The details of Prospus’ forthcoming workforce management project is a tightly-guarded secret. However, we are openly sharing that our product’s communications center will be based around Twilio. “After months of research, our team of internal product and technology teams decided on Twilio to handle our communication requirements”, wrote Prospus CEO and Founder, Marc Ragsdale. He continued, “Though there are many other strong contenders we seriously considered, Twilio’s customer roster was ultimately what swayed us”. The Twilio communication platform is well-known for hosting some of the most impressive infrastructures, including AirBnb’s SMS-based confirmation system, Lyft’s custom call center, and more.
While Prospus has not disclosed many details of their forthcoming workforce platform, it has been clear from the beginning that scaling was going to be one of the major considerations. One of Prospus’ key technical leads, and the biggest proponent of Twilio within the product workgroup, cited Twilio’s fantastic track record of growth and the diversity of customer stories. “The biggest names in the world rely on Twilio, including Twitter”. With customers like that, it’s hard to look to any other solutions.
However, early research indicates that Prospus will still face some challenges even with Twilio. Our innovative application will bump up against some of the account limits that set by Twilio in order to curtail potential mal-use. “It appears that no other product out there is using Twilio the way that we intend to”, said Ragsdale in a video message to our development team. It was only after seeking out and discussing with some of original developers on the Twilio team, that Prospus gained the confidence necessary to take the step and confirm Twilio as the communications platform for our product. Ragsdale asserted, “I am confident that we will be able to work with the Twilio team to find solutions that work for our product, even if that means urging them to lift or change some of their account limits”.
This is not the first time that Prospus has pushed the limits of the technologies it used. Ragsdale’s well-known history of innovation has driven many products he has used to their limits, often resulting in discovering unpublished limitations. Stretching back to the late 90s, Ragsdale found his first limit in the Jet Engine that powered various Microsoft databases at the time. “My queries weren’t running correctly or giving me the expected results, so I contacted Microsoft directly. After a week of going back and forth, during which I gave them my application source code, they reluctantly told me that I had found an undocumented limitation”, Ragsdale shared. Though that was over a decade before Prospus was started, it was just the first of many such experiences with technology.
Though no dates have been set, Prospus intends to start using the tool internally by Q3 2021 to hire and manage employees and contractors. “Given that last year Prospus moved to a fully remote operation, our tool could not come sooner”, said Ragsdale. Prospus is projecting a soft launch of the core tool by the end of 2021, with enhancements to rapidly follow. The project will be internally funded and will not seek outside investments until it achieved product-market fit.
