Humansis

Introduction

When we founded Quanti 10 years ago, we wanted to start a company that would focus on the development of both software and hardware and that would prioritize the happiness of its employees.

As the company kept growing, we started to think about our impact and accountability in a wider sense. That is when we started to consider doing CSR activities.

There were many options. We could have started planting trees or donating money to non-profit organizations. We were not too sure that this was the way, though.When we came across the tender for the Humansis platform by People in Need, we knew this was exactly what we wanted to do. The best part was that this was an opportunity to help with what we can do best: IT development.

What is Humansis? It is a database of aid beneficiaries that allows for the distribution of humanitarian aid using modern technologies (e.g. donating via mobile apps) which saves both money and time.

Challenges

Originally, the Humansis system was being developed by several companies and partners who offered their services to People in Need either pro bono or at a discounted rate. An increased fluctuation of people involved in the project, however, complicated the planning, long-term development and maintenance of the platform. That is why People in need decided to change this system and they started looking for a single company that would lead the development completely.

Based on the experience, we have defined the following challenges:

1. To take over the development of all parts of the platform from several different companies and individuals.
2. To create a team that would manage, develop and improve the project.
3. To find a financial model that would allow for long-term cooperation.

Solution

It took us two months to take over the development of the whole project. We needed to get hold of the different parts of the code from both public and private repositories.

After we understood the platform more, we made a list of the most critical aspects that needed to be fixed or completely changed. We prioritised the items and then started to develop new functionalities and fix imperfections.

To successfully carry out a project this big, it has been necessary to dedicate a whole team of people to the task. The team consists of the following roles:

• Project manager
• Backend developers
• Frontend developers
• Mobile App developers
• DevOps developers
• Testers
  We are not stating the exact number of full-time equivalents for each of the roles above as the ratio is being changed based on the current needs. In total, 10 people are working on the project and they make up approximately 7 full-time equivalents per month.

And what are the financial aspects? We are not planning to have any profit from our partnership with People in Need. People in Need is only covering our internal development costs without any profit margin.

Conclusion

We managed to take over the development of a complex system that had previously been developed by multiple companies and individuals. We also managed to stabilise it so that it is possible to improve it with new functionalities.

Links

https://www.humansis.org
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Humansis
https://www.clovekvtisni.cz/en/putting-the-human-in-humanitarian-aid-technology-7316gp