Telecommunications Solutions

Avocado’s client, a subsidiary of Australia’s largest telecommunications company, improves the functionality of its sports web portals every year. This upgrade was the largest and most complex it had ever attempted. It included provision of real-time content, a complete ‘re- skin’ (upgrade of its look and feel) and seamless inclusion of the 16 participating sports teams the site promoted.

The main challenge was to maintain the website’s strong competitive advantage by ensuring users could enjoy a high quality experience. Time was tight: the project had an immovable four month deadline so the site could be ready for the start of the next sporting season.

Moreover, because it was the second most trafficked site in the southern hemisphere, rigorous quality and performance standards were essential. The portal’s profile and popularity meant that any defect or usability problem would be magnified and noticed by thousands of people. Delivering real time data and live feeds within such a tight timeframe added to the assignment’s complexity.

Avocado engaged an experienced team of website subject matter experts to assess the risks and break up the work into manageable tasks. The Consultants first conducted sociability and usability testing to ensure the solutions they implemented suited a wide variety of user profiles. Then a quality assurance team worked closely with the development team and vendor to roll out the project on time.

The chosen approach helped ensure overheads were kept down and errors were rectified rapidly. On completion of this complex project the live feeds operated flawlessly during saturation usage and the overall user experience exceeded the client’s expectations. The partnership approach with the vendor was key to successful integration with the client’s backend and legacy applications.

Given the high visibility and traffic of the website it is testament to Avocado’s reputation and approach that we were entrusted with this project. Avocado has since become the ongoing partner for the client across its entire web portal that includes websites visited daily by millions of retail customers in Australia and is marketed extensively to the broader community.