch details between your business and whoever is launching your project.

One of the most popular engagement models is the firm-fixed model. This classic engagement model virtually eliminates scope creep, budgeting issues, and timing frictions, but (like most things in life) it also has some serious downsides. Here's what you need to know about firm-fixed, and why it may help you launch smarter and more efficient projects in the future.
 

What is a Firm-Fixed Engagement Model?

A firm-fixed engagement model is a fixed-price contract that requires outsourced development agencies to create a project in a fixed timeline based on a set-in-stone, upfront cost. So, the development team will sit down with the company, discuss the project, and set the upfront scope, scale, time, and price of the piece before development begins. Once the contract has been signed, the company will know exactly how much they need to pay, and when the project will be delivered to them. Any additional costs accrued during the development phase due to unknown or unaccounted for features will be on the outsourced development team — not your company.

There's a safety net that comes with firm-fixed contracts. Developers can't add additional hidden fees, go "over-scope" and charge you the difference, or adjust project requirements halfway through the development process. However, there are also some downfalls to firm-fixed. You can't change the scope of the project mid-way through the development process without incurring additional charges, and firm-fixed doesn't work well with mid-horizon (+3 years) or loosely-defined projects.

Remember, firm-fixed sets the project in "stone." So, if the market changes during the development phase, it's difficult to readjust the project requirements. For some companies, this sounds "anti-agile" or "anti-lean." However, firm-fixed doesn't mean the dev process has to have anti-agile tendencies. This depends solely on your outsourced developers. That being said, firm-fixed does not suit in-house or hired team development — since it's difficult to operate on fixed costs in this type of environment.
 

How Are Costs, Time, and Scope Accounted For in a Firm-Fixed Engagement Model?

The firm-fixed engagement model is a classic. It helps align outsourced devs and businesses to the same goals, and it keeps the entire project on-budget and on-time. So, how does this work in the context of scope, flexibility, and time?

 

Which Project Work Best With the Firm-Fixed Model?

Traditionally, the firm-fixed engagement model has been primarily leveraged by outsourced teams. That still rings true. In-house teams have little to gain from firm-fixed, since it locks you into a less-agile framework for project development. With in-house teams (both salaried and sourced), it makes sense to use agile models that emphasize iterations, continuous adjustments, and consistent re-works. Everyone is on-site, deeply integrated with your company, and juggling multiple high-impact projects.

Outsourced teams exist in a different space. Firm-fixed helps you align everyone to a clear-cut goal with hyper-predictable cost structures and timelines. You may not want your outsourced team to have the potential to scope creep your project, add costs onto the dev cycle, or miss that ever-so-important deadline. Firm-fixed bakes project requirements directly into the contract.

So, when we look at projects, firm-fixed works great with zero-to-launch projects that have an identified scope. These are things like websites, portals, small software programs, and extensions or updates on apps. Firm-fixed lets you cut through the grease, identify requirements, and get results all within a predictable budget. However, zero-to-launch projects that have a mid-horizon timetable (think +1 year) may not work well with firm-fixed, since you lose agility and the ability to rapidly adjust project requirements to changes in the marketplace or consumer behaviors.

To help clarify the value of the firm-fixed engagement model, let's look at some recent statistics from PMI's Pulse of the Profession — which surveyed +3,000 project managers, 200 senior execs, and 510 PMO directors:

In other words, almost half of projects go over budget, over the timetable, and over scope. That's a big problem! Firm-fixed provides you with an easy-to-use model that circumvents these types of common project issues. Sure. You lose some agility on the front-end, but for zero-to-launch projects that can be completed in under 1 year, firm-fixed is a more affordable, approachable, and predictable model than Agile.

Your Model; Your Way

Creating, launching, and maintaining amazing IT projects isn't easy. We can help. At Mobomo, we specialize in best-fit project execution. Whether you want a rapid-fire project on a firm-fixed contract or a long-term behemoth that's agile and purpose-driven, we can deliver incredible projects that impress boards, amaze customers, and win revenue. Contact us to learn more.

