Dokeos software services organisation
Dokeos is both a software services company and an e-learning consulting company. As a software services company, Dokeos provides its clients with:
- software maintenance ;
- customised development ;
- support (debugging) ;
- hosting.
As a software services organisation, Dokeos is a networked company, gathering together a series of partners. This model offers maximum flexibility, ubiquity and intelligence.
To provide its clients with optimal services, Dokeos relies on a structured organisation that handles branding, marketing, sales, contracts, developpments and support through a series of collaboration tools.
The diagram on top is an attempt to formalize the Dokeos software services process.
Sales
Dokeos sales partners are trained and certified for their e-learning expertise, fluency in Dokeos tools management and knowledge of Dokeos branding and marketing principles. They work with Dokeos as independent partners on a fee-per-client basis. Most of them do cross-sales. Typically they sell their content and/or expertise + Dokeos tools.
Development
The originality of the Dokeos software development is that it has no pre-defined roadmap. This skepticism about what should be in the software, also called Zen approach, is the guarantee that the software remains close to its clients needs. Dokeos is developped from one client project to the other. Every 12 months, a relase comes out that integrates these efforts.
This client-oriented development process follows a classical scheme : Request > Estimate with milestones > Development > Validiation > Delivery. At the end of the development, the development partner sends Dokeos an Approval Form based on the corresponding Dokeos template, so as to facilitate the validation of the development by the client. To ensure quality management, Dokeos applies a back-to-back rule to its providers, meaning that the delivery acceptance is based on the final client acceptance.
Deadlines are critical in software development and a company reputation on the market. The developer or developer company whose estimate was selected for the development is responsible for respecting deadlines and owes Dokeos 1% of the agreed development price by day of delay.
Support
Dokeos support includes listening to client bug descriptions, providing the client with a ticket and assigning each bug to an expert who is personally responsible for it (fix, communication with client and deadline for delivery).
The bugfixing process starts with an email to the client that explains where the bugtracking can be followed, when the bug will be fixed (=deadline), how to test the bugfix (Dokeos Approval Form in an Excel sheet sent to the client) and how to contact the expert in charge. It ends with the delivery of the bugfix and a final email to the client for approval. If there is no approval, a new bug description is written by the expert and the Dokeos management is informed (typically as CC of the email sent to the client).
At the end of the support interaction, it is the responsibility of the expert in charge to discuss with Dokeos management what part of the bugfix should be integrated in which Dokeos product source repository.
The expert in charge is also responsible for reporting on the interaction at the end of the ticket. This report will include:
- total time of the support interaction so as to generate timesheets
- issues that might affect the software present and future developments
- proposal of other actions to undertake as a consequence of the bugfix
Tools
Development and support aim at two objectives:
- improving the client relation and trust in Dokeos products and services
- improving the Dokeos software power and quality
Both objectives require the systematic use of a project management tool to generate bug tickets, deal with development requests, track progress and generate global reports, noticeably timesheets, calendar views and Gantt charts. Dokeos relies for this on the Redmine project management software.
Support tasks usually imply a direct communication between the client and the support expert. Where development, on the contrary, implies a minimum of 3 roles : the client, the developer and the project manager.
The marketing strategy leads to the release of various products (Dokeos FREE, PRO etc.) so as to address various target groups. All releases include various features that can be activitated or deactivated depending on the client needs and sales interaction. And the main reason clients select open source tools is flexibility : allow to add and remove things.
This means an important percentage of Dokeos clients have a customized portal, most of them being hosted by us. Our ability to handle this variety of code structures is critical and calls for a sophisticated code, branches and upgrades management tool. Dokeos relies on the Mercurial code management software for this.
Want to join?
Individuals or companies who would like to provide support and development for the Dokeos company will be invited to follow a training and certification process at start and sign the Dokeos Developers Contract. Feel free to apply writing to info@dokeos.com.