CQ Web Platform

Cultural Intelligence Center

The Cultural Intelligence Center is finding new ways to help companies create culturally-intelligent teams.

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MESSA and its design logo are marks owned by Michigan Education Special Services Association, registered in the U.S.
CQC’s new web platform expands their product offering, dramatically improves their customers’ online experience, and is bringing in new revenue.

The Cultural Intelligence Center (CQC) assesses and trains people in cultural intelligence (CQ)—the capability to relate and work effectively in culturally-diverse situations. It was founded by MSU researchers and serves businesses, universities, government agencies, and non-profits.

CQC’s original online assessment tool was difficult to use and had limited payment options. It was also hard to customize, requiring custom code for each new client or specialized test.

CQC asked Atomic to build a replacement. The Atomic team also studied CQC’s workflow and created tools to automate it.

The new mobile-responsive platform:

  • Leads users through accurate, secure assessments and generates beautiful PDF reports
  • Compiles group data into graphs and reports
  • Allows admins to easily customize assessments and reports
  • Is internationalized, allowing CQC to offer services in 5 different languages and easily add more.
The original goal was to rebuild the existing tool with better functionality and security. But over the course of the project, the platform became a hub for our business in general.

Keyla Waslawski, Manager Operations

Coordinating Stakeholders

In addition to team members Grand Rapids and Atomic Object, this project brought together lots of different groups. Having this many cooks in the kitchen required a lot of coordination and a complex project schedule that balanced several timelines and sets of constraints.
Recycling data from the GR Public Services Department
Dozens of vendors with rewards of various sizes, types, and durations — recruited and coordinated by Local First
The myGRcitypoints information website, created by The Image Shoppe

Technical Specs

Atomic designed the system architecture and wrote software and firmware for:

Custom Protocol
Reduces required bandwidth and handle collisions, allowing reliable transfer of a high volume of information through RF and cellular communications back to the data collection service.
Gateway Devices
Each is a Technologic TS 7800 single-board computer with a custom RF receiver. They run a combination of C and Ruby on an embedded Linux system.
Web App
A JRuby on Rails application using an Oracle database that deploys to IBM Websphere.

Online Learning

The new platform also integrates with Bridge Learn to offer e-learning. Participants can improve their CQ via videos and articles, and the system can customize curriculum based on the student’s CQ scores.

Previously, all training came from in-person facilitators. The new system is more affordable and easier for companies who want on-demand training.

Results

  • The new platform expanded CQC’s product offering and customer base.
  • In its first 4 months, more than 10,000 new people used the portal.
  • CQC is now able to offer training services on demand.
  • The tool significantly lowers administrative overhead with smart automation.
There’s no question the platform is already performing at the rate of $1 million in annualized revenue. And it’s been such a smooth process. Existing users have gone out of their way to tell us how much they love it.
Mike Knox, Senior Vice President

Results

Atomic provided web app development for the CQ platform using Ruby on Rails for the user-facing app and Active Admin for the internal employee tool.

The Atomic Team

Here are some of our current Atoms who worked on this project. Click their photo to read their bios!

Project domain(s)

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Services provided

Software Product Design
System Architecture
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Software Development
User Testing
Exploratory Testing
Deployment

Tools used

Ruby on Rails
Active Admin
Twitter Bootstrap
PostgreSQL
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