Unified registration platform for faster and smarter testing

Challenge

Flexion faced the complex task of replacing a patchwork of customized legacy systems with a single, standardized product that could still be configured to meet diverse customer needs. Each legacy system had been built uniquely for large-scale clients, processing over a million assessments annually, which made creating a unified offering anything but straightforward.

Performance and usability issues were common pain points. Users struggled with slow load times for data lookups, ticket printing, and report downloads. Large participant imports could take hours, causing bottlenecks during peak periods. The system also demanded repeated manual tasks for every assessment cycle. For example, students assessed in both Fall and Spring had to be loaded into the system multiple times. Worse, if a name or detail was entered incorrectly, it had to be corrected in multiple locations, creating unnecessary work and room for error. There were also technical roadblocks. Since each customer had a different version of the system, even small changes required updates to every version. That made improvements expensive and time-consuming.

The goal was to build a single, flexible system that worked for everyone and to do it in a way that allowed customers to switch over gradually, without losing any of the features they relied on. The new system also had to be fast enough to process a million registrations in under an hour.

Approach

To build the right solution, we partnered closely with the client’s business analysts to fully understand the technical limits of the old system and the real frustrations users were facing. We focused first on the biggest issue: speeding up the processing of large data sets.

We took an iterative approach, identifying small, manageable pieces of functionality to move over from the legacy system one step at a time. Our first priority was to build a fast, reliable data pipeline that could handle critical legacy data efficiently. From there, we expanded the system based on the customer’s testing schedule, tackling the most time-sensitive needs first. We used an event-driven architecture with cloud-native tools to integrate easily with other systems and scale processing based on demand. This setup also gave us built-in ways to handle errors, with retry logic and alerts that help keep everything running smoothly.

To support different customer needs without rebuilding the system for each one, we used feature flags and configuration options. This allowed flexibility without creating custom code for every client. We also introduced reusable participant records. Instead of entering the same student data multiple times, edits could be made once and applied everywhere that student appeared, reducing errors and saving time.

Outcomes

New features can now be rolled out to all customers at once, rather than updating each system individually. This means improvements reach users faster and with less overhead.

We also built in real-time monitoring and alerting. If something goes wrong, like a system bug or a data error from an outside system, our system often catches it before users even notice. Each workflow includes automatic retry logic to fix common problems on its own. If that doesn’t work, the development team is alerted immediately.

From there, we either resolve the issue manually or coordinate with customer service to inform affected users. The time to recover depends on the severity of the issue, but the system is designed to catch and handle errors early, keeping disruptions to a minimum.

By April 2025, we had an initial group of customers who had moved to the new system, and more are on track to follow by next year. Customers are now able to load student and registration data much faster, making it easier to prepare for testing periods. The new system can create one million registrations in under an hour, a major improvement in speed and efficiency.