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Coursabi renewal: Alkermes

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniTuesday, July 8, 2025
Alkermes is leveraging their long-standing neuroscience expertise to develop medicines that make a difference. Alkermes is leveraging their long-standing neuroscience expertise to develop medicines that make a difference.

During the COVID pandemic, Fynydd partnered with Blue Sequoyah Technologies (https://bluesequoyah.com) to build Coursabi: a cutting edge learning platform (https://coursabi.com). It's an all-in-one learning solution with features like native and SCORM course support, video conferencing, audio and video libraries, forms, reports, events, and more, all presented as a concise learning journey.

We found particular success in the pharmaceutical and healthcare space, and are proud to see these clients renewing each year as they find success in keeping their teams trained, compliant, and most of all, happy.

Alkermes (https://alkermes.com) has been applying deep neuroscience expertise to develop medicines designed to help people living with complex and difficult-to-treat psychiatric and neurological disorders. They're one of our first subscribers and we're proud to say that they have renewed their Coursabi subscription for 2025!

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Coursabi renewal: Deciphera

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniTuesday, May 13, 2025
In the past three decades, tremendous progress has been made in the fight against cancer, but there is still so much more work to be done. At Deciphera, we remain steadfast in our mission to improve the lives of people living with cancer - and that passion for making a difference extends to the patient groups and communities in which we live and work. In the past three decades, tremendous progress has been made in the fight against cancer, but there is still so much more work to be done. At Deciphera, we remain steadfast in our mission to improve the lives of people living with cancer - and that passion for making a difference extends to the patient groups and communities in which we live and work.

During the COVID pandemic, Fynydd partnered with Blue Sequoyah Technologies (https://bluesequoyah.com) to build Coursabi: a cutting edge learning platform (https://coursabi.com). It's an all-in-one learning solution with features like native and SCORM course support, video conferencing, audio and video libraries, forms, reports, events, and more, all presented as a concise learning journey.

We found particular success in the pharmaceutical and healthcare space, and are proud to see these clients renewing each year as they find success in keeping their teams trained, compliant, and most of all, happy.

One of our early subscribers, Deciphera (https://deciphera.com), has been at the cutting edge of cancer research for decades. They do great work, and we're proud to say that they have renewed their Coursabi subscription for 2025!

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Website builder service or custom website?

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniFriday, May 9, 2025

There is a world full of "build your own website" services that allow just about anyone to stand up a new website in a few hours. Even organizations can leverage the simplicity offered by these services to set up an online store, community, and more. Here are a few examples of why people typically choose these services.

  • Quick setup and time to market
  • Reasonable up-front pricing
  • Design templates
  • Integrated services, like shopping carts and email
  • Managed hosting

Sounds great! But as with everything in life, there are tradeoffs.

  • Quick setup and time to market means giving up control over things like your domain name, web app design, email provider, and more
  • Reasonable up-front pricing usually means a tiered pricing model with add-on pricing for essential features like a custom domain name, additional bandwidth, and increased storage
  • Design templates mean your web app will largely look like a lot of other web apps that use the service, and may not match your vision, and custom designs can require service-specific web development
  • Integrated services also means no choice over the provider of the service, which could be missing features you need
  • Managed hosting means scaling (growing) is significantly more expensive, network bandwidth caps can apply, and true customer and data ownership are dubious

Regardless, these services can be a great way for individuals and small organizations to bootstrap their web presence, and in many cases, you can happily continue to use the service for years.

But there are also long-term lock-in issues that can be more serious, potentially impeding your growth, for example:

  • You may contractually own your data, but extracting it to migrate to another platform is usually not practical or possible at all; they don't want you to leave
  • When the service changes (features, pricing, etc.) or if the service is purchased by another entity, you usually have no choice other than rolling with it, for better or worse
  • If the service shuts down, you're going to struggle to replace everything they offered to your visitors in a relatively short period of time
  • Most successful businesses will outgrow these services anyway, so you could be missing out on long-term savings

Custom websites

If the tradeoffs are too much to swallow, fear not! You can also go with a custom web app tailored specifically to your needs and budget. It can match your vision without compromises and scaling can be managed more easily as your business or traffic grow.

So how do you get started? With a builder service you first have to find one with the price and features you need, and then create an account and dig into their control panel to start configuring your website. Whereas for a custom website the first step is to find a web development partner you can rely on for advice and technical expertise, like Fynydd. Your partner can help gather your ideas, come up with a plan, and build your web app, all within your budget and timeline. They're usually experts in both new web app projects and migrations from other platforms and services. Most importantly, they fill the knowledge gap left by the "build your own website" service.

A web development partner will choose technologies that have a proven security track record. One way we do this is by consulting the CVE database; a publicly funded global resource for tracking common vulnerabilities and exposures. For example, a CVE search quickly reveals that WordPress has historically been a security nightmare.

