Automate Your Business Processes
In our Meet the Neo Award Winners blog series, we are introducing you to some of the winners of the 2023 Neo Awards, which are being presented at each of our ONE developer conferences. These winners have all played a significant role in making the OutSystems community into what it is today. In this blog, you’ll meet Bryan San Andres, the winner in the Social Responsibility Category for the Americas region. (If you haven’t already, you can also get acquainted with another Americas Neo Award Winner, Rafael Pereira, in the first post of this series.)
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Introducing Bryan San Andres and Bryco, LLC
Bryan San Andres founded Bryco, LLC, in 2016 with the goal of providing custom software development to companies who needed enterprise solutions, and he has been a member of the OutSystems Community since that time. Based in New Jersey, Bryco employs 20 people and is helping their customers make a digital impact by using the OutSystems platform to speed apps to market.
Bryan has long been interested in combining application development with philanthropic endeavors. So, he enrolled in the OutSystems Digital Volunteers Program, which offers non profits the opportunity to use the OutSystems platform to increase their outreach, where he learned about the OutSystems Build for the Future Hackathon. The Hackathon connects application developers with non profit organizations that want to help make a difference with software. Participants receive free access to OutSystems enterprise-level software and cloud hosting from our partner Amazon Web Services (AWS). And this is how Bryan was paired with Mission Kids in April 2023.
“I could try to help a non profit by doing something I don’t know much about like construction work or cooking, but they wouldn’t be getting the best of me. The OutSystems Hackathon enables me to share what I’m good at with a cause that is meaningful,” Bryan said in a recent interview.
Mission Kids: On an Automation Mission
Mission Kids is an inquiry-driven, inclusive preschool that nurtures the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual growth of each student. It believes that relationships and community are the building blocks that help children and families to flourish. Families work as a team with teachers to extend learning at school and beyond the classroom. Each family is responsible for working a shift in the classroom, holding a family job, volunteering for school upkeep, and participating in annual fundraising efforts. Families also attend community meetings and caregiver education workshops.
Parent and family commitments, payments, and communications are critical to the success of Mission Kids. Before the OutSystems hackathon, the preschool relied on reconciling disparate manual processes, spreadsheets, and emails to keep track–a slow and cumbersome method. Mission Kids knew that an application could help their operations run more efficiently, but they thought it was out of reach due to cost. But then OutSystems selected them for the Hackathon and introduced them to Bryco.
Bryan recalled how he felt when he got the news.“We were thrilled to be partnered with Mission Kids and to use OutSystems to help them address their challenge.”
Launching a Commitments App for Operational Efficiency–in 4 Months With 1 Developer
Bryco met with Mission Kids, and the fun began. Working with a Mission Kids representative who learned about OutSystems from a contact, a team of five people determined what would benefit Mission Kids the most in the fastest amount of time. They settled on an app that would help Mission Kids keep track of where parents were in terms of their time and activity commitments and that could link parents to a payments portal if necessary.
To deliver this app, the Bryco developers went through the usual steps–requirements gathering, designing, developing, and testing. The process from ideation to release only took 4 months. The app unifies the processes needed to track where parents are in their activities and commitments. The project started with just two developers, but most of the work has been done by one developer–all on OutSystems Developer Cloud (ODC). Mission Kids is delighted with the functionality and its automation, and they are already planning a phase 2 of the app.
“It’s been great to get firsthand experience with ODC and understand how it works. We’re really impressed with how powerful it is,” enthused Bryan. “We also like that we can provide feedback on ODC as we use it,” he added.
“Accepting This Award on Behalf of the Team”
Bryan said he was pleasantly surprised to learn at the ONE Conference in Denver that he had won the Americas Neo Award for Social Responsibility. He is also quick to point out that the project was a team effort, and his developers were instrumental in the success of the project. “This award belongs to them, too.” He mentioned that he’s also excited about having the Neo Award Statue in his office.
When asked whether Bryco will be involved in another project with a non-profit organization, Bryan said “Absolutely.” In fact, he is hoping to be involved in the next OutSystems Build for the Future Hackathon in September so that Bryco has another opportunity to make a social impact with a community-minded non profit.
More Neo Award Winner Stories Coming Soon
We have more to come about the 2023 Neo Award winners, so stay tuned!
Learn more about the OutSystems Build for the Future Hackathon and the Digital Volunteers Program. Want to try OutSystems? Sign up for free.
