Build it yourself with our expert advice

Build it yourself with the help of expert advice

The ideal combination of doing it yourself and outsourcing smartly: the entrepreneur behind Bart de Pau Language Courses built the registration system for his website himself, with technical advice.

Customer challenge

The desire for a new reservation system had been around for some time at Bart de Pau Language Courses. This company has been organizing language courses for highly educated, international professionals for years, including everything that is often involved on location, such as accommodation.  

When you exist for several years and broaden the service provision, new needs often arise that are not always easy to facilitate with the existing technology. When the Corona crisis broke out, things had to change drastically.   

Entrepreneur Bart Leenhouts – de Pau conceived the plan to build a new system himself in a short period of time using Gravity Forms, Gravity View and Gravity Flow. Not only for the registration of new students, but also for teaching online classes. With the necessary programming experience from the past, the plan quickly took shape. Bart reserved the time to get started himself, but anticipated obstacles.  

Looking at his wishes, he did not want to ask students over the booking process in the registration forms. But at later moments it was necessary that new information could be added easily, without requesting anything twice. Think, for example, of flight information that is only known after booking the course.    

Solution

The solution was suggested by a former student of Bart de Pau Language Courses and partner of Aiwos Erik van Beek. He knew the old registration system through his registration for a Russian language course and immediately understood where the limitations were.   

He paired Bart with colleague Jurriaan Koops, the programming expert at Aiwos. Jurriaan supported on a weekly basis with advice during the construction of the new system. As a result, Bart received quick answers to his questions, so that construction progressed steadily and there was no delay.  

The result of the collaboration and the combination of Gravity Forms, Gravity View and Gravity Flow? An intelligent and flexible system that triggers efficient workflows after registration of the participant. The system is comprehensive and regulates, among other things, that:   

  • New students receive a level test in time 
  • Teachers can download briefings with the necessary details about their students 
  • Information about flight times, accommodation and transfers is easily added 
  • Students receive a zoom link for their digital lessons 

The new registration system has now been live for 2 years. Bart and Jurriaan still have consultations, but less frequently than during the construction phase. Bart carries out regular maintenance himself, but some plugin updates require Jurriaan's specialist WordPress knowledge. And very occasionally there are incidents, such as a website that is slower after an update. Jurriaan also assists in finding the cause and solving the problem.  

"Without the advice of Aiwos, it would not have been possible to build a completely new registration system in a very short time."