A member of the HHW Group USA Alliance
- Case study · Restaurant franchise operations · Takeover and stabilise
Subsource
One system for hiring, scheduling, payroll and inspections across hundreds of franchise stores
Industry: Quick service restaurant franchising, USA
Engagement: 6 months Type : took overan existing platform, stabilised it, added features
The problem
Hundreds of stores, thousands of staff, and a platform that had been left in a bad state
Subsource is the day to day system for multi location restaurant franchise operators, built first for Subway owners with a branded version for Burger King. Field managers clock in and out of stores by GPS, run inspections on their phone, and file reports. Owners hire through it, onboard new staff with e-signed paperwork and background checks, build schedules, and push hours to payroll.
We did not build it from scratch. We inherited it from a previous team with 35 plus background services, a backlog of bugs, and field managers who did not trust the GPS. Our job was to stop the bleeding, fix the things people complained about most, and then keep shipping new features while the platform stayed up. This case study is about that kind of work, which is most of what a growing company actually needs.
Key Capabilities
What an owner and a field manager do in it every day.
Staff records and payroll export
Hiring: job boards to signed offer
GPS clock in at the right store
Store inspections on a phone
Reports that send themselves
Territories and store mapping
Scheduling and staff messages
One dashboard for every store
What it looks like
Four screens from the product
Under the hood
What it runs on
A Microsoft stack we inherited and kept. Part of the job was proving we could work well inside someone else’s choices rather than rewriting everything.
Frontend
- Angular admin portal
- React Native mobile app for field managers (iOS and Android)
Backend
- ASP.NET C# REST APIs
- 35 plus background worker services
Database
- Microsoft SQL Server
Integrations
- DocuSign e-signatures
- Paychex payroll
- Indeed job posting / E-Verify background checks / SMS and email
Cloud & Hosting
- Microsoft Azure / Azure DevOps pipelines
- RevPush mobile releases / Sentry error monitoring
Inherited a platform nobody wants to touch?
We take over live systems from previous teams,stabilise them, and keep shipping. Start with a short paid code audit so you know what you actually have.
What made it hard
Two kinds of hard: the business, and the code we inherited
Franchise owners were running hiring, scheduling, payroll and inspections across separate tools and spreadsheets. The platform meant to fix that had itself become a problem: field managers were being clocked into the wrong store, reports and emails went out twice, and integrations broke every time a partner changed something.
For the franchise owner
Business challenges
What owners and field managers were living with:
- Hiring, scheduling, payroll and inspections in separate tools
- Compliance tracked by hand across many stores
- Hours lost each week on staff admin
- Field managers clocked into the wrong store
- Reports and emails arriving twice
- Owners doing admin instead of running stores
Engineering
Technical Challenges
What we found when we opened the code:
- Integrations that broke whenever Paychex, Indeed or DocuSign changed
- Store coordinates that were duplicated, zero, or missing
- 35 plus background services with no clear owner
- Duplicate clock in records and duplicate reports
- Scheduled reports that sometimes did not run
- Mobile releases done by hand, with no error monitoring
How we approached it
Stabilise first, then build
Taking over a live platform is a different job fromm building one. The order matters: understand it, stop the daily pain, make releases safe, then add what the business is asking for.
Map what we inherited
We documented every background service, integration and data flow before touching anything, and agreed with the client which problems mattered most to the people using the app
- Service inventory
- Integration map
- anked bug list
- Weekly standup with the client
- STEP 01
Fix the GPS clock in
The most hated bug. We traced it to the store data itself: duplicate coordinates, zero coordinates and missing ones. Re geocoded every store with Google’s paid API and rebuilt the store to territory mapping from the client’s live master sheet.
- Location data audit
- Google geocoding
- Territory rebuild
- Edge case log
- STEP 02
Stop the duplicates
Duplicate clock ins, reports and emails came from background services stepping on each other. We added idempotency checks and clear ownership so each job runs once and can be traced.
