Case study/Hospitality
A shippable web GUI over an API-only hotel-content application
unicrew produced a shippable, well-received web GUI over an API-only application.
A German IT partner for hotel content and distribution needed more engineering capacity than it had in house. unicrew joined as an embedded engineering team and took on projects alongside the client's own developers, the headline one being a web GUI over an application that had until then been API-only. The client's Head of Development records it as shippable and well received. The engagement ran under our former Artelogic brand.
- Focus
- Hospitality
- Market
Germany- Engagement
- Embedded team extension
Outcome at a glance
What this project delivered.
- 01A shippable, well-received web GUI for an application that had been API-only
- 02The planned artefacts, delivered on time
- 03Very good reaction times and feedback, including on short-term requests
- 04A great understanding of domain-specific requirements
The challenge
The client’s Head of Development describes the brief on his Clutch review as “projects that exceed inhouse development capacities but are demanded by internal and external stakeholders and customers”. One of those projects was an interface. An application had been built API-only: other software could call it, and there was no screen for a person.
Our approach
unicrew joined as an embedded engineering team and took on those projects, with two to five engineers assigned. The headline deliverable was a web GUI over the previously API-only application, turning a system built to be called by other software into one people could work in directly. Communication ran through virtual meetings, and the process included regular retrospective meetings to discuss possible improvements.
Results
The GUI was shippable and well received. It is the single thing the client’s Head of Development names when his review asks what the measurable outcomes were.
“We are very happy to have chosen Artelogic.”
Head of Development, hotel content and distribution company
The closest sibling to this engagement is a cloud migration of a hotel booking platform; the rest of our work in the sector is on the hospitality and travel technology page, and the verified reviews behind all of it, including this one, are on client reviews.
04/Quick answers
The questions behind the project
What did unicrew deliver in this engagement?
A web GUI over an application that had been API-only, so it could be used directly by people rather than only by other software. The client's Head of Development records the result as shippable and well received. The client is a German IT partner for hotel content and distribution, and the engagement ran under our former Artelogic brand.
What was the scope of the engagement?
unicrew worked as an embedded engineering team. The client's Head of Development describes the brief on his Clutch review as "projects that exceed inhouse development capacities but are demanded by internal and external stakeholders and customers", and that is what our engineers took on. The web GUI over the API-only application was one of those projects. Two to five of our people were assigned.
How did unicrew and the client work together?
Two to five engineers, working with the client over virtual meetings, with regular retrospective meetings to discuss possible improvements. The review records very good reaction times and feedback, including on short-term requests, and a great understanding of domain-specific requirements.
Does unicrew work with other travel and hospitality platforms?
Yes. We publish work across hospitality and travel technology, including a cloud migration of a hotel booking platform. What carries over from this engagement is what our engineers know how to do: join a codebase and a release calendar that already exist, learn a domain well enough to answer short-notice requests, and build a human interface over a system designed to be called by software.