We helped Teach First process 40k active users

Teach First is a UK-based charity that recruits top graduates for on-the-job teacher training in schools in disadvantaged communities, helping to give children from all backgrounds the brilliant teachers they need. They’ve appointed more than 10,000 teachers in low-income areas, supporting more than one million underprivileged children.

The challenge: Increasing the speed and capacity of the Teach First platform

We’ve worked with Teach First for more than a decade. They first approached us to improve the website's performance and help them build a custom platform for their entire CRM and training needs. The challenge? Making sure their site could handle 20k users at all times, all trying to achieve slightly different goals.

The team: An expert team of engineers

The client has an in-house software development team. They needed an extension of their team - technical experts with extensive experience in Salesforce and Drupal. That is where Vega stepped in, delivering more than technical expertise.

Our understanding of the EdTech industry and the client’s specific needs, problems, and pain points is what makes us their reliable software development partner. To augment their team, we formed a team of three back-end developers, one front-end engineer, four quality assurance engineers, and Salesforce developers.

As their technical partners, we contributed to Teach First’s success on multiple fronts, from co-creating website architecture to automating tasks with Salesforce.

The solution: The fusion of Drupal and Salesforce

Drupal experience

We had extensive previous experience working with Drupal, so we were aware of some of the common pitfalls. We developed a dynamic platform accommodating any new role, content, or changes. With up to 15 roles, there was a complex map of user needs, states, and goals to navigate.

At first, we used Drupal 9. Over time, as the requirements for higher security grew, we suggested that the client switch to Drupal 10.

Integrations with third-party systems

Additionally, we increased the overall platform efficiency and functionality through a range of integrations with third-party systems. Here are some of them:

• The International Resource Information System (IRIS) consists of a grant reporting and management database and a public-facing informational website.
• Brightspace – a customizable learning management system that encourages personalized learning at scale.
• Steplab – a professional learning platform that provides schools with everything they require to improve their teaching techniques, including educational content, coaching tools, and performance dashboards.

Users are onboarded and registered on external platforms, while students use MyTF as a single sign-on (SSO) for all of them.

Using Salesforce to automate and simplify a range of tasks

Since Teach First is using their CRM solution for recruiting and managing their carriers, frequent data pulling and communication with several APIs is necessary, processing thousands of CRM records per day.

We have helped Teach First by expanding the CRM solution with callouts to the APIs, keeping in mind batch performance and automation. This allows Teach First to automate once-manual tasks and save time.

Refactoring the existing system

When we entered the scene, the client aimed to optimize their existing Salesforce solution to meet their performance requirements. Based on thorough analyses, our team identified the key performance issues and recommended system refactoring. In the process, we refactored more than 3k lines of code according to the single responsibility principle, significantly lowering bug troubleshooting time.

We’ve also introduced a range of new features that accelerated and facilitated the process a lot, allowing us to make changes to the system without worrying about compromising existing functionalities.

Introducing the code review process

To improve code quality, we suggested and helped implement the code review process. That way, code is constantly being assessed and enhanced.

Results: Processing 40K users in a matter of hours

By connecting Drupal and Salesforce, we delivered faster project processing and removed unnecessary steps. This resulted in quadrupling the number of users able to use the platform simultaneously.

Namely, it used to take Teach First up to four days to process 200K Salesforce updates. We reduced that time to a few hours. While the site used to struggle with 10k active users, we boosted the capacity to 40k users, serving each one with a smooth web experience.

We have also helped the client improve their CI/CD pipelines, ensuring a 70% performance boost.

Those innovative ideas dramatically improved Teach First’s processes, making enrolling and learning on their platform easier, smoother, and faster.

The tech we used:

• Drupal – Teach First’s original CMS, which they wanted to continue using.
• Salesforce – as a complete CRM solution for recruiting and managing teachers.
• .NET – used to provide small solutions for certain projects, like applying for a new school year
• TWIG, CSS, JavaScript – used to create custom themes on the platform.

A decade of collaboration – and counting

We are still providing solutions for new Teach First programs, designing for the complex tasks to help their platform run ever more smoothly as it grows. We’ve worked together for more than ten years – as a software partner that can grow and adapt as the business changes. Our teams work side by side, delivering groundbreaking solutions that ensure the highest performance and user experience.