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Submitted By Agency Partner –  Echobind

Meet Annex--The First Commercial Platform of Its Kind

O'Neil Software, a leader in record storage center solutions, partnered with Echobind to create Annex, a groundbreaking e-commerce platform that revolutionizes how individuals find and engage with record management services. The platform transforms the traditionally pen-and-paper industry by connecting consumers directly with storage facilities, creating new revenue streams for record centers while eliminating their need for heavy marketing investments. This innovative marketplace not only maintains O'Neil Software's existing client relationships but also opens up untapped opportunities in the industry. The development of Annex involved sophisticated technical solutions and thoughtful design considerations. Built using modern tools like Turborepo, Next.js, and GraphQL, the platform features responsive web design, seamless payment processing through Stripe, and a robust content management system that enables non-technical team members to update content independently. The collaboration between Echobind and O'Neil Software's teams resulted in a user-friendly interface that includes custom pages for content management, personalized shopping experiences, comprehensive account management features, and an integrations marketplace, all while overcoming challenges such as API integration and cross-platform compatibility requirements.

Project Overview

Echobind's Work on Annex:

O’Neil Software, specializing in software solutions for record storage centers, partnered with Echobind to develop Annex — a first-of-its-kind e-commerce platform to amplify the reach of local record centers and transform how individuals find businesses to handle off-site record management.

The Opportunity

O’Neil Software’s existing system adeptly manages record centers’ client data and inventory, but they saw an untapped opportunity: create a marketplace.

A consumer-facing e-commerce model had yet to be created in the industry. So they thought, “What if we pivot everything on its head and go after the real customers of storage: The everyday user, and not simply warehouses?”

This creates a largely-untapped opportunity for an e-commerce spin on what is traditionally a very pen-and-paper acquisition model. Annex was conceptualized to bridge this gap, offering a platform for record centers (existing O’Neil Software clients) to advertise services and enabling consumers to easily purchase storage space for physical files and media services. Attracting new customers to long-term storage contracts with new record centers allows record centers to secure new recurring revenue over time without heavy advertising and marketing costs, and Annex benefits from that by being the majority provider of services to that network.

And just like that, an entire industry was made instantly more accessible and user-friendly.

Echobind Solution: Consumer-facing e-commerce web application

The O’Neil Software team enlisted Echobind’s expertise in designing and building a modern, user-friendly interface for Annex. The platform not only solidified O’Neil Software’s customer retention but also opened new revenue streams for record centers.

Key annex.com Features:

  • Responsive Web Application: The initial release features a responsive web design, with plans for major mobile app development in the very near future.

  • Tools & Technologies: Utilization of modern tools such as Turborepo, Next.js, Directus, GraphQL, Tailwind, Expo, Nativewind, tRPC, Storybook, Tailwind Variants.

  • Payment Integration: Incorporation of Stripe for seamless payment processing.

  • Innovative Backend: Integration with internal APIs using tRPC for stable and efficient production deployments.

    • Backend development involved connecting to their internal API and using tRPC to automatically set up the types to connect to both the Directus GraphQL API that we were using and the internal Annex API. Having stable and defined types and endpoints that were consistent and predictable allowed for issues to be found very early in the development process, resulting in very stable production deployments requiring zero rollbacks after deploy.

    • The Annex team's adoption of Directus enables non-technical members, especially in marketing, to independently manage and update website content without coding, enhancing responsiveness to market changes and reducing reliance on the technical team for regular content updates.

  • Frontend Excellence: A mix of web and mobile interfaces, focusing on cross-platform compatibility and reusability.

    • Frontend was a mixed web and mobile interface utilizing Storybook, Expo, Nativewind, Tailwind, and Tailwind Variants for cross-platform "build once" functionality. Any components designed to be shared across web and mobile were built to be independent of any platform-specific needs and thus reusable.

The Design:

Echobind conducted rapid-iteration workshops, resulting in swift and effective design outcomes. Real-time decision making and feedback facilitated rapid validation with the team. During the discovery workshop, the O’Neil Software and Echobind teams identified additional requirements:

  • Content outline: The Annex team internally crafted an initial design wherein they delineated the content they deemed crucial for their company. This served as an initial blueprint for the website's content.

  • Content Management System: The Annex team required the capability to control, update, and create new content for their business.

  • E-commerce element: Clients needed the ability to shop for storage goods, find and select storing vendors, agree to service agreements, enter payment details, and check out.

  • Account management: Users needed to be able to view and manage their orders, stored goods, invoices, order statuses, review vendors, and manage other users.

  • Integrations marketplace: A library of software that can easily connect to the Annex software to enhance the user's experience.

The design solution to these requirements included:

  • Custom pages and elements for easy content management, eliminating the need for extensive design efforts from the Annex team

  • Modules that can be personalized with content by the client, enabling them to create future pages and update existing content conveniently

  • A personalized shopping experience integrating the purchase of goods, vendor selection, and service agreements seamlessly

  • A user portal enabling account management, viewing of order statuses, documents, and managing authorized users

  • A marketplace showcasing logos, providing information, and offering a selection of external solutions to fulfill diverse client needs

Impact & Future Prospects

While it’s early to measure the full impact, Annex’s launch has been successful with significant marketing efforts underway. The initial release includes a responsive web application, with future expansions to include a mobile application, and other software integrations.

O’Neil Software and Echobind’s collaboration in developing Annex resulted in a significant leap in e-commerce for the record storage industry, showcasing Echobind’s ability to deliver innovative, robust, and user-friendly software solutions.

The Process

Echobind faced and overcame several challenges:

  • Integrating with existing APIs: O’Neil Software has an existing API that provides a lot of the data and information necessary to build the e-commerce platform for Annex.

  • Collaborating with a split-team of varying areas of expertise: For this project Echobind developers teamed up with Annex developers to jointly architect and build code for annex.com.

  • Building a platform suitable for both web and future mobile integration: The Annex team wanted something built that would be ready for mobile and responsive web equally, but were not ready to build the mobile application. This resulted in some tricky scenarios where components had to be built specifically to exclude mobile as a deployment target due to those paradigms being unsupported or inappropriate for mobile devices.

  • Customizing code for missing standard web infrastructures: A lot of standard web buildouts/assumptions did not exist, like an existing CDN for asset caching and optimizations, requiring the Echobind and Annex teams to devise more complex workarounds.