• Read more about Mobomo, LLC Won Three Awards from the 2020 Vega Digital Awards: Season 2

The Vega Digital Awards has released their 2020 Season 2 winners and Mobomo has proudly won three different awards:

• Centauri Award for NOAA Fisheries under the Science Website category
• Arcturus for NOAA Fisheries under the Government Website category
• Arcturus for the PRAC Pandemic Oversight work under the Government Website category

The Vega Digital Awards recognizes and honors digital content creators worldwide for their exemplary talents and creative minds. These awards are open to all, no matter the affiliations or experience of the creators. To evaluate the entries, a panel of experienced judges evaluates and critiques each entry, providing a rating on a scale of 100.

Mobomo is honored and proud to receive these three awards. We know how hard the two teams have worked from researching, designing and developing both the fisheries.noaa.gov and pandemicoversight.gov sites. Our hats go off to them and thank each and every team member for their dedication to the project and to the clients’ overall happiness with the work we’re conducting.

 

More about these projects:  

NOAA Fisheries:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, also known as the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), is a federal agency responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitat. Their services include: conservation and management of U.S. waters to promote prevention of overfishing, declining species, and degraded habitats. NOAA Fisheries manages five coastal regions broken down by department, fisheries management, science centers, and labs. Each office ran their own independent site creating inconsistency and overlap in content and design as each isolated digital property.

Mobomo partnered with NOAA Fisheries to assist in restructuring and redesigning their digital presence. Merging all their core web properties into one Drupal site allowed users to go to one destination to find and discover information they need. Mobomo focused on improving content efficiency, design consistency, and unifying NOAA Fisheries voice. Mobomo followed a user-centered approach that consisted of discovery, research, design, and validation phases to deliver a comprehensive, documented and validated user-centered design and information architecture that unified the 16 previously disparate web properties into one site.

Within one year, we launched the framework for their next generation site.

The NOAA Fisheries site is more than a conveyor of marine life information and research. It offers a large variety of information; from summaries of upcoming rules, permits, funding opportunities, to various types of helpful resources. Each section had its own challenges for the Mobomo team to learn and develop automated solutions around. The goal was to automate and simplify the content for users to locate, as well as for editors to post and manage.

 

The PRAC:

In 2020 the Coronavirus reached the United States calling for the development and passing of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To help inform the public of the spending provided by the CARES Act, the PRAC (Pandemic Response Accountability Committee) and Mobomo teams launched PandemicOversight.gov. The overarching goal of this site is to promote transparency for the government’s spending in response to COVID-19 by displaying the details of who received the $2.6 trillion relief and how they will be spending it. The site also provides helpful resources for reporting fraud and funding abuse.

Mobomo’s objective was to redesign, develop and deploy a new website for the PRAC built using a Drupal content management system (CMS) and deployed into the Microsoft Azure cloud. The website needed to support displaying interactive graphics for showcasing Coronavirus relief funding, as well as various government reports surrounding pandemic response and instances of fraud, abuse and mismanagement of relief funding. Due to resource circumstances, the new website had only a 5-week timeframe for redesign, develop and deployment of the new website.

Within the tight turnaround, Mobomo successfully launched the new site. The layout was designed using Mobomo’s human-centered design process. This resulted in a modern and clean look that is easy for viewers to use and understand the data and funding information provided.

• Read more about A Look at Drupal’s New Layout Builder

Recently, Drupal has been on an update rampage. The introduction of the oh-so-beautiful Drupal 9 core has spurred a chain reaction of upgrades across the Drupal platform. Just this week, we're getting a new default theme (which is hyper-minimalist and easy-on-the-eyes), a 20% reduction in install times, and automated lazy load for images. But let's talk about the juiciest UI/UX update that came with Drupal 9 — the standardization of Drupal's Layout Builder.

If you've built a pre-Drupal-9 website over the past few years, you probably dabbled with Panels/Panelizer, WYSIWYG templates, or even custom coding to set up your UX/UI. And that works. We did it for years. But you can throw that worn-out Panelizer module in the trash. The times, they are a-changing. Drupal's new Layout Builder module combines the core functionality of Panelizer with an out-of-the-box WYSIWYG engine.

