VEDP — Web Portal Centralizing Operations
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) serves as the state's authority for economic development, collaborating with local, regional, and state entities to draw in new businesses and support current ones through services like site selection, workforce training, and international trade. The Challenge VEDP’s operations relied on a variety of disconnected tools, spreadsheets, and independent applications. Client information, project data, and employee records were fragmented across different systems without a centralized source of truth. This led to the need for manual reconciliation for timesheets, payroll, design requests, class schedules, attendance, and deliverables. As a result, leadership lacked a clear overview of team activities related to client services. They sought a comprehensive platform tailored to their specific operations instead of an off-the-shelf product that would force them to alter their processes. The Solution We developed a custom .NET web application that served as VEDP's internal control center. The minimum viable product (MVP) was delivered within 6–8 months, integrating their disparate workflows into a single platform that addressed clients, personnel management, timesheets, payroll, design requests, class scheduling, attendance, and deliverables. A crucial architectural decision was to treat the portal as a continually evolving platform rather than a one-off solution. We have remained involved as VEDP's ongoing development partner, implementing new pages and features as their operational requirements change. The Impact Currently, within the platform, VEDP oversees: "Their project management was thoughtful and efficient, and their technical expertise was clear every step." — Mike Grundmann, VEDP