Case Studies
Project Profile for Interactive & Data Driven Website
Executive Summary
Company
The company based out of northern suburbs of Chicago has modernized the way separated parents can manage and support their children.
Solution Description
The website provides parents and children with the ability to manage their family calendar, send messages, and pay for expenses.
Software and Services
- ASP.Net 3.5
- Ajax
- SQL Server 2005
- TrustCommerce Internet Payment Gateway
- ACH Payments via MoneyGram
- Credit Card Payments via Metavante
Customer Profile
Sector: Public Services
Industry: Social Services
The company's goal is to help children whose lives have been affected, and continue to be affected by divorced parents. The company uses their website to provide their services.
Business Situation
The founders wanted to use their own personal and professional experience to design a service that is easy to use, be recognized by court systems, and would help everyone remember it is all about the children. The founders decided to build a website for separated parents that would centralize the management of their children’s schedules, expenses, and communications. The company hired alligatortek to bring their vision to life.
Solution
Requirements Gathering
The first step to building this highly functional application was to get all the business requirements documented. alligatortek had multiple meetings with the company founders to brainstorm and document their requirements. Once the requirements were documented the website architecture and design were compiled. After the requirements gathering was completed, a document with every aspect and detail of the website was delivered. The document gave the company a complete blueprint for website development.
Family Schedule
The website offers a calendar so that parents can post events regarding their children. This enables parents to have a central calendar to manage their children’s schedules. Events such as visitations can be setup as recurring. If an event is private it can be blocked from the children, so they aren’t put in the middle of events such as divorce proceedings.
Handling Expenses
A parent can send a co-parent a request to be reimbursed for an expense. The parent that owes money can securely pay the co-parent from their bank account via an ACH payment. Expenses such as child support can conveniently be setup as a recurring expense.
Messaging
Parents and children can send messages to each other using the website’s email-like messaging system. This helps eliminate the need for awkward and uncomfortable phone calls between separated parents.
Accountability Between Parents
The website was developed so that all communications and expenses are date/time stamped and cannot be deleted. Parents can take information from this website and bring it to court to help settle disputes. This helps eliminate the he said, she said and finger pointing. This in turn saves parents lawyer costs and time in court.