First hinted at in 2017, Drupal Layout Builder officially left the onerous Drupal testing pipeline last year as part of Drupal's 8.7 updates. Despite circulating for a year now, the chaos of 2020 has overshadowed this potent and flexible tool. So, let's talk about it. Here's what you need to know about Drupal's Layout Builder.

What is Layout Builder?

Layout Builder is a WYSIWYG page editing engine that lets you manipulate back-end features via an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. It's difficult to overstate just how valuable Layout Builder is when it comes to time-savings. You can create templates in minutes, immediately preview and create content changes, and tweak page-by-page UI/UX features to create more cohesive and on-the-fly websites and landing pages.

At its core, Layout Builder is a block-based layout builder. You can create layouts for either a single page or all content of a specific type. In addition, you can jump in and create rapid-fire landing pages based on your existing design theme. There are three "layers" that Layout Builder operates on to help you build out holistic websites.

1. Layout templates: You can create a layout template for all content of a specific type. For example, you can make a layout template for your blog posts or a layout template for every product page. This template will be shared across all pages, so you don't have to go in and rebuild for each content type.
2. Customized layout templates: You can also go in and make granular changes to a specific layout template. So, if you want a certain product page to be different than the layout template, you can make granular changes to just that page.
3. Landing pages: Finally, you can create one-off pages that aren't tied to structured content — like landing pages.

Important: Founder of Drupal — Dries Buytaert — dropped a blog post with some use cases for each of these layers.

To be clear, Layout Builder isn't a WYSIWYG template. It uses your existing template. Instead, it allows non-developers (and lazy-feeling developers) to quickly make per-page changes to the website without diving into code. But these aren't just simple changes. You can create a layout template for every page type (e.g., creating a specific layout for all the shoes you sell), and you can also dive into each of these layout pages to make custom changes. So, it really lets you get granular with your editing without forcing you to completely retool and redesign pages for each type of content. This gives Layout Builder a massive advantage over WordPress's Gutenberg — which requires you to go in and re-lay elements for every page individually.

Here's the kicker: you get a live-preview of all changes without bouncing between the layout and the front-end. Every block and field you place and every change you make to taxonomies or content is visible the second you make the change. The entire process takes place on the front-end, and changes are instantly visible. Remember, Layout Builder is part of Drupal's Core, so you don't need to implement new entity types of dig into third-party elements. It's an out-of-the-box experience.

Advantages of Layout Builder

Last year, we got a gorgeous, picture-perfect demo of how Layout Builder would work. It's beautiful, fast, and packs a punch that other leading layout builders are indeed missing. So, to help unpack the value of Layout Builder, let's look at some of the advantages of Layout Builder:

Customization

Beyond Layout Builder's incredibly powerful and customizable block-based design engine, it offers customization in usage. Let's say you want to create an amazing landing page. You can start with a blank page that's untied to structured content, drop in some hero images, a few pieces of text, some content, and a video. Suddenly, you have a custom landing page (complete with modules, blocks, and taxonomy) that exists in a separate ecosystem from your website.

Simultaneously, you can create a template for every blog post, then dive into a specific blog post and make on-time changes to just that page while still being tied to your structured content. Remember, you can make these changes nearly instantly, without touching code. And you'll see a live preview of every change immediately without switching between interfaces.

Accessibility

Drupal is committed to accessibility. The second principle of Drupal's Values & Principles page reads, "build software everyone can use," and this rings true. Layout Builder meets Drupal's accessibility gate standards (i.e., conforms to WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 2.0, text color has sufficient contrast, JavaScript is keyboard-usable, etc.)

Ease-of-use

Like many WYSIWYG editors, Drupal Layout Builder is all about "blocks." But these aren't your run-of-the-mill blocks. There are inline blocks, field blocks, global blocks, and system blocks. Each of these has its own use case, and you can combine these block types to create stellar pages in minutes. For example, global blocks are used to create templates, and inline blocks are used to create page-specific changes that don't impact the layout. The combination of these block types makes Layout Builder a hassle-free experience.

