Social network for senior citizens on drupal case study

©2014 Faichi Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Social Media Innovation for the ‘Young at Heart’

How Faichi developed a Product idea into a Web application

©2014 Faichi Solutions Pvt. Ltd. 2

About our Client

• The idea of building a social network for Senior Citizens i.e. Sentizens.com is conceptualized by Zlife Systems Pvt. Ltd. and supported by one of the renowned builders of India, ‘Paranjpe Schemes Constructions Ltd’. This is an extension to their unique initiative i.e. ‘Athashri’.

• Athashri is one of its kind housing projects where the structure, design and facilities are built keeping the convenience of senior people in mind. There are several Athashri societies in Pune and the new centers being launched in Coimbatore, Baroda & Chennai.


Problem: Demographic overlooked

• Citizens who are 55+ years and older are changing all over the world. They areliving longer, are more active, and becoming increasingly literate online. There arecurrently 39 million people aged 55 and older using Facebook, Twitter, and Skype,making them the fastest growing age demographic on these sites. Unfortunately,none of the current social networking sites cater to specific needs of SeniorCitizens.

• Currently in India alone, there are 98Million people who are 60+ which will rise toaround 173Miliion by 2026 i.e. 12.6% of the Indian population. With thesenumbers in mind, our client wanted to build a dedicated social networkingplatform that focusses on the holistic living needs of senior citizens.


Faichi Solution

• Together with our client, we chose Drupal 7 as the Open source technology tobuild this social networking platform. Initially it was a big challenge to understandand customize the site as per the senior people’s needs, with client’s inputs andour expertise in Drupal Development; we were able to rapidly create this uniquewebsite.

• The major requirement was to develop a social platform for senior citizens wherethey can share, collaborate, learn and avail variety of one stop services with afocus on holistic living. Some of these needs are:

Articles & Classes on yoga & fitness. Contacts of doctors, specialists & emergency services

Sharing memories, posts, photos & thoughts. Engage in Groups

Articles & Services on Travel destinations. Reminders for travel dates & document information

Articles & Services on financial services. Reminders for payments & documents

Articles, Groups & Camps info on wellness programs

Articles ClassesGroups


Faichi Solution

• Time to Market is of the essence. In order to speed things up we used Drupal Commons 3 for prebuilt applications and adopted Drupal modules like Panels Ajax tabs to show today’s and upcoming events

• Performance of the site was a prerequisite due to the anticipated huge traffic flow on the site.

• We used Drupal modules Memcache & XHPr and increased RAM to handle more requests.Faichi team developed new Drupal modules for customised features like Advance clock to show clocks of different time zones & Multiple Skype plugin to display contacts and their user status

• Faichi deployed a dedicated team of 6 resources including designer, developers, QA & Project manager


Outcome – Sentizens.comAfter an accelerated journey of requirement gathering, development & testing, one highly interactive yet user friendly social networking platformfor senior citizens came to life i.e. www.sentizens.com

Special features:

• Login using existing Facebook account • Option to increase Font size • Event reminders as default setting • Configured Skype contacts • Clocks of different time zones • Store contacts and information • Relevant articles on health, finance etc.• Services in proximity to society• Posting, Liking, Sharing, Join Groups

http://www.sentizens.com/


Faichi Difference

• Core strength in Drupal development allowed us to successfully build the platform in Drupal 7. It helped the client to launch beta version faster & reduce time to market

• Used Agile Methodology for development, enabling better collaboration and quick delivery.

• Synergizing with the client in scaling up the business model through phase wise development, ongoing support & Mobile App conceptualization (next step).


Client Speak

“When we were looking for companies to develop software portal, we made it clear thatwe are looking for a development ‘partner’ and not just a vendor. Faichi Solutions wasone of the very few companies which understood this and has been working with us in apartner mode since. Being a newly formed startup, we wanted to focus on thefunctionality, services and the business growth. Having a reliable partner like Faichi gaveus a chance to focus on the business aspect, rather than getting tied down by softwaredevelopment.”

Mr. Sudhir Alekar, a true technology visionary who holds over 25 years of experience in softwareproduct development as well business development in USA, Europe and India. He held engineering aswell as management positions in technology leading companies in USA including Oracle, Oblix andRedBrick Systems. Most recently, he has worked as the Senior VP (Business Development) at PersistentSystems Ltd., India.

- Sudhir Alekar, CEO and Co-founder, Sentizens.com


About Faichi Solutions

We are a technology company in Pune, India specializing in outsourced product engineering & setting up offshore development centers

We hold expertise in technologies such as Drupal, Java, Mobile and UI/UX development

Established in 2009, with a vision to transform the outsourced product engineering landscape through technical excellence and delivery model innovation

Faichi Solutions has successfully delivered some of the most complex technology projects through partner collaboration & agile processes


http://www.faichi.com/partners




To read more case studies of Faichi Solutions, please visit:

www.faichi.com/success-stories

For more information please visit: www.faichi.com or mail us at

[email protected]

USA India

Faichi Solutions Inc Faichi Solutions Pvt. Ltd. 2023 Mandelay Pl 504, Accord IT Park, Baner Road,

San Jose, CA 95138 Pune, Maharashtra – 411045 Tel: +1 (408) 769-4941 Tel: +91-20-65291435


http://www.faichi.com/success-stories



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Social network for senior citizens on drupal case study