Staffing Schools With Custom Web & Mobile Applications
Working alongside Penmac Staffing to ensure substitute teachers nationwide can easily find work.
The Challenge at Hand
Originally, Penmac utilized the out-of-box web application, Frontline Education, to assist in the daily operations of substitute teacher staffing. The ATS served its initial purpose and provided value to Penmac, but quickly became difficult to operate. As they continued to grow, they sought more personalized features from the system that simply were not available.
About Penmac Staffing
Penmac Staffing is the nation's largest 100% employee-owned staffing agency, based out of Springfield, Missouri. They proudly work alongside 600+ partnering companies to fill 20,000+ jobs in 8 different states.
The Objectives
Rather than starting from scratch, Penmac opted to utilize their current system and revise its current codebase. With this choice in mind, our teams established succinct objectives to guide development:
Keep Substitutes in the Know On-the-Go
With travel being an integral part of substitute teaching, users needed reliable, mobile access to Penmac’s platform.
Improve the Efficiency of Current Processes
The processes implemented behind the scenes at kickoff did the job but could have used a little TLC.
Use Current Data for Future Choices
The data within their system wasn’t being used to its fullest potential, and today’s digital age doesn’t allow that.
The Results
With a fully functional, customized ATS, Penmac is now well-equipped to serve its partnering school districts across the nation. No longer will administration or substitute teachers be hindered or delayed throughout the posting or claiming of open shifts.
For Penmac themselves, the new software solution provides a solid foundation for future scaling and growth. Rather than being committed to lengthy SaaS agreements, they have complete ownership of a tailored software system and its accompanying data.
2.5+
Years of Partnership
1,000s
Of Jobs Filled
The Highlights
Business Intelligence Data Visualizations
To allow Penmac to grow alongside its goals, its leadership wanted to focus on its business intelligence (BI) integration capabilities. They previously utilized tools offered by GrapeCity, but customizations were slim to none, and any desired updates routinely took longer than expected. This sparked the decision to use another off-the-shelf solution or a tailored system. Rather than using an out-of-box BI solution with minimal functionality, we decided a custom system was the best option. Penmac identified certain pain points they wanted to focus on, and we constructed the features to assist.
Customized Mobile Application Development
We migrated portions of the codebase to ReactPHP to request data from the original Microsoft.NET web application and display it on users' devices. Once back up and running, Penmac's custom mobile application was able to drastically streamline the shift sign-up process.
Both Android and iOS users had access to all available shifts on the go for complete accessibility. With ease, they can now filter through shifts in available locations and sign up for the work they desire. Each action is then synced to the admin dashboard in the web application to allow entire districts to be serviced simultaneously.
Streamlined Push Notifications
Each time a shift is offered, substitute teachers need to be made aware so they have the opportunity to sign up. Conversely, when shifts are signed up for, the schools/universities need to be made aware. Using Office 365 alongside C#, we modified the system to ensure shift notifications were sent to the correct audience(s) in real-time. When a school posts a shift, each substitute teacher in the area is immediately notified. Institutions are then notified when the shift is claimed.
