Spread Thin? Avoid Losing Productivity

A construction company came to Altamente with the unique problem of having so many field sites and traveling engineers that project management had become a thorny challenge. The company had earlier invested in web modules for expensive group and project management software as well as a web interface for their accounting system. However, a year and many tens of thousands of dollars later, they were no better off. The engineers in the field were dissuaded from using the web interfaces because the interaction with the software and database rendered so slowly.

New Version of Social Network for Scientists and Puerto Rico

Length of Engagement: 2013- ongoing

Altamente was hired by Ciencia Puerto Rico as the technology solutions provider and consultant responsible for migrating a five year old social media platform in active use by over 5,000 scientists to a new more robust version. Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR) is a nonprofit organization composed of scientists, professionals, students and citizens committed to promoting science, research and science education in Puerto Rico.

Ciencia Puerto Rico was founded in 2004 by several Puerto Rican PhD students studying and working in various states. Their initial goal was to connect people working or studying science that had a connection to Puerto Rico as a topic or as a place of ethnic identity or origin, thus facilitating the sharing of information and facilitating mentorship opportunities. The original social platform Ciencia Puerto Rico ran on a legacy site ran on a web page publishing system that was developed in-house. As is typical after a few years, a small team finds it a challenge to maintain and add features. As such, it suffers what we refer to as bit rot, the tendency of legacy systems to become less and less functional over time. However, Cienciapr.org has developed an enormous amount of content in this legacy system and any change requires that all its user profile information, accounts, and posts continue to be available.

The new version of Cienciapr.org was required to include existing historic content, users, and user profiles to a new, stable, mature OpenSource (Software Libre) CMS with easy to use publishing tools, a flexible programming environment to extend capability, and key community features to aid its network of scientists in the promotion of the sciences in Puerto Rico. For this task, Altamente implemented and configured Drupal CMS using both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. The task was completed within the three months period proposed, with additional training and support extending the engagement for nearly 6 months.

Community Engagement: Raising funds and awareness

Engagement: 2014 and ongoing

Altamente's unique blend of technology integration, social media management and community engagement proved to be a key asset to the San Juan Children's Choir when they were faced with the challenge of raising $150,000 in 3 months to enable the Choir's participation in the International Rimini Choral Festival in 2014. Now in 2015, again we join in the efforts of raising, not only funds but also awareness of the soon to be half a century mark since the founding of the San Juan Children's Choir.