Bermuda Tree Frog – News and Alerts
Mobile App
The Government of Bermuda wanted an easier way of distributing news and information to their citizens. We built a mobile app to do just that.
Quick Links
Problem
A small island in the Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda has a population of about 65,000. Already possessing a tight-knit community with proud heritage, the Government of Bermuda wanted an easier way of distributing news and information to their citizens.
Through a public RFP in 2018, the Government of Bermuda solicited bids for the development of a mobile app to help them do just that. They wanted to take their existing process for publishing information and have the mobile app fit seamlessly in.
The Government of Bermuda’s website (https://gov.bm) already houses all of the information they desired to share with their community.
Instead of attempting to restructure their entire solution, we wanted to build something that fits within their existing ecosystem so they didn’t need to train anybody or adjust their existing processes.
Another key component of the project was to work with students from Bermuda College to get them hands-on experience building the mobile app. With light programming experience and no professional experience, Bermuda wanted the vendor to work with the students to prepare them for their future careers in software development.
Solution
The initial task was to break up how we were going to complete this. Instead of a new standalone app, it needed to be placed within their existing infrastructure.
Their teams had already begun re-writing their web platform, so it made sense to leverage that new work and continue to expand on it. We had to get creative when it came to the back end of the Showing Service.
Because of their existing internal infrastructure, data, and existing applications, we created a hybrid platform so we could reuse a lot of the data that was already in their system. To help modernize and plan for the future, we created completely new microservices for the Showing Service.
We built the platform in languages and frameworks that were comfortable for their internal teams to eventually take over. We worked hand-in-hand with their wonderful QA team to ensure requirements were met and the system was great to use.
As a result of the work we completed, we’ve opened new gateways for revenue, created new standards for their APIs, and build out re-usable components so the system can be expanded even further.
In 2019, Bermuda used Tree Frog to distribute shelter and safety information during a hurricane.
The app saw a 2000% increase in usage over a 7 day span, with 0 downtime.
Technology
Mobile App
- React-native
- Expo
- Objective C
- Java
API
- Node.js
- Typescript
- Elasticsearch
Website
- Maintained by Government of Bermuda
- Drupal
