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Billbergia Group
From Legacy to Leading-Edge: Billbergia’s Digital Infrastructure Transformation
Australian property development company, Billbergia, has been shaping the landscape of residential and commercial projects across Australia since 1986.
With a legacy of quality, sustainability and innovation, Billbergia stands out in the property development sector, having been recognised with prestigious awards such as the Property Council of Australia’s National Innovation and Excellence Award.
The story
Successful, long-standing organisations tend to come with legacy systems that were once best in class. The need for enhanced security and stability within their MyHome and CRM Sales portals led Billbergia to partner with our team to identify problems and move quickly to resolve them.
Previous work was completed without clear direction and plan. Billbergia required a new partnership built on trust. That is why, after some initial, successful ad-hoc projects, we worked together to carve out a long term strategic development roadmap.
“Working with 4mation has been a highly positive experience. Our team has gained greater confidence in the capabilities of our infrastructure, providing a strong foundation for further required upgrades. 4mation understood the needs of our business and partnered with us to deliver a cost-effective and scalable solution for both our MyHome portal and CRM Sales Portal. The partnership has been successful in driving innovation and future proofing the next steps in Billbergia’s application infrastructure roadmap.”
Peter Brooks Head of IT, Billbergia
The challenge
The primary task was to migrate the MyHome and CRM Sales portals, a critical component of Billbergia’s digital infrastructure. This project was not just about migration; it was about laying the groundwork for a more secure, stable and efficient system.
The technical assessment performed by our local development team identified critical issues with code quality and standards, repositories, deployment processes and system architecture.
Looking to move fast on these proposed improvements, working at an ad-hoc capacity meant no guarantee of consistent resource availability. The solution? Partnering with 4mation on our Agile Innovation Package model to burn down the required work with a dedicated, local team at a lower cost.
The solution
In our collaboration with Billbergia, we enhanced their portal infrastructure for improved scalability and security. Originally, Billbergia utilised Docker containers to deploy a Ruby on Rails application, a unique set up that limited scalability and security.
Following AWS’s scalability and security guidelines, our team transitioned the portals from Docker to a more scalable and secure environment using Nginx. Nginx, known for its high-performance and efficient web traffic management, enables the portals to support greater user loads seamlessly.
We also upgraded their database from SQLite to PostgreSQL on Amazon RDS. SQLite’s limitations in scalability and concurrent writing were addressed by PostgreSQL’s advanced capabilities and flexibility.
These technology upgrades were strategically selected to enhance Billbergia’s digital infrastructure, ensuring it meets current and future demands with improved reliability, performance, and compatibility with their existing ecosystem.
The initial migration roadmap included several key components, such as:
- Local and staging environment setup – Established separate development environments that mimic the production setup, ensuring code changes can be safely tested and approved by Billbergia before going live, reducing the risk of errors on the live portal for more reliable deployment cycles.
- Set up private secure VPC – Implemented a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to encapsulate the portal’s infrastructure, providing enhanced security and network isolation. This setup ensures that the portal’s operations are safeguarded against unauthorised access and potential external threats.
- Fix formatting issues on mobile sites – Adjusting the portal’s responsive design to ensure optimal viewing and interaction across various mobile devices.
- Custom platform features – By developing bespoke features that address the requirements and preferences of Billbergia’s users, the portal not only stands out from competitors but also adds better value to its user experience to encourage longer and more frequent visits.
- Create new VPN and AWS infrastructure – Developed a secure, scalable network connection using Virtual Private Network technology, integrated with Amazon Web Services for robust cloud computing capabilities. This component ensures that the portal benefits from a flexible, reliable infrastructure that can adapt to varying loads and is protected against network threats.
The result
Improved server capabilities led to fewer timeouts, enhancing the user experience for the MyHome and CRM Sales portal. The successful migration and subsequent optimisations completed by our local team not only resolved pre-existing issues but also boosted the overall performance of Billbergia’s digital platforms with features that improved the user experience.
This engagement has laid the foundation for a continuing partnership, with 4mation committed to supporting Billbergia in its journey towards digital excellence. Moving to an ongoing Agile Innovation model means more effective project governance and consistent delivery to continuously optimise infrastructure, improve user experience and stronger security posture.