- Idempotent jobs
- Service ownership
- Run logs
- Alerting on failure
- STEP 03
Make releases safe
Mobile updates had been manual. We moved to RevPush for over the air releases, added Sentry so errors reach us before users complain, and Azure DevOps pipeline / Apple CI/CD status
- Over the air mobile releases
- Error monitoring
- Build pipelines
- Staging before production
- STEP 04
Then build what was asked for
With the platform stable, we delivered new work: e.g. Fresh Insights transition, hotel labour and time management module, other features.
- Audit Logging
- Share Tracking
- Password Policies
- Tenant Lifecycle
- STEP 05
Problems on the way
Five things that were broken, and what we did
None of these needed a rewrite. All of them needed someone to look properly.
Managers clocked into the wrong store
Solution
Audited the store location table, found duplicate, zero and missing coordinates, re geocoded with Google's paid API, and rebuilt territories from the master sheet.
Result
The large majority of GPS complaints stopped. A handful of edge cases with identical addresses remain logged and known.
Reports and emails sent twice
Solution
Found overlapping background services firing the same job. Added checks so each job runs once and logs that it did.
Result
Duplicate reports and emails stopped.
Integrations broke without warning
Solution
Wrapped each partner integration (Paychex, Indeed, DocuSign, E-Verify) with monitoring and clear failure messages, so a partner change shows up as an alert, not as a support ticket a week later.
Result
Failures are seen the same day and fixed before owners notice.
Nobody knew when the app crashed
Solution
Added Sentry error monitoring to the mobile app and APIs, and moved mobile updates to over the air releases.
Result
Crashes reach the team with a stack trace instead of a phone call from a field manager
A team that had never seen the code
Solution
Documented every service, integration and data flow, and ran a weekly standup with the client's team with written minutes, decisions and owners.
Result
A platform another team could pick up tomorrow, which is the real test of a takeover.
- Where it stands
Subsource went from a platform people worked around to one they use. The GPS problem that generated the most complaints is fixed, duplicates are gone, releases are safe, and new features are shipping again.
~70%
Reduction in query execution time
Feedback
Hear it from our clients
Feedback
Our Clients’ Success Stories
Check What’s Our Client Say About Us
The project went well, the team was professional and got up to speed quickly on the work and performed effectively. They help us get the project back on track and now we are in a good position. I will definitely use them in the future for subsequent tasks as they arise. I recommend them and look forward to working with them again in the future!
Jonathan Torleson
I approached Sunil to assist me with a specific part of a project. His quick understanding of the project and clear technical skill and proficiency resulted in his involvement growing into a lead role. Will definitely be working with again in the future.
Adam New
Rajvjay and his team delivered exactly what they promised on time and within budget. They handled every requirement with great care, and I have to say, they're true masters of process. I actually learned a lot about Agile practices and tools like Jira and Trello from them. I'd highly recommend this team to anyone who values a structured, process-driven approach for smooth and efficient project delivery.
Shivangi
Working with Arun has been a great experience! The team is very knowledgeable and has provided several design and product enhancement ideas along the way. I highly recommend!
Gil Comeaux
Sunil showed strong technical knowledge and delivered high-quality work. Communication was clear, deadlines were met, and they handled all tasks professionally. I would be happy to work with them again
Adam New
The RAPROD team sincerely appreciates the work delivered during the development phase. The contractor played an important role in building the core platform and helping establish a stable functional foundation with the current feature set. Their responsiveness, technical capability, and ability to execute on requirements contributed meaningfully to the project’s progress.
Mitesh Shetty
My second engagement with the WebAtlas team was just as great as the first. I handed off a very large codebase to them to take over from a previous developer, which was in a broken state, and they were able to effectively piece it back together, get it running again, and add new capabilities. I highly recommend the team, they are professional and easy to work with. They were flexible and responsive.
Jonathan Torleson
Subsource
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