Additionally, there are plenty of ease-of-use features built into the core. Layout Builder works with the keyboard, has plenty of usability features that tie to Drupal's value statements, and allows nit-picky setups for customized workflows.

Creating a Drupal Website is Easier Than Ever

With Layout Builder, users can generate valuable content and pages without needing to patch together various WYSIWYG tools or Panel/Panelizer. At Mobomo, we're incredibly excited for our clients to dive into Drupal Layout Builder and make actionable and memorable changes to their templates based on their in-the-moment needs and experiences.

But Layout Builder isn't a replacement for a well-designed and well-developed website. We can help you build your next world-class website. Once we're done, Layout Builder gives you the freedom to make substantial changes without the headaches, back-and-forth, or unnecessary touchpoints. Are you ready to create a customer-centric, experience-driven digital space? Contact us.

• Read more about NOAA WIN

MOBOMO, LLC WINS $13M CONTRACT FOR NOAA WEB MODERNIZATION

Mobomo, LLC is honored to have been awarded a new web modernization contract with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Within this new contract, Mobomo will support NOAA Fisheries, NOAA, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) in improving the efficiency of web content management and enhancing the user experience for NOAA customers. We are excited to continue our award-winning partnership with the Agency and to continue to develop a first-class experience for NOAA’s online audience.

Keys to Success

This new contract will continue Mobomo’s long-standing partnership with NOAA. Mobomo previously worked closely with NOAA Fisheries on a Drupal 8 Web Modernization project that resulted in a new cloud-based, mobile-first responsive design to create an up-to-date, trusted, mobile-friendly website (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov) using Acquia’s Cloud Enterprise (ACE) Platform where visitors can easily find information on the science and management of our nation's living marine resources and their habitats. This modernization has won numerous awards and industry accolades. Two key factors led to this tremendous success and provide the foundation for continued improvement for NOAA in this new partnership:

Mobomo and NOAA Awards and Recognitions:

We are incredibly proud of the outstanding work that came from our work with NOAA. The efforts of all parties involved led to many awards and recognitions including:

• 2019 Webby
• 2020 Webby Honoree,
• 2019 W3 Award
• 2018 Muse Award
• 2018 Acquia Engage Award

We look forward to continuing this mission to improve NOAA’s digital engagement and service to its customers.

About NOAA:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, also known as the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), is a federal agency responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitat. Their services include: conservation and management of U.S. waters to promote the prevention of overfishing, declining species, and degraded habitats. NOAA Fisheries manages five coastal regions broken down by department, fisheries management, science centers, and labs.

• Read more about How Do You Source Feedback from Your Users?

Here's a question: Are your customers really happy?

As a business, you spend time, money, and headaches trying to develop best-in-class products and services. You put on armor to go to battle with your competitors, and you sweat blood and tears to grow your brand. But how do you know that your most valuable asset (i.e., your website) is really meeting customer expectations?

The customer experience has overtaken price and product as the #1 brand differentiator. Unfortunately, customers aren't jumping through hoops to tell you about their experiences. It’s estimated that 1 out of every 26 unhappy customers actually complains. The rest, they just leave... forever.

If you want to roll out a best-in-class website that convinces and converts, you need to understand what your customers want. So how do you do it? How do you get customers to tell you their pros and their woes? Let's talk about hunting Ishmael's white whale. Here's how you discover what your customers really think about your website.

Why Should You Source Feedback From Your Users?

Why should you worry about soliciting feedback? After all, can't you just wait for customers to tell you? Or, can't you just use analytics and testing software to determine issues? Here's the problem: software can't tell you what customers are actually thinking. Sure! There are obvious problems like speed, broken links, and laggy interfaces. But beyond the tangible lies the very real intangibles, and they're the driving force behind customer satisfaction.

62% of companies are specifically investing in feedback generation solutions to help them meet the ever-changing needs of the modern customer. Over two-thirds of companies compete on customer experience alone. And the number of businesses investing in game-changing omnichannel experiences has jumped from 20% to 80% over the last five years.