Your development partner will help you with a design that matches your vision, a hosting service that meets your needs and budget, a security review, a backup plan and disaster recovery strategy, and more. When the time comes to grow your platform, they can help with that too. And throughout the journey you maintain full control over your brand, your website, your data, and your customers.

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: ZOIA Healthcare marketplace

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniMonday, April 14, 2025

ZOIA Healthcare is a direct-to-patient provider of specialized nutritional products dedicated to empowering and improving the lives of individuals with inherited metabolic disorders and other rare diseases. They focus on navigating the complexities of healthcare, ensuring patients who require targeted nutrition that cannot be met through a regular diet alone gain access to necessary medical and low protein foods.

Accredited by the Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation (HQAA), they adhere to stringent standards, helping their patients experience transformative outcomes. Their portfolio is curated to foster advancements in disease management, harnessing the power of nutrition.

ZOIA Pharma partnered with Fynydd to build a new web sales and marketing platform providing patients and organizations with a streamlined shopping experience. Individuals can browse, search, and purchase nutrition products, and even get notified when products are back in stock. And organizations also have the ability to offer a formulary catering specifically to their patients.

Some of the key features of the platform include:

  • Based on ASP.NET and Umbraco CMS
  • Hosted on Amazon Web Services
  • Fynydd's bespoke Umbraco shopping platform supporting consumers and organizations with formularies
  • Integrated with Stripe for payments and purchase management
  • Responsive framework works great on mobile, tablets, and larger devices
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Amazon Web Services

C#

Github

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Windows

SQL Server

Stripe

Umbraco CMS

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: Monitoring Analytics website

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniThursday, August 29, 2024

Monitoring Analytics was established in 2008 as the fully independent external market monitor for PJM Interconnection by the Market Monitoring Unit of PJM. PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization, ensures the reliability of the electric power supply system in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Monitoring Analytics (MA) partnered with Fynydd to create a new web platform optimized for a modern user experience.

The goal of the project was to provide visitors with easy access to the Monitoring Analytics quarterly reports and other support documentation, as well as an updated visual appearance.

One of the challenges was the creation of a new taxonomy for their 20 year document collection. It needed to be easy to manage in the back office, but also provide better on-site search results. We were able to work with MA to categorize and organize their document collection and provide a user flow that made finding and downloading documents quick and easy.

Due to various compliance requirements, some aspects of the hosting were non-standard. But we were able to meet all their needs. For example, we deployed the platform CMS without the back office code, and with the CMS management APIs disabled, providing additional security in production. This meant creating a unique publishing workflow whereby a separate instance could be used behind a firewall and approved changes could be deployed through a VPN connection.

Some of the key features of the platform include:

  • Based on ASP.NET and Umbraco CMS, hosted on Amazon Web Services
  • SQLite database
  • Non-standard publishing workflow
  • Indexing of PDF content, ingested into Lucene indexes
  • Composite web/PDF content site search
  • Responsive HTML5 framework
  • Device themes (system/dark/light modes)

NOTE: THE WEBSITE IS NOT YET LIVE

Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Amazon Web Services

C#

Github

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Windows

Umbraco CMS

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: Coursabi

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniWednesday, July 3, 2024

Fynydd partnered with Blue Sequoyah Technologies to build a community-driven learning platform named Coursabi, which gives learners a simple but powerful way to grow as they follow their learning journey. Their dashboard shows them progress to-date and what assignments are next. They can explore the content library for elective learning, sign documents, and complete forms. And the community gives them a way to learn from peers and content authors.

Coursabi Mission Control is where authorized users can create and organize training content like documents, forms, and courses. There are also libraries for audio and video content, as well as imported learning modules. People and learning assignments are managed here. And administrators and training managers can stay up-to-date using dashboards, reports, notifications, community activity, and so much more.

  • Amazon AWS, CloudFront, S3, Okta SSO
  • SCORM/xAPI/HTML import, native Coursabi content
  • Courses, documents, audio, video, forms, events, community, and more
  • Real-time reporting and analytics suite
  • Native content builders
  • Assignments, progress tracking, notifications
  • Team and role-based security for authors, members, and content
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

Blazor

C#

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Microsoft .NET

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Amazon Web Services

C#

Github

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Windows

SQL Server

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: BPCC Open Campus Mobile

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniWednesday, May 1, 2024
Bossier-Parish Community College campus, Bossier City, LA. Bossier-Parish Community College campus, Bossier City, LA.

Fynydd was asked to build a hybrid iOS, Android, and web-based learning app platform for enrolled and public students at Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) in Bossier City, Louisiana. This was a full-stack platform that included a data tier, API service with management interface, client apps (App Store, Google Play Store), and responsive website.

The goal of the project was to research the efficacy of gamification strategies with regard to testing up and testing out of courses prior to enrollment. Secondarily it provided a great way for students to study and hone their knowledge during each semester.

