The RiteTrack Challenge is an annual contest for Handel employees to use the RiteTrack framework to build functionality that is creative and not currently a part of RiteTrack. This was the third annual challenge, and one of our most successful and innovative contests yet.
In previous years the judges were from Handel which made choosing only one winner very difficult. Indeed, the prize was split among all entries in previous years. However, this year Handel invited professionals from the Laramie community to sit on a panel and evaluate the submissions. This year’s judges were
These men were tasked with identifying a clear winner of the challenge which was no easy feat. The scoring for a winner was based on 5 criteria:
- Innovation and creativity
- Integration with 3rd party software/hardware
- Commercial application
- How does it differ from standard RiteTrack
- Overall presentation and business concept
Without further ado, let’s explore the entries.
Team 1—GameTrack—Gaming Console in the Cloud
Referencing Lego® blocks, Sam Foust and Luis Garcia, software developers at Handel, created a gaming module for RiteTrack 5 that can be easily attached. This new module featured the ability to integrate a game created specifically for RiteTrack 5, a game integrated from an outside source and 
hardware to enable the use of a controller. The developers built in functionality for the controller could be configured in many ways—which would suit the user’s preference.
“Online access is a big part because you can get it anywhere, anytime and have all the benefits of online data storage,” said Garcia.
The newly-developed system uses Handel’s database to store information about users, including scores, profiles and game configurations. The use of modules potentially can expand this product to include different controllers and games. All of the game information is stored in the cloud and its database, so it is accessible anywhere any time.
While the developers may have thought the only use for this would be for “downtime,” the President and CEO of Handel saw bigger possibilities. “The gaming solution I can truly see integrating with our planned assessment module,” said Even Brande, President and CEO.
Team 2—RiteTrack Ticket—Ticket Management
The second team was comprised of Evan Binder, the IT Manager, and Jon Lishman, a Customer Solutions Engineer. These two built on the progress that Handel has already made this year and expanded it to streamline both internal and external communication to remedy issues.
While a common feature of an organization implementing a RiteTrack system is the elimination of 
fragmented information, this project extended the capability of RiteTrack to integrate multiple issue-tracking systems, also.
“This is one system for customers, developers, support and IT,” said Binder.
So they created a more effective ticket system. The term “ticket” refers to the ability to document system bugs, report problems and track resolution of issues. In this new system built off of the new, web-based RiteTrack 5, a user can create tickets and a specialist can work on a resolution for the problem and then close tickets for documentation that the issue has been resolved. In addition, once tickets have been entered into the system, a user or administrator can create reports on the tickets and, the system also includes the ability to assign and report daily tasks for users.
The way the system was designed gives users the ability to have organization-wide communication with all parties that need to be involved kept involved and up-to-date. This system, if implemented, would connect all of Handel’s customers to its internal departments with a unified system.
Amazingly, Lishman was able to use this same system structure to create a lunch-order-tracking system, too.
Team 3—RiteTrack 5 Dynamic Import—Standardizing Data Imports from Various Software
One of Handel’s Deployment Specialists and the winner of the contest, Ben Sims, observed that while RiteTrack 5 was modular and it was simple to mix and match the pieces as a customer would like, importing data from a customer’s previous system is not as simple.
“A data system is only as good as the data that’s in it,” Sims said.
Sims created a Dynamic Import Tool that would allow Handel and its customers to build dynamic, reusable imports from almost any data source into the standard structures in RiteTrack 5.
This new piece of functionality created a way to reuse much of the custom validation and insertion from custom imports into RiteTrack 5 for future use which will decrease the time that Handel’s software developers and deployment specialists spend on creating custom imports for each customer.
This import piece would allow Handel to offer a tool in RiteTrack 5 for data imports from common software including:
- Legacy software
- Microix
- Gmail™ webmail service or Outlook™
- Government databases
- Quickbooks®
- Other office productivity software
It also would provide customers who run frequent imports to only be charged a minimal amount (e.g. per record) for those imports, and new customers would not have to ante up for custom integrations. This feature would snap into the RiteTrack 5 modular system to give Handel’s customers consistent data integrity and reduced work load on both customer and Handel employees.
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