For customers, the experience is everything. 86% of customers will pay more for a great experience. 49% have made an impulse purchase due to their great experiences. And a massive 57% of customers will refuse to do business with your company if you have a poorly designed website or mobile compatibility. And that's the interesting thing. Design is in the eyes of the beholder.

If you want to know what your customers want... what they really want deep down... you have to elicit feedback. It's the only way. You have to jump into the trenches and figure it out.

So how do you do it?

How Do You Gather User Feedback (And What Do You Do With It)?

At Mobomo, we always say that we build "customer-centric websites." But we aren't just throwing around marketing buzzwords. We dive deep and leverage tools like ForSee to gather and analyze customer feedback quarterly. After all, a website is a living, breathing organism that requires change, action, and movement to remain viable in today's constantly evolving market.

For us, eliciting feedback is done with tools. And we highly recommend that you do the same. Sure! You can try emails, postcards, surveys, and all of the other wonderful pop-up(ish) methods. But they only give you some details. You need to be able to analyze feedback at scale, combine it with CX benchmarks, and leverage best-in-class road maps to intelligently attack CX across the user journey.

In other words, we recommend that you either:

Trying to tackle CX with ad-hoc processes is a surefire way to get beat out by your competitors. And, remember, CX isn't just one metric; it's the metric that spells success in 2020 and beyond.

What Are the Benchmarks of an Effective Design?

Every company will use different design benchmarks. Remember, design is personal. And so is the purpose of your design. For example, the purpose of our project with NASA differs from the purpose of our projects with B2C point-of-sale brands. If you're a B2B or public agency, you may want to drive users to engage and learn. White papers, downloads, and mid-funnel resources may be the most significant part of your play. So, using design that lures and drives users to these assets is front-of-mind for your business.

On the flip side, a B2C brand may be looking for sales volume. In this case, driving users to products, descriptions, and shopping cart purchases may be your largest driver. These are two very different circumstances. And they both require different benchmarks for success.

You should always start by figuring out your value-based business objectives. From there, you can start breaking down the UX factors that will help you achieve those goals by A/B testing UX/UI changes and benchmarking UX specifics that exist in that value landscape.

We won't spend too much time discussing benchmarking because it simply varies too much. But, you do have to benchmark. It's not optional. If you want best-in-class UX, you need the right benchmarks to track and measure success.

How to Perform a User-Centric Rollout

When you first start sourcing feedback and developing benchmarks, you'll start making changes. Watch out. Changes are good. Poor implementation of changes is bad. The biggest UX mistake is trying to roll out massive changes across all users. If you have a high-traffic website making big UX changes, you have to carefully and methodically roll out changes in a way that doesn't impact the user.

DNA changes can create superheroes or cause illness. You want the former. The proper rollout is how you avoid the latter. Practice safe hygiene during rollouts and always roll broad changes out slowly while testing at every step. Benchmarks are great. Feedback is great. But if your excellent new UX feature has the opposite impact that you intended, you need to be able to pull-the-plug before it impacts too many users. The stakes of the customer experience are too high.

Are You Ready to Build a Customer-Centric Brand?

Gathering feedback is the easy part. Figuring out how to leverage that feedback to make meaningful changes is challenging. We can help. At Mobomo, we design user-centric websites baked in proven UX. We elicit feedback, use powerful analytics to drive decisions, and carefully A/B test changes across populations before rolling out new solutions. We don't just build websites. We build experiences.

Contact us to learn more.

 

• Read more about Debunking 4 CMS Migration Myths

Here's a dirty secret: most businesses are unsatisfied with their website. Research shows that 34% of website owners are unsatisfied with the amount of business their website generates for them. Loudhouse data suggests that 62% of business owners believe a more effective website would increase their sales. And millions of business websites deal with slow load times, inconsistent customer experiences, and problematic UI/UX issues.

There's a reason that 36% of small businesses STILL don't have a website. Creating an amazing, design-driven, customer-centric website is challenging. So, what do you do when your website isn't making the cut? You look towards the source — your Content Management System (CMS). Every year, thousands of private and public entities migrate their website to a new CMS.

