Re-platforming loyalty into a high-performance system.

Co-teaming results in scalable business platform and Agile adoption at Points.

Points International Ltd. is the global leader in loyalty currency management and has been widely recognized among the loyalty and technology communities alike.

Challenge

Shortly after launching its Loyalty Commerce Platform, Points found itself in the envious position of having to cope with rapid growth due to many new partner sign-ups. This rapid growth made it difficult for Points to efficiently onboard new partners with its current technology platform. Points’ leadership recognized the necessity to re-platform their system and, as a technology-based firm, believed that maintaining all development in-house was a key competitive advantage. However, re-platforming the current system was too large a task for the existing in-house team.

Points identified two opportunities:

1. Co-team with Intelliware to help re-platform the current system.

2. Adopt Agile methodologies to help Points’ development team keep pace with their rapidly changing business environment.

Solution

Intelliware conducted discovery to understand Points’ core business issues. This discovery served as the basis of an action plan to develop a new platform. In addition, Intelliware provided a detailed Agile knowledge transfer and transition plan of both the technical aspects and the Agile practices used to deliver each phase of the project. The delivery of both the software solution and Agile knowledge transfer occurred, quickly, in over three projects.

Project 1 – The team comprised mostly of Intelliware staff, with a few staff from multiple levels of the Points organization prepared to act as agents of change. This first project was conducted at Intelliware’s office, which is set up for an Agile culture with project rooms, whiteboards, etc.

Project 2 – Resourced with a 50-50 split of Intelliware and Points staff, the second project was eventually relocated to Points’ office. By the end of the second project, ownership of the deliverables had been successfully transferred from Intelliware to the Points team.

Project 3 – The third project was conducted at the Points office by a fully functioning Points team complemented with a few Intelliware staff to ensure a smooth transition. By this time, the Points team could manage the support and maintenance of the new platform as well as ongoing development for new features, product lines, and functions.

Results

Points has a high-performing Agile team that develops and manages its applications to enable transactions of millions of consumers worldwide. Points now generates over $200 million a year in revenue and has over 45 partners. From 2012 to 2014, Points’ stock (PCOM) has appreciated by over 200 percent.

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