Successories sells motivational products and customizable awards, and that business runs through its ecommerce websites. I joined the company in Boca Raton, Florida in 2010 as Senior Technical Lead, and those websites have been my responsibility ever since. Since 2019 I have been Director of Technology. This page covers how one led to the other.
Rebuilding on an existing foundation
When I started, the sites ran on a PHP framework that was already in place. Instead of scrapping it, I reconstructed the ecommerce websites using that framework as a foundation and refined it step by step for better performance. Working code that a business depends on deserves more respect than a rewrite usually gives it, so the improvements shipped gradually while the store kept selling.
Eventually the framework needed more than refinement. I led the overhaul of the original PHP framework and built a new version with better optimizations, tighter security, and a sounder structure. Throughout that work I collaborated with our in-house UX engineer, who shaped how the sites looked and felt while I made sure everything underneath held up.
Moving from Rackspace to AWS
The sites originally ran on physical servers at Rackspace. I managed the transition to Amazon Web Services, overseeing the migration and integration, and I have owned the AWS environment since then. Configuration, maintenance, performance, uptime: if it involves the infrastructure behind the websites, it lands on my desk.
Building the tools around the store
An ecommerce platform is more than a storefront, and over the years I built much of what surrounds ours.
The largest piece is an email marketing engine I developed for the company's large-scale daily campaigns. It covers configuration, scheduling, sending, and detailed reporting, so a daily send is something you set up and review rather than something you babysit.
I also integrated product APIs from external vendors, which keeps product information on the sites accurate and up to date. And because customizable awards involve proofs, I built tools that streamline the customer proofing process. Faster proofing means less waiting for the customer and less overhead for the company.
The Director role
In 2019 I moved from Senior Technical Lead to Director of Technology, taking on full responsibility for the functionality of the company's ecommerce websites. Day to day that means continuing to improve site features and backend processes as the business changes. It also means keeping the PHP framework I overhauled aligned with modern PHP standards and techniques, so the stack stays current, secure, and efficient instead of quietly aging into a liability.
Nine years of rebuilding a platform teaches you where every wire runs. The title mostly formalized what was already true: the websites were mine to keep healthy, and they still are.
If you want to see what else I have built, have a look at my projects, or get in touch if you would like to talk.