doxo’s Ruby on Rails Upgrade Results in 20% Performance Increase

doxo opens a new window delivers innovation that transforms the bill pay experience for consumers, billers and financial technology providers. For over eight million consumers, doxo’s all-in-one bill pay makes it simple to organize and pay any bill on any device through a secure checkout.

Background

doxo opens a new window delivers innovation that transforms the bill pay experience for consumers, billers and financial technology providers. For over eight million consumers, doxo’s all-in-one bill pay makes it simple to organize and pay any bill on any device through a secure checkout. For billers, doxo’s network-driven platform enables online and mobile payments with a ridiculously simple integration, radically lower costs, and game-changing features that are unavailable with legacy bill pay vendors.

Here was our challenge:

doxo has a multitude of sophisticated applications that run its bill payment platform. Its backend software is built on Ruby on Rails, and by late 2021, two of the company’s more complex applications were running on outdated versions. Obsolete or deprecated versions can result in security flaws, challenges when upgrading to the latest versions, inability to access the latest features and gem versions, and reduced functionality. Facing a significant upgrade project, Mark Goris, doxo CTO and co-founder, began the search for a partner that specialized in Ruby on Rails upgrades. “We didn’t want to pull engineers away from business-building initiatives, and the ramp-up time for a new engineer is three to six months, which is an expensive endeavor,” said Mark. “We knew OmbuLabs would bring the additional capacity and have the subject matter expertise that we needed.”

Some of the goals they were looking to achieve included:

• Staying up to date on security patches
• Ensuring PCI compliance
• Taking advantage of the benefits and features of newer software
• Reducing cognitive overhead for engineering by implementing more modern code
• Laying the groundwork to seamlessly update to succeeding versions

Here’s how we solved it:

Our objective was to individually and sequentially upgrade each application from version 3.2 to 4.2. The first phase of the project began with our Roadmap to Upgrade Rails opens a new window — a code audit and app assessment that paints a clear picture of the project scope, size, and timing and the resources needed to initiate the next version jump.

We were given access to the source code repository, ran tests, and performed an assessment. Once this was complete, we delivered the Roadmap and proposal, and discussed next steps.

“The Achilles’ heel of many projects is you get part way into them and they end up being way more than you expected. The Roadmap to Upgrade Rails opens a new window provided clarity up front so we could make informed decisions and properly allocate resources,” Mark said.

doxo created a Slack channel for the project, and we met weekly and as needed to update our progress, note anything exceptional, and communicate action steps. We completed the first upgrade project within four weeks, and shortly thereafter we were asked to tackle the second application upgrade, which took a similar length of time. “FastRuby.io (by OmbuLabs) has their act together and is clearly knowledgeable about Rails. The first project went really well, and I knew they would be able to deliver on the second one,” noted Mark.

See the results:

In consumer-facing software, there is a strong correlation between website performance and conversion rates. Since the upgrade, a marked improvement in application performance was noted.

“We saw around a 20% improvement in overall performance, and this had a direct, positive impact on revenue,” said Mark.

In addition, it’s much more efficient for the engineering team to make changes to the applications because the code is similar to what they have on their newer applications.

“The upgrade resulted in a 10% improvement in efficiency by lowering the effort and time it takes to make changes in a more modern coding environment.”

Part of Mark’s responsibilities at doxo is to find ways to work through tough technical and resource prioritization challenges. By bringing us onboard, we were able to offer and execute creative solutions while letting his team focus on what they do best.

“Doing upgrades internally doesn’t really move the business forward, even though there’s plenty of benefits to it. From a higher-level perspective, when you can leverage a company such as FastRuby.io (by OmbuLabs) to help you, this frees up time and resources to improve the features and benefits of your products.”

Since the upgrade, doxo has achieved a new level of self-sufficiency. Future updates will be simplified and can be easily handled in-house, which adds more value in the long term.

“OmbuLabs’ subject matter expertise translated into successful projects that were delivered according to the budget we had planned for. They conducted themselves very professionally throughout the entire project. From the beginning introductions through the Roadmap to actual delivery of the upgraded software, they were very professional, easy to work with, and honest. It gives you confidence that you’re getting value for the money you’re spending,” concluded Mark.

Project type:

• Roadmap to Upgrade Rails opens a new window
• Ruby on Rails Upgrade

WHO WE ARE:

OmbuLabs is Philadelphia's lean software boutique. Specializing in Ruby, Ruby/Rails Upgrades opens a new window (FastRuby.io), JavaScript, JavaScript Upgrades opens a new window (UpgradeJS.com), minimum viable product development, and reducing technical debt, we help companies (from startups to Fortune 500 companies) build and improve their digital products.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, our experienced and diverse team of developers is ready to do whatever it takes to help your business grow. To learn more, visit us at OmbuLabs.com opens a new window .