The Requirements
The English Speaking Board (ESB) provides exams for international students located largely within the UK, but also overseas.
ESB had an outdated legacy access system – the system crashed, there was no online capability for bookings and there was a lot of manual work to be done by the staff. ESB was therefore looking to update its old software with an up-to-date Exam Management System, with a Web 2.0 based interface, modern Microsoft browser compatibility and full data reporting capabilities.
ESB issued a request for tender for the project to a number of software development companies, which was eventually won by Blueberry.
Our Solution
The new ESB site (http://database.esbuk.org/) contains user accounts for Staff, Examiners and Organisers. These three accounts all have input into a booked examination for uploading candidates, results and reports.
ESB also wanted a mechanism for uploading a varied set of report forms into the system which would then trigger results to be changed and emailed out to examiners. To address this requirement, which involved around 100 different examination templates, Blueberry identified and implemented a method of importing templates into the system, which allows ESB to import tens of thousands of candidates within seconds.
The Results
The client is very happy with the new system (which was built using Blueberry’s BBWT business web application framework) and received a return-on-investment within the first six months.
Additionally, the company was able to reduce costs and improve productivity because of the simplicity of the new system. As a result, ESB is now looking to expand into even larger markets abroad.
Liam Vaughan, IT Officer at ESB said: “Our processes have been cut in half and the new system is a breeze to use. Equally impressive is the volume of users – we haven’t noticed any slow down at all, which has had a positive impact on the workload!”