In 2021, our team at Numa Soft had the incredible opportunity to work with Shell, one of the world’s leading energy companies.
The goal? To create digital tools that make everyday operations smoother, smarter, and more efficient — not just for management, but for every employee who interacts with the system.
Two projects became the heart of this collaboration:
Employee Training Checks CRM — to track and manage workforce learning efficiently.
Oil Change Reminder App —to automate maintenance tracking and reduce manual follow-ups.
At first glance, both sounded like straightforward projects. But beneath the surface lay complex challenges around scalability, usability, and performance.
🚧 The Challenge
Shell’s internal tools were doing the job, but they weren’t doing it efficiently.
Training progress was tracked manually across systems that didn’t talk to each other, and reminders for maintenance were inconsistent and prone to delays.
The key challenges we had to solve were:
- Simplify the training management workflow for employees and supervisors.
- Create a unified digital platform that works seamlessly across web and mobile.
- Ensure the solution can scale globally without compromising performance.
- Maintain enterprise-level security and reliability at all times.
We needed something robust enough for Shell’s scale — but simple enough that any employee could use it without needing a tutorial.
💡 Our Approach
Instead of jumping straight into code, we began by understanding how people actually used the existing systems.
We talked to employees, mapped out workflows, and identified friction points, the small moments that slowed productivity.
Our design and engineering teams worked side by side to ensure usability and performance evolved together.
1. Designing for People First
We focused on crafting intuitive, clutter-free interfaces that mirrored the way employees naturally work.
The goal was not just to make things look good, but to make them feel right.
Every interaction, from submitting training reports to checking oil service schedules, was optimised for minimal clicks and clear feedback.
Our UX team followed a simple rule: If someone needs a manual to use it, we’ve already failed.
2. Building for Scale and Speed
Once the workflows were defined, our engineering team built a full-stack architecture that could support growth and global use.
- The CRM was powered by the MERN stack, giving us flexibility and speed for web operations.
- The mobile apps were built in Native Java (Android) and iOS, ensuring a responsive experience even in low-connectivity environments.
- AWS Lambda and Event Bridge handled automation tasks and background jobs, making reporting and notifications lightning fast.
This setup allowed thousands of concurrent users to work smoothly — without server strain or lag.
3. Testing Like a Global Product
When your product is meant for a brand like Shell, reliability isn’t optional; it’s essential.
We conducted rigorous Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) to ensure airtight security, along with load and stress testing to evaluate system behaviour under heavy usage.
These steps gave us data-driven confidence that the system could perform at scale, whether it was 10 users or 10,000.
⚙️ The Tech That Made It Happen
Frontend: React.js, Next.js
Backend: Node.js, Express, .NET
Mobile: Native Java, Swift (iOS)
Cloud & Automation: AWS Lambda, EventBridge
Testing: Jest, Load & Stress Testing
Methodology: Agile Development with CI/CD
📈 The Outcome
By the time both systems went live, the improvements were visible across teams:
- 20% faster workflow completion for training management tasks.
- 40% reduction in manual reporting time.
- Unified web and mobile experience across platforms.
- 99.9% uptime and enterprise-grade stability verified through testing.
But numbers only tell half the story.
The real impact was on the people, employees who could now spend less time fighting the system and more time doing meaningful work.
🔍 What We Learned
- Design and code must evolve together. Great UI is meaningless if it’s not backed by strong, efficient logic.
- Small performance improvements make a big human difference. Faster load times, intuitive forms, and clearer navigation can turn frustration into flow.
- Testing is culture, not a checkbox. Reliability is built early, not added at the end.
This project reinforced one of our favourite truths: Technology succeeds when people stop noticing it’s there.
🌍 The Bigger Picture
For us at Numa Soft, this collaboration was more than a client project; it was a chance to prove how thoughtful engineering can shape real-world outcomes.
Shell’s systems are complex, global, and mission-critical. Contributing even a small part to make them more efficient reminded us why we build software in the first place: to simplify human effort at scale.
🧭 Final Thoughts
Every project teaches you something new.
This one reminded us that behind every dashboard, API, and interface, people are depending on your work to do theirs better.
And that’s what makes building software for the real world so rewarding.
If you’d like to see more of our work or explore similar collaborations, you can visit:
👉 Our works
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