Coast Technology
Coast ships new dealer features every sprint, with our engineers in its team
Coast Technology sells a customer intelligence and engagement portal to RV, auto, powersports and marine dealers. Our engineers and analysts work as part of Coast's product team, in its accounts and its sprint rhythm, and have grown the live portal sprint after sprint.
Automotive & DealershipsDealership customer intelligence SaaSModernized a live product
The challenge
Coast's portal was live with dealers every day, and Coast needed engineering that could rebuild and extend it without a separate vendor process slowing it down.
What we did
Datics engineers and a business analyst work inside Coast's product rhythm: backlog with its product lead each sprint, weekly calls and data meetings, all in Coast's own cloud.
The outcome
The portal grew from a reporting tool to a CRM, campaigns, workflows, white label brands and an AI assistant without a core rewrite, and the work continues.
- Model
- Datics engineers inside Coast's product team
- Rhythm
- Sprint backlog with Coast's product lead
- Runs in
- Coast's own AWS and Google Cloud accounts
- Status
- Ongoing, shipping into the live portal
The starting point
Coast Technology, formerly Dealership Toolkit, sells a portal that shows dealers who is shopping them and helps them follow up by email, text and their own CRM.
What had to change
The first portal ran on per dealer scripts and separate tools, and Coast wanted one multi role platform it could also resell under other brands. It needed engineers who would learn its product and stay with it.
What could not break
- Dealers keep working in the portal while it changes
- Coast's product lead sets priorities each sprint
- Every server, pipeline and dataset stays in Coast's own accounts
- Product knowledge stays with Coast when people change
The calls we made
We worked as part of Coast's product team rather than a vendor beside it: its backlog, its calls, its accounts.
- 01
An analyst who owns the backlog with Coast
Our business analyst runs the backlog and grooming with Coast's product lead every sprint, so engineering always works on what Coast decided matters next.
Ruled outFixed scopes handed over and built out of sight.
- 02
Weekly calls and a data meeting
Our CTO sits in Coast's weekly calls, and a weekly data meeting with Coast's VP of Product reviews pipelines and dealership attribution against what dealers actually see.
Ruled outStatus updates by email only.
- 03
Coast's accounts, not ours
The portal runs in Coast's AWS account and the visitor data in its Google Cloud, so every release, server and pipeline stays under Coast's control.
Ruled outHosting on our side and handing over later.
- 04
Plan for people changing
When the lead analyst changed, a structured knowledge transfer plan carried module and integration context across, and the original analyst later returned as lead.
Ruled outKnowledge that lives only in one person's head.
How the system fits together
What we built
The rebuilt portal
Visitor analytics, shopper profiles, admin actions and communication stats, rebuilt module by module while dealers kept working.
CRM, campaigns and workflows
Leads and tasks in kanban and list views, contact lists, email campaigns, an Audience Builder and a workflow builder with merge fields.
Integrations and the AI assistant
Dealer CRMs and messaging providers added one at a time, white label brands from one codebase, and a chat assistant inside the portal.
What changed
Coast's portal grew from a reporting tool into a CRM and engagement platform without a core rewrite, and Coast resells it under other brands. The same team keeps shipping into it.
“Together both organizations have grown and prospered, and we've built tremendous stuff together. And in doing so, we've become a family.”
Rich DeLanceyCo-Founder and CIOCoast TechnologyUnder the hood
- Datics role
- Forward deployed engineering
- Access
- Coast's AWS account for the application and its Google Cloud for visitor and enrichment data, with demo and development servers.
- Process
- Sprint backlog with Coast's product lead, weekly calls with our CTO, and a weekly data meeting with Coast's VP of Product.
AI and models
Data and retrieval
Cloud and infrastructure
Apps and APIs
Also in the stack
How it shipped
Support the original portal
We started on the first reporting portal, its parsers and visitor data, learning the product as it ran.
Discovery and rebuild
User stories for every role and a gap analysis, then the portal rebuilt module by module in weekly sprints.
Growing the platform
Two week sprints added the CRM layer, integrations, campaigns, white label brands and the AI assistant.
Ongoing
Workflow builder, dynamic emails and dealership management work continue in Coast's backlog.
One backlog
Coast's product lead and our analyst groom and review the same backlog, sprint after sprint.
Documented for Coast's support team
Swagger and Postman API docs, a production support document and onboarding guides keep each module supportable by Coast's own team.
Release on demo first
Each release goes to a demo environment before production, so Coast sees every change before its dealers do.
What this unlocked
Next in Coast's backlog are the workflow builder, dynamic emails from its inventory API and lead assignment, on the platform the team already knows.
Related work
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