The challenge
After we’d delivered a successful project for
MRTBP
, the company’s co-founder Dr Tim Drye asked us to work with his REaD Group on redeveloping
The Bereavement Register website.
TBR was launched in 2000 to allow people to remove details of individuals who have
died from databases and mailing lists. Now the Register needed to be upgraded to
a system that could be used by solicitors, banks, building societies, mail order
companies, and so on, to transfer and manage sensitive data. The system had to cope
with 96% coverage of UK deaths, capturing many records within 14 days of death,
with a capacity of 2.5 million records and the ability to add as many as 30,000
new records each month.
It was a hefty challenge, made harder by the need to display different slices of
data for different kinds of companies.
The solution
We decided we would build a prototype that could be tested by a select group of
users. Then we would release a version that could undergo user acceptance testing
(UAT) with a wider group of companies. We analysed all the feedback and made appropriate
changes before full launch.
With careful project management we were able to launch a UAT version within six
weeks of starting the build.
To cope with large volumes of data we used a combination of .Net 2.0 and SQL 2005
for the system’s backbone. We designed dynamic data capture forms and reports controlled
by definitions in the database, which meant we could present forms with varying
degrees of functionality and validation depending on users’ profiles.
The result
At the time of writing UAT has successfully completed with plenty of positive feedback.
We’re currently making final amends for a much-anticipated launch.