Case Study

Foreign-Language Territory Manager

A non-profit's volunteers were working from printed sheets that were out of date the moment they were handed out. One month later, every volunteer had the same up-to-date system on their phone, in English and French.

Talk to us

All our work

The short version

What changed for the business

The problem

Volunteers coordinating French-language outreach were managing territories, addresses, and return visits on spreadsheets and printed sheets. Sheets went stale, two people would visit the same door, and coordinators had no overall picture.

What we built

A coordinator dashboard for the web plus phone apps for iPhone and Android, all sharing one set of data, working in English and French, and locked down so only invited people can get in.

What changed

Every volunteer now carries the current list in their pocket. Return visits don't get lost, partners can share addresses without confusion, and coordinators can see everything at once. Designed, built, and launched in one month.

4 weeks

From idea to launch

Places it runs: web, iPhone, Android

Languages: English and French

100%

Of records protected the way a bank protects yours

The challenge

Field work that paper couldn't keep up with

A non-profit coordinating French-language community outreach needed to manage territories, addresses, and return visits across many volunteers — work that had outgrown spreadsheets and printed sheets.

They needed one secure system that worked the way their volunteers actually do: in the field, on a phone, in both English and French — with administrators able to see and organize everything from a single dashboard. So we built it, custom, end to end.

What we built

One system, three places to use it

A dashboard for coordinators and an app for every volunteer's phone, all showing the same information at the same time.

Coordinator dashboard

Where coordinators manage territories, addresses, volunteers, and special campaigns from any browser, with nothing to install.

iPhone app

Every territory, address, and return visit in a volunteer's pocket, always in sync with the dashboard, in English and French.

Android app

The same tool for volunteers on Android, with everything the iPhone app does, light and dark mode, and a clear signal when you're offline.

On every device

Fully bilingual, in the field and on the web

Real screens from the iPhone and Android apps volunteers use for territories, addresses, and return visits.

On iPhone

Capabilities

Built around how the work really happens

Territories on a live map

Check a territory out, work it, check it back in, with progress tracking and a map of color-coded address pins.

Addresses

Mark each address (worked, return visit, do not call, language), log the outcome of a visit in one tap, and see the full history.

Return visits

A personal, always-current list of people to go back to, with notes from past conversations and directions to the door.

Share with a partner

Hand a few addresses to a partner and take them back when they're done, with no confusion about who has what.

Special campaigns

When a campaign starts, the whole system switches over, tracks it separately, and switches back when it ends.

Name lookup

A quick lookup suggests the likely language behind a surname, so volunteers find French speakers faster.

Print when you need to

Clean, printable territory sheets and return-visit lists, ready to share or print from any device.

Fully bilingual

Every screen works in English and French, switchable any time, and several groups can share one sign-in.

Timeline

One month, idea to launch

A focused four weeks: listen, build, test, launch.

Week 1

Listening

We sat with the non-profit and mapped how volunteers actually work in the field, then wrote it down as a plain plan.

Weeks 2–3

Building

Built the dashboard and both phone apps at the same time, in English and French from day one.

Week 4

Testing and launch

Tested it end to end, locked it down, and published it to the web and both app stores.

Privacy and protection

Private by design, protected like a bank

This system holds a real community's information, so protecting it wasn't an add-on. It was the foundation.

Locked down like a bank's website

Every record is protected while it travels and while it's stored, using the same methods banks use.

Invitation only

Nobody can sign themselves up. Coordinators create every account, and the data stays inside the organization.

Nothing to maintain

Runs online and is available anywhere, with no server in a closet and nothing for the non-profit to keep updated.

Tech notesfor the technically curious

Most of our clients never ask. If you're the kind of person who does, here's what's under the hood.

Dashboard: A React web portal for coordinators, hosted on AWS.
Back end: A Fastify API on AWS with Amazon Cognito for invitation-only sign-in and PostgreSQL for data, encrypted in transit and at rest.
Phone apps: Native iOS (SwiftUI) and Android (Kotlin, Material You) apps with full feature parity and offline awareness.
Languages: A single translation registry drives every screen in English and French, built to add more.

Is your team still workingfrom printed sheets?

Volunteers, crews, sales reps, inspectors: if people in the field need the same up-to-date list, this is the shape of the fix. Tell us how your work runs.

Talk to us

See more work