But, unfortunately, thousands more don't. Migration is scary. It's easier to stay with your current CMS and focus on redesigns or new templates. Here's the problem: new coats of paint don't fix broken engines. If you're thinking about migrating from WordPress or Joomla to Drupal, you've probably heard rumors and myths regarding migrations.

Let's clear those up. Here are 4 myths about migration that need to be squashed.

Myth #1: I'm Going to Lose All My Content/Data

This is, by far, the most common excuse against migrating. You're worried all of that precious content and data are going to fall off the ship if you switch ports. And, you're right to worry. It could... if you don't migrate correctly. But it's not inevitable. You can prevent data and content loss. In fact, if you lose data or content, we would consider that a failed migration. In other words, successful migrations keep data and content intact by definition.

Here are some handy-dandy steps you can take to ensure that your precious data doesn't go overboard during your migration:

Myth #2: I Have to Invest in a Redesign

You're migrating; you might as well invest in a redesign, right? Sure! You could. But it's tricky. When you do a redesign and a migration, you're no longer just matching URL-to-URL and content-to-content, you're simultaneously rebuilding your website. Don't get us wrong; there are advantages. It's a great time to redesign from an SEO perspective (you're already going to take a small hit during the migration; more on this in the next section), but it also requires significantly more planning, budget, and time.

If you want to do a redesign-migration, we heavily recommend that you touch base with your design company. You want to work through the kinks and create a best-in-class action plan to tackle any issues that may (or may not) pop up. The entire migration will be structured around the redesign, so it's important to carefully weigh your options.

Myth #3: Goodbye SEO!

From an SEO perspective, migration sounds like a nightmare. You've worked diligently to build up your SEO. What happens when you frolic to a new location? Let's get this out of the way: your SEO will take a temporary hit. But, it shouldn't last long. In fact, there's a good chance you're moving to another platform because it's better at handling SEO. For example, Drupal has built-in SEO capabilities (e.g., title-based URL nodes, customizable meta tags, etc.) WordPress does not. Obviously, you can get SEO plugins for WordPress that help you build SEO functionalities, but most of those plugins are also available for Drupal — so Drupal gives you a net gain.

Here's a secret: migration can help your page rank. After the first awkward week (Google has to recrawl your website, recognize that it's you, and give you back your ranking), migration can help you build a more powerful SEO framework.

Want to migrate without dumping your SEO overboard? Here are some tips:

Myth #4: You Just Have to "Lift-and-Shift"

There are plenty of myths surrounding the difficulty of migration. But there are also a few myths making migration out to be super easy. And, without a doubt, the most prevalent "easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy" migration myth is the ever-coveted "lift-and-shift." There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for migrating websites. Sometimes, it can be as easy as lifting content off of one website and putting it onto another website. But that's seldom the case.

Generally, you need to set up test servers, check to see if website elements function correctly on the new platform, test out and utilize new CMS features, and a variety of other tasks before you can simply drop content from one place to another. In other words, lift-and-shift may work when you're migrating a cloud environment, but it often doesn't work with CMS migration.

Remember, just because everything worked perfectly in one environment doesn't mean it will in another one. You may have to fix some website elements and carefully construct your new website ecosystem. At the same time, you'll probably be playing around with the new features available to you on Drupal — so the "lift-and-shift" is usually more of a "lift-and-test-and-shift."

Do You Need Help With Your Drupal Migration?

At Mobomo, we help private and public entities migrate to Drupal environments using proven migration strategies and best-in-class support. So, whether you're looking to establish your website in a more secure, SEO-friendly environment or you're looking to do a redesign-and-migrate, we can help you migrate pain-free. Are you ready to move to a brighter future?

Contact us. We've got your back.

• Read more about Mobomo redesigns and re-launches website for Pandemic Response on Drupal 9 in an incredible 5 weeks

2020 has been a year full of unexpected surprises and challenges. In March, the coronavirus had reached the United States and had begun spreading quickly causing federal and state governments to take action to ensure public safety, including the development and passing of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). As the pandemic spread, many more eyes turned to the government to watch how they were navigating this new unmarked territory. 

