QSR International Selects KMS for End-to-end Software Development via The KMS Digital Team

The Company’s Background

QSR International is a software company that specializes in qualitative data analysis (QDA) software. It was founded in 1994 in Melbourne, Australia and has since expanded to have offices worldwide, including Germany, New Zealand and United Kingdom. Recently, QSR joined forces with two partners, Palisade and Addinsoft, to found Lumivero and has around 250 employees.

In these times of unprecedented economic and political instability, society depends heavily on research to gain knowledge and inform changes, and a powerful qualitative data analysis (QDA) tool is key to this process. NVivo was first launched in 1999 as a pioneering software for researchers to conduct qualitative data analysis more effectively. It assists users with qualitative data analysis in organising, coding, and analysing data from various sources such as interviews, surveys, and social media. For several years of release, the software has been trusted by thousands of government, health, non-profit and commercial researchers worldwide and used for different purposes of education, marketing, etc.

Limited Internal Workforce for Business Growth

1. The old software

Due to evolving technology and ever-changing requirements from users, the QSR is under the pressure of continually upgrading the tool to remain competitive and improve efficiency. At first, NVivo was primarily designed as a desktop application (Windows and MacOS), and the internal team at QSR had limited resources.

2. QSR’s ambition

To extend the reach and power of qualitative research, the company decided to modernise the Transcription product (one of NVivo’s integrations) to the Cloud version. Moreover, with the aim of offering a cutting-edge QDA software experience, QSR also concentrated on upgrading NVivo 13 with additional features and integrations. This would help the company stay competitive in the QDA market and maintain its position as a leading provider, alongside rivals such as ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, webQDA, Quirkos, Dedoose, etc.

3. Idea of outsourcing

Since the QSR’s fundamental approach is NVivo - their flagship product, having a strategic technology services provider is necessary to help the corporation concentrate on its core product while still ensuring the cost-effectiveness and high quality of other product pipelines.

From A Small Project to An End-to-end Development for All of QSR’s Offerings

With a strong track record in software development and modernisation, deep expertise in emerging technologies, as well as presence in Sydney, KMS has become one of the prominent candidates. Before the onboarding, KMS Solutions’ technical leaders worked closely with the QSR team to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the existing system and identify areas where improvements could be made and respective solutions.

1. Delivery of Cloud-based Transcription

To enhance the accessibility of mixed methods data analysis for a significant number of users, QSR’s priority is to revamp the legacy software’s architecture by partially migrating the NVivo features to Cloud. KMS Solutions' dedicated team was first engaged to assist with the development and maintenance of the Transcription product. The Transcription module would help researchers with limitless automated transcription of audio files like interviews, thereby enabling them to concentrate more on analysing their data.

With the support of the KMS team, QSR engineers could execute this plan meticulously to validate the market need and ensure the roadmap is appropriate while simultaneously increasing the focus on the core product development. At this first engagement, KMS also helped ensure the design of Transcription was both highly functional and consistent across all platforms.

2. Resources Fulfillment for NVivo Ecosystem Maintenance

With the impressive result from the Transcription project, QSR kept trusting KMS and shared the partner’s engineering team full responsibility for developing not only NVivo but also all product pipelines under QSR and its acquired companies, such as Account management, Transcription, NBox, NVivo Cloud Collab, etc.

To ensure NVivo’s leading position in the QDA market, a strategic plan to roll out the latest version of NVivo was created, with an estimated deadline in March 2020. The project rapidly scaled up its headcounts with KMS Solutions’ talents to deliver NVivo 13 on time and within budget.

KMS has leveraged the emerging technology stack of .NET Core, ReactJS, WPF, MacOS, X-Code, Swift, and Azure for integration, enhancement, and bug fixes. By implementing Agile/Scrum methodology for new product pipelines and Kanban for maintenance teams from the initial day, the teams can streamline the development process and ensure the update was in a timely and efficient manner.

Trang Cao, KMS Solutions’ Delivery Director, said: ”The collaboration between KMS and QSR has showcased the value of strategic partnerships and the power of combining different strengths to achieve a common goal. We are proud to have been a part of the journey of modernising and developing NVivo alongside QSR. Our team's dedication and expertise in software development and testing have helped bring this innovative product to market, and we’re excited to see its impact in the qualitative research field.”

Solidifying the Brand’s Market Leading Position

The new version of NVivo is a step change forward for the QDA market. Regarding the release of NVivo 13, the CEO of QSR International said, “We’re thrilled that NVivo now offers a new level of research flexibility and power with cloud-based Collaboration and Transcription modules.”

For several years of collaboration, KMS Solutions has always been a reliable partner and significant contributor to QSR’s valuable milestones:

• 2018 - Successfully delivered the Transcription product on Cloud.
• 2019 - Started KWALON project to integrate with other QDA networks.
• 2020 - Started NVivo 13 with new UX/UI and various modules and integrations. Also, from 2020 until now, KMS Solutions has taken the main responsibility for delivering end-to-end software development.

During this period, the company has also tripled its dedicated team (with more than 50 members) to have complete development services. Additionally, KMS Solutions also demonstrated strong automation capabilities, which allowed the QSR team to take over the testing phase at a reasonable cost.

“I have reviewed all the projects that have been delivered over the period of time that KMS and QSR worked together and would like to give a shout-out to all of you,” said Andre Liebenberg, Enterprise Architect at QSR International. “Partnering with KMS has been a game-changer for us in terms of offering a better QDA experience to our users. The company has done an outstanding job - thank you on behalf of QSR and myself.”

About KMS Solutions

Part of the KMS group, KMS Solutions is a technology consulting firm with a mission to empower digital enterprises and help them operate more effectively by leveraging software engineering excellence, digital capabilities, specialized accelerators, and fit-for-purpose solutions alongside strategic software partners.

KMS Solutions has cooperated with high-end enterprises operating in various industries, including ISVs, Banks, Financial Services, Insurance Institutions, FinTechs, and Healthcare across the Asia Pacific region.

To learn more about KMS Solutions and our works, visit: kms-solutions.asia