Project Overview

OpenArc partnered with Via Oncology to hire an internal team – led by expert OA engineers – to refactor the code on two internal tools that support their flagship product, Via Pathways. This was a true “360” project for OpenArc, with the technical staffing, strategy, and software development practices each bringing its expertise to bear.

Via, a B2B software company that delivers services to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and outcomes of care for cancer patients at medical and radiation oncology centers throughout the world, was having trouble staffing a number of positions. Via’s CEO reached out to OpenArc through a mutual associate at UPMC, and the OA talent and strategy teams met with Via senior staff to consider the unique challenges they were experiencing – one of which was a drastically compressed timeline. Via needed a nine-person agile software development team – five .NET engineers, two DevOps engineers, one QA analyst, and one project manager – ramped up within two weeks.

Working with their CEO and CTO through our human-centered strategy process, we investigated their hiring workflow and crafted both a six-month software development plan, with weekly sprint review and planning sessions, and a broader collaborative plan to ensure organizational goals were met. In so doing, we were able to address both short- and long-term needs, sending OA engineers for immediate relief and also providing expertise on future full-time hires, helping to grow Via’s workforce. OpenArc is proud to now be a preferred Via Oncology and UPMC talent vendor.

As for the refactor projects, PathBuildR is a web-based internal tool used to create vital content for the customer-facing Pathways – content that is gathered in regular meetings between the Via team and a national panel of expert oncologists, where updates on treatment and outcome trends that will be used to support critical clinical decisions are shared. The second tool is a customer portal that offers various customizations in creating and configuring customer accounts. The Via team was concerned with the scalability and maintainability of the current code, so OpenArc and the newly hired engineering team worked to streamline it, implementing best practices and leveraging more modern technologies while also updating and modernizing the user interface for both tools. In fact, the number of lines of code was reduced by as much as 50% while maintaining full functionality.

As part of a commitment to Via’s post-project success, OpenArc provided their team with coding and architecture guidelines, automated regression tests, and onboarding training for future developers joining the project.

Services

  • Software
  • Strategy
  • Talent
  • Custom software development
  • Web application development
  • Staff augmentation
  • Human centered strategy

We were proud and thrilled to bring all the things we do well to this project. Via trusted us to come in and help them assess their challenges – and then to make some quick decisions. We think we earned that trust.

Leann Moore, Manager of Sales Operations, OpenArc

Pumpkin cream healthy dinner on wooden table

What We Learned

We leaned into our brand on this one. A client needed software and hiring help, needed a plan to do it, and needed to begin immediately. Synergy everywhere. Our commitment to relational business continually positions us for new opportunities. Over and over, it’s proven that it helps to know people. “Refactoring” and “renovation” have a lot in common, although there are way less refactoring shows on television.

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