MRM Global: Revamping a flagship MarTech product for new markets

The challenge

MRM Global is a MarTech company that works with leading global drinks brands and distributors in 38 countries. It helps its clients’ sales teams create customisable marketing materials, using its flagship application Brand Creator (https://mrmglobal.com/brand-creator/), to boost revenue and brand awareness for the drinks brands.The company is preparing to launch into a new global market which will see its user numbers grow dramatically. As part of this, it wants to create an upgraded version of Brand Creator that can handle increased usage. Using feedback from users in that new market, MRM Global is refreshing its user experience (UX) and user interface to support a wider range of use cases and give users greater flexibility.

The existing technology team also needed coaching and upskilling to support the company’s growth ambitions, developing a sustainable way of working that supports MRM Global’s long-term operational requirements.

Our solution

We proposed to create a new, progressive web application to support the product upgrade — based on React, using new and existing APIs, and built in .Net. We would track and capture the delivery flow using modern forecasting techniques, ensuring we would meet critical deadlines without hindering the teams’ engineering and focus on continuous improvement. Finally, we proposed to re-design the underlying infrastructure to be resilient and flexible, letting our customer accommodate any future changes while maintaining the needs of existing clients on the platform.

Defining requirements

Our team worked with MRM Global’s stakeholders across product, engineering and technology to run an initial discovery and understand the company’s current capabilities. We also analysed reports and investigations by other consultancies to identify its key gaps and challenges — both in the Brand Creator application and the backend systems that facilitate the creation and fulfilment processes.

Mobilising an expert team — at speed

We quickly mobilised a multidisciplinary team to cover existing technologies, new technologies, and technical leadership:

• UX designers with a deep understanding of MRM Global’s existing tech stack, working in tandem with MRM Global’s own UX and development team.
• Frontend (FE) engineers skilled in React technologies, who would partner with existing MRM Global FE engineers and develop the new web application — all while coaching good practice and embedding knowledge across the team.
• Backend and cloud engineers with AWS and Azure expertise. These team members will analyse detailed requirements and ensure that the infrastructure can support the frontend application’s requirements. They will also recommend and implement improvements to support cloud architecture best practices throughout the build.
• An experienced Technical Lead to create synergy across MRM Global’s technical landscape, who is working closely with the company’s Chief Technology Officer and engineering teams to oversee both frontend and backend development. This comprehensive understanding of MRM Global’s architecture and requirements will ensure a successful application launch by the end of the year.

Upskilling MRM Global’s teams to take ownership of their new solution

Our team is using best practice agile to deliver the build. In tandem with this, they are upskilling MRM Global’s technical teams on the methodology and technologies they are using. This is setting them up to take full ownership of the product after the initial launch, empowering them to be fully independent of our support.