The platform provided various curriculum through video courses, which each had check your knowledge quizzing as students progressed. Students could earn badges as they advanced through their learning journey and also challenge each other to quiz games for additional badges and bragging rights via a leader board.

Some of the features of the platform include:

  • Hosted on Amazon EC2
  • Multilingual using i18n
  • Integration of Wiris MathType for complex math equations
  • Integration with Canvas LMS
  • Peer to peer learning games with badging, grading, and advanced tracking
  • Library of video courses, quiz engine
  • SSO with social platforms including Facebook, Twitter/X, and Google
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

Android

Angular

CSS3

HTML5

Ionic Framework

iOS

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Amazon Web Services

C#

Github

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Windows

React

SQL Server

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: Campus Outreach ThinkDrink analytics

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniFriday, March 1, 2024
COS has partnered with the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, and over 20 U.S. military bases to achieve increased knowledge, empathy, and improved bystander engagement over the last 30 years. COS has partnered with the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, and over 20 U.S. military bases to achieve increased knowledge, empathy, and improved bystander engagement over the last 30 years.

Campus Outreach Services offers unmatched sexual assault prevention training, substance use programs, mental health school assemblies, college transitions workshops, and customized series of other wellness topics. With compelling presenters and pragmatic resources, our impact lasts beyond an hour, a week, a year. We deliver pin-drop moments for lifetime change.

Campus Outreach Services partnered with Fynydd to create an analytics dashboard for their ThinkDrink learning platform. They needed to show efficacy across demographics and teams including longitudinal test results for their ThinkDrink program.

The platform enables subscribers to track course completion, filter, compare and share results, and see overall efficacy.

Some of the key features of the project include:

  • 9,000 users across 80 distinct organizations
  • Custom Moodle/PHP/MySQL implementation on Ubuntu Linux, Vimeo as secure video CDN
  • 9 filter criteria, 7 chart layouts, and 5 demographic segments
  • Student score comparisons across school boundaries
  • Analysis of a three phase testing process, including a longitudinal test, to show retention and efficacy
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Github

Moodle

MySQL

PHP

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: CLSI AMS and shopping platform

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniThursday, February 1, 2024

The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) is a not-for-profit organization that develops laboratory standards worldwide. Our standards are recognized by laboratories, accreditors, and government agencies as the best way to improve medical laboratory testing.

CLSI partnered with Fynydd to create a web platform for marketing their organization, provide member and volunteer services, membership management, and a shop for their Standards documents.

The platform integrated with NetForum and other third party services to provide a single, complete access portal for staff, members, and volunteers.

The shop provided unique pricing, options, and user experiences for anonymous visitors, members, and customers in developing countries. Standards products provided digital samples and full specifications, as well as customized pricing based on the visitor.

A member portal provided everything a member needs to manage their profile, membership details, purchase history, downloadable products, event attendance, membership certification, nominations, volunteer history, and more. It also provided delegates with management tools for authorized employees in their account.

Other tools and features include public file management for volunteer communication and education, outbound links to services such as their eClipse platform and support system, a shopping cart reminder system, product import and publication tools, and so much more.

Some of the key features of the platform include:

  • Based on ASP.NET MVC and Umbraco CMS, hosted on Microsoft Azure
  • Full integration with NetForum AMS, including product data and membership management, e-commerce
  • Complex sales pipeline
  • Complex member management features
  • Catalyst Fire Ignition, SmokeSignal, and Flashpoint integration for enhanced NetForum communication and single sign-on (SSO)
  • Non-destructive product data sync keeps the site online even if NetForum is not available
  • Responsive HTML5 framework
  • Membership management, product sales (e-commerce), blog, news, videos, slideshows, file management, and more
  • Transactional email service for website visitor and shop communication
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

C#

Github

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Windows

NetForum

SQL Server

Umbraco CMS

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Project: ATF OST Connect intranet

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniMonday, January 1, 2024

The U.S. Department of Justice through the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) partnered with Fynydd to create a secure web portal for their Office of Science and Technology directorate.

The platform was built using the Microsoft SharePoint ITAR platform under the most strict security protocols. This platform is built and configured specifically for secure government use.

Access to this environment required rigorous background checks at the state and federal level for each Fynydd development team member. And the subset of SharePoint functionality offered by ITAR made building in the environment a challenge. In addition, some of our work required travel to meet with the OST team in Washington D.C.

Some of the key details of the project include:

  • Custom SharePoint ITAR environment for U.S. Department of Justice; heavily secured.
  • Integrated metrics, division and branch directories, blogs, self-help support features.
  • Alerts and system status mechanisms.
  • Custom email templates and delivery systems
  • Integrations with other directorate systems and coordination with other directorates
  • On-site coordination in the Washington D.C. office for the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

C#

Github

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft Windows

SQL Server

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

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