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) created PandemicOversight.gov to display the details of the $2.6 trillion coronavirus relief spending provided by the CARES Act. The website allows the public interactive tools for understanding who received coronavirus funding, how much they’ve received, and how the funds are being spent. The website also provides tools for the public to report fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of coronavirus relief funding, as well as helpful information to protect yourself against fraudulent activity. 

Mobomo was brought in to perform the redesign and development of the website, which had initially launched as pandemic.oversight.gov earlier this year. The Mobomo team was able to do a complete overhaul of the legacy platform and re-launch the system in just over five weeks’ time with the new website having been officially launched to the public on September 10th. Since the launch, the website has received thousands of visitors interested in learning more about who, where, and how coronavirus relief funding is being spent. 

“Transparency in government is critical in these uncertain times and the mission of the PRAC strives to provide that public service. I’m very proud of what our team has developed and hope the website helps people see how relief funding is being distributed.” – Brian Lacey, CEO.

Not Your Average Government Website

The Mobomo team redesigned PandemicOversight.gov with the goal of incorporating modern theming and a clean design that many of your traditional government information sites lack, but did so while incorporating 18F and US Web Design Standards best practices.  Mobomo’s User Experience team worked with the PRAC to develop mobile-first, responsive design templates that mesh the innovative branding and theming with the high-fidelity interactive visualizations that are key to communicating coronavirus funding activity. 

Let’s Get Technical

The legacy pandemic.oversight.gov was developed in Drupal 8 and hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS). For the redesign and re-launch of the site, the Mobomo team decided to rebuild the content management system leveraging the latest version of Drupal 9 and deployed the solution within the Microsoft Azure Websites platform-as-a-service (PaaS) environment. Mobomo developed a number of custom feature integrations with visualization partners Domo and Woolpert, enhanced search indexing for browsing various oversight reports and investigations, and optimized process for users to communicate instances of fraud, waste, and abuse through secure channels. 

In order to meet the tight five-week window for design, development, and deploying the new website – the Mobomo team leveraged containerization and Lando for streamlining local development and hooking into the continuous integration, continuous development (CI/CD) pipeline. Mobomo also worked with the Smartronix Azure Cloud team to architect a zero-downtime deployment procedure to allow seamless promotion of new code the public environment. 

“This is a great team on both sides of the table. For such an expedited delivery schedule, it is critical for all the contract partners and government stakeholders to stay Agile and collaborate effectively to succeed.” – Austin White, VP of Federal Services.

For more information on Mobomo’s work with the Federal Government click here.

About the PRAC

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) was established by the CARES Act as part of the committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE). The PRAC has developed a Strategic Plan for the next five years that details how PRAC will serve the public by promoting transparency of funds and by preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of said funds. The committee will work closely with the Federal Inspectors General to support all affected by the pandemic. 

Our Partners
Pandemic Response and Accountability Committee (PRAC)
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE)
Smartronix
Domo
Woolpert
Grant Thornton

• Read more about #23 Top-Performing Small Technology Company

Mobomo, LLC Ranked #23 in the 8/28/2020 issue Washington Business Journal’s Top-Performing Small Technology Companies

The Washington Business Journal has released a ranked list of the Top-Performing Small Technology Companies in the greater D.C. area in its in the 8/28/2020 issue. To evaluate these companies, the Journal reviewed revenue from 2019, and only companies with fewer than 150 total employees headquartered in the DMV region could qualify. Mobomo, LLC was proud to be seated as the 23rd top-performing company. 

This placement shows not only the tremendous growth of our organization but also the well-deserved accomplishments of all members of our small team. To reflect on some specific achievements in 2019 that lead to our successes.

"Mobomo is excited to be recognized and listed amongst this impressive group of DC area businesses," said Brian Lacey, CEO. "Our team's dedication to innovation and client satisfaction continues to drive our year over year growth." 

