KSB 1.6 — How to justify the value of technology investments and apply benefits

Situation

At 100AND10% the development workflow and technology stack were shaped by the agency’s historical focus on WordPress projects. Code management was informal and new internal product ideas, such as the Client_2’s application, were initially planned as WordPress plugins. This approach risked limiting scalability and the ability to deliver more complex software systems for clients, while limiting our own ability to more effectively monetise them.

Task

My responsibility was twofold. First, I needed to evaluate and recommend improvements to the company’s development workflow by identifying a suitable version control platform that could support collaborative development and reduce operational risks associated with informal code management.

Second, I needed to assess the technical feasibility of the JettsOS concept and advise on an appropriate technology architecture. This involved determining whether the system should be developed within the existing WordPress ecosystem or as a standalone application framework capable of supporting a more complex operational platform that could be expanded on later in reponse to client needs.

Action

I produced a proposal recommending the adoption of GitHub Pro as the company’s primary version control platform, comparing it against self-hosted Git infrastructure and demonstrating that a managed platform would provide collaboration tools, CI/CD capabilities, and secure code management for a relatively low monthly cost.

At the same time, during discussions about the JettsOS concept, I recommended building the platform as a Laravel application rather than a WordPress plugin. This decision was justified on the basis of scalability, security, database flexibility, and the ability to develop a structured application architecture rather than forcing complex operational workflows into a CMS plugin environment. This was not outside of 100and10%‘s capabilities, as Laravel being PHP based and highly opinionated would make it easier to learn for WordPress developers.

Result

These recommendations demonstrated how targeted technology investments can deliver long-term value for an organisation. Adopting a professional version control platform improves development reliability and collaboration, while selecting an appropriate application framework for Client_2’s application ensures the system can scale into a full software product. Together these decisions support the company’s strategic goal of moving beyond simple website development toward more advanced software solutions, opening up the possibility of developing the application into a fully-fledged SaaS in time, or even a single-tenant appliction that we can copy clone to new servers as we sell it to new clients.