Capability building and performance optimisation
Trendsetters – Improving Performance for a Premium Fashion Company
Client: NET-A-PORTER
Objective: Optimise the performance of the existing systems and maximising the team’s use of tools and processes.
Solution: NearForm’s bespoke consultancy services helped NET-A-PORTER to build team capability, enhance system performance and elevate user experience.
The challenge
NET-A-PORTER is the world’s premier fashion destination. Founded in 2000, this e-commerce pioneer enjoys over six million visitors to its portal every month.
With such a huge volume of fashion-savvy customers – who expect nothing less than a seamless shopping experience across mobile, tablet and desktop – NET-A-PORTER wanted to ensure that it was getting the most from its system.
Having previously delivered a successful training programme to one of the company’s development teams, NET-A-PORTER approached our consultancy division for a solution. NearForm was tasked to enhance system performance of the existing system and maximising the team’s use of tools and processes.
The response
NearForm designed a short, high-impact consultancy programme to boost performance and add value for the client. Although running on Node.js, NET-A-PORTER’s software platform required extensive reworking. Our goal was to facilitate this improvement by equipping the three development teams with the knowledge and tools necessary to maximise the system’s potential. We created a multi-stream process that was highly targeted to suit the individual requirements of each team. Six parallel tracks were devised to further subdivide tasks, enabling easy identification of bottlenecks and effective resolution of issues. Focusing on code reviews and profiling, our expert consultants took an analytical approach and worked closely with each team to grow its capabilities.
The results
Two teams have achieved a tenfold increase in performance, while the third has doubled its rate on a previously optimised code base. Their enhanced skills and confidence in working with Node.js have enabled NET-A-PORTER to produce much more effective software systems. Running costs have significantly decreased and content is being delivered faster.
All in all, the throughput is up by 50% and latency is down by 50%, while server costs have been reduced by 60%. That means happier customers, greater brand loyalty and, of course, rising revenue.
It’s amazing what you can achieve when you look within and NearForm’s customised capability building services can help you to do just that.
The quality of the training and consulting that NearForm’s Node.js consultants delivered was outstanding. They not only helped pinpoint bottlenecks in our applications, but also gave us the knowledge and tools we needed to do it ourselves. Their training has helped us to dramatically improve performance in one of our key customer-facing applications. Now we know where, why and how to target potential issues.