AppsAnywhere is a company dedicated to enhancing software delivery in the education sector. Founded in 2009 as Software2, the company rebranded to AppsAnywhere in 2022 to align with its flagship product. Their platform enables educational institutions to provide students, faculty, and staff with seamless access to software applications on any device, anywhere, and at any time.
We took over, stabilised and enhanced the AppsAnywhere platform, resulting in:
Our client had developed AppsAnywhere, a specialised desktop app for Windows and Mac that lets university students access educational tools without individual installations.
Used by over 2 million students, it served as a key resource for many institutions.
Initially developed by freelance developers in Eastern Europe, the app lacked structured development and consistent focus, leading to the following challenges:
Adding to the challenge was the app’s niche tech stack, making it hard to find a development partner who could maintain, improve, and scale it effectively.
To overcome these obstacles, AppsAnywhere reached out to GoodCore to take over the project and supplement their existing development team through our IT staff augmentation services.
The project entailed the following requirements:
We followed a structured process to ensure a smooth transition and steady progress:
We began with a comprehensive code audit to understand the application’s architecture, identify flaws in the deployment pipeline, and uncover potential risks.
Due to the lack of documentation and limited support from the original freelance developers, we worked closely with the client’s CTO over a two-month period to gradually take full ownership of the codebase.
To manage the technical complexity, we assigned two dedicated desktop application developers to the project, with strategic oversight from our VP of Engineering.
Our team adopted the Agile methodology, breaking down the project into three-week sprints to deliver incremental improvements, prioritise critical fixes, and respond quickly to feedback.
Through close collaboration and technical refinement, we delivered significant improvements that enhanced performance and elevated the end-user experience:
We addressed memory management issues, optimised inter-process communication, and refactored parts of the codebase that were causing bottlenecks. Key improvements included better error handling, logging enhancements for quicker debugging, and patching stability issues across both Windows and macOS builds. These changes significantly reduced crash reports and improved the reliability of the app in live environments.
Previously managed manually, the release process for both Windows and macOS versions of the AppsAnywhere client was time-consuming and error-prone. We automated the entire build and release pipeline, reducing manual effort, minimising human error, and improving overall release efficiency.
We revamped the setup experience to eliminate end-user friction. The system now auto-detects existing installations, upgrading outdated versions or installing the client from scratch, all without requiring any user intervention, resulting in a smoother and more intuitive onboarding process.
To ensure optimal performance for resource-intensive apps, we developed a system that automatically detects the user’s hardware specifications. These are validated against predefined requirements, allowing only compatible applications to be delivered, ensuring a better user experience and efficient use of system resources.
We think of them as a part of our team. They’re very hands-on, are always involved in conversations, and are available to work through everything with us because they are like an extension of our team.
James McNab, Manager
AppsAnywhere
The desktop app is now fully stabilised and runs reliably without crashes, delivering a consistent and seamless experience to end users.
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