The Impact
Customers cite arvato's international presence and financial stability as competitive advantage
Ruby on Rails is a native web framework that allows quicker development cycles.
Ruby's similarity to English eases knowledge transfer between team members and organizations
Fewer lines of code directly correlate to lower maintenance cost
Ruby on Rails, or "Rails" for short, is a framework specifically intended for rapid web development. An enthusiastic community of the best and brightest minds in web development has sprung up to support this Open Source technology. arvato was an early adopter and one of the largest development teams in New York to have built a practice group in Ruby on Rails. Our customers cite arvato's worldwide presence and the financial stability provided by the backing of 170-year-old Bertelsmann AG as primary reasons in choosing arvato as their Ruby on Rails developer. Rails is now seeing acceptance in large companies such as The New York Times, Google, IBM and Apple.
From a business perspective, Rails has several distinct advantages:
Rapid Development
Rails is a platform intended specifically for the web. When beginning a development effort with Ruby on Rails, an underlying assumption is made that the programming being done is for a website. This simple assumption eliminates much of the overhead a coding team encounters when doing configuration before beginning to build. The arvato team is able to start generating real work product almost right away, without the burden of setup and configuration required in certain enterprise environments.
Our Ruby on Rails projects use an iterative approach, where working models are reviewed and modified based upon testing and feedback. Combined with arvato's agile project management methodology, this allows us to incorporate emerging requirements from our clients and react quickly to changes in the business environment.
Ease of knowledge retention and transfer
Ruby, the language used in the Ruby on Rails pairing, is very similar to English. Because the code can be easily read and understood, the job of transitioning code between team members becomes much simpler. Most programming languages are reliant upon a best practice known as "commenting," notes written within the code body to explain the intent of the original author. In such cases where commenting is missing or code is very complex, much time is spent studying the previous work before undertaking changes to the website. A programmer viewing previously-written Ruby code can readily understand its underlying purpose. Our clients immediately see the benefits: their project can be ramped up or down with minimal disruption to workflow, while keeping their long term options open. As the website moves into maintenance mode, the client may decide to transition their website to an internal team, without worrying about their investment being devalued by knowledge loss.
what our customers say...
arvato is an absolute joy to work with. We are very excited with the rapid success of our website. We have had full faith in arvato systems North America from start to finish; they did a fantastic job on this project
Robert Tolmach, President - 
Lower cost to operate
Rails allows programmers to accomplish the same work, while writing less actual lines of code, than the most popular languages in use today. There are two benefits to having a smaller code base. The first and obvious one is in time saved by the arvato team during the initial build, which equates to money saved by the client. The second benefit is slightly less obvious: a smaller code base has a direct correlation to a site's Total Cost of Operation.
Following site launch, most clients choose to continue adding features and making changes to take advantage of situational learning that comes from being in contact with the end user. Whether the user base is public or internal, great new ideas are always generated once the site is in use. As our clients undertake the enhancement and revision process, they begin to experience the benefits of more concise code. They find that the efficiency of Ruby on Rails programming also saves time and money in subsequent phases where editing is the focus of the work.
If you find this topic interesting and would like to learn more, we highly recommend the book of our friend and colleague, Bruce Tate, From Java to Ruby. We had the pleasure of working closely with Bruce on ChangingThePresent.org.
If you are wondering whether Ruby on Rails is right for your team, please contact us to discuss your project in detail.