The full list of companies included can be found here: https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/subscriber-only/2020/08/28/top-performing-small-technology.html

About the Washington Business Journal:

The Washington Business Journal is the leading source for business news and data for the Washington, D.C., region. The Business Journal publishes all the information and insights you need to succeed in business — through the weekly edition, website, email products, and our events and awards programs. Owned by the parent company, American City Business Journals – The Business Journals brands are recognized on the local level in 43 markets and have 400+ journalists entrenched in their local markets and industries.

• Read more about For the 8th Time In Row, Mobomo LLC Appears on the Inc. 5000 List!

Inc. magazine today revealed that Mobomo LLC is No. 4742 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. 

“This is all about our awesome team,” said Mobomo CEO, Brian Lacey. “You can't make it on the Inc 5000 list 8 years in a row without an elite team of designers, developers, operations engineers, and managers leading the way and that is exactly what we have here at Mobomo. Congrats and thank you to all of Team Mobomo, both past and present, that have been a part of this accomplishment.” 

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

 

Methodology

The 2020 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2016 and 2019. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2016. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2019. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2016 is $100,000; the minimum for 2019 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.’s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

 

About Inc. Media

The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

• Read more about Mobomo Earns its Second 1st Place at PRNews Digital Award with Maximus

The PRNews Digital Awards program recognizes the most innovative and industry-altering digital communicators and campaigns. This year, the Maximus New York State of Health (NYSOH) Mobile Upload app received first place in the Mobile App category. Mobomo has been a partner to Maximus for product design and development for the last three years and now have won back-to-back PRNews awards – also winning the 2019 PRNEWS Digital Award for the Healthy Louisiana Mobile App.

ABOUT THE APP

In partnership with Mobomo, Maximus launched the NYSOH Mobile Upload app in October 2019 which streamlines the health insurance program eligibility process, significantly reduces intake and processing time and enables New Yorkers to access insurance benefits sooner. The app allows New Yorkers to take pictures of and securely upload the required documentation needed to finalize their health insurance program eligibility determination. The functionality of the app helps consumers identify the documents they must submit by choosing from a list, capture the best possible photo by using edge detection and auto capture functionality and securely upload personal information.

Prior to the NYSOH Mobile Upload app, consumers who were applying for insurance coverage through the NYSOH Marketplace needed to submit supporting documentation by mail, fax, or computer upload. The process was time-consuming, inconvenient and caused delays in beneficiaries receiving insurance coverage. By eliminating the need documents through the mail, and instead, consumers can send documents directly into a secure system, with greater confidence that their information is being handled appropriately. The new app now allows faster access to the most vital health insurance programs.

NYSOH Mobile Upload has seen incredible user adoption success. In the first 90 days after the app launch, submissions via NYSOH Mobile Upload surpassed fax to become the second leading channel for document submissions to Maximus, and in April 2020 the app surpassed mail submissions to become the leading channel for consumers to upload relevant materials. In addition, the NYSOH Mobile Upload App currently has a 4.8 out of 5 rating on the iOS and Google Play app stores.

Prior to NYSOH Mobile Upload, consumers applying for insurance coverage through the New York State of Health Marketplace needed to submit supporting documentation by mail, fax, or computer upload. The process was time consuming and often caused unnecessary delays in consumers receiving insurance coverage. By eliminating the need for submitting documents through the mail, consumers can now send documents directly into a secure system, with greater confidence that their information is being handled appropriately. The new app now allows faster access to the most vital health insurance programs.

“Maximus continues to be recognized as a digital innovator in supporting our state clients’ efforts to improve the customer journey when applying and accessing state benefits programs,” said Bruce Caswell, President and CEO of Maximus. “This award puts a spotlight on the real achievement of building technology that enhances the consumer experience and helps ensure Medicaid beneficiaries receive vital health coverage efficiently and expeditiously.”

ABOUT MOBOMO

Mobomo is a world-class developer of high-performance applications and websites which we carefully craft to fit the needs of government agencies. We work hand-in-hand with our clients to deliver mobile, web, and cloud solutions using advanced DevOps techniques, which we integrate with our proven Agile software development methodology. For more information, visit mobomo.com.

To reach out with any media or partnership questions, please contact Ryan McNey.