Blog
The latest PIM and company news from Fusions HQ
Wouldn’t it be cool if...?
16 May 2024
Every day we’re researching new ideas, and experimenting to see where we can push the limits of our platform. Truth be told, we’re more than a little obsessed with optimising beyond the everyday product information system. Because only with our level of dedication to innovation — right through to developing bold plans for the future of PIM — do you come up with something truly different…
It’s an overused quote for sure, but "we’re here to put a dent in the universe" and we’re recruiting PHP developers to help us make it happen!
And so long, React
14 March 2024
We’re big fans of keeping our technology stack simple. The fewer moving parts we have, the better we can maintain our application and support our customers.
So, following on from our recent jQuery elimination (see below), we’ve decided to migrate our React category pickers next – meaning our entire front-end will be unified around modern/vanilla JavaScript.
Farewell jQuery
9 February 2024
Following on from our hackathon last year, where we significantly modernised our front-end tests, we’ve been busy modernising the front-end code that our customers use every day.
We’ve managed to (almost!) eliminate our jQuery dependency, benefiting users due to improved performance, and helping our remote-working team by having one fewer thing to maintain. We expect our last couple of usages to fall away by the Summer.
For more background on this change, see how GOV.UK benefited when they removed jQuery too.
Turkey time!
15 December 2023
Christmas is always a good time to reflect on the year. It would be (nearly!) impossible to list all the improvements we’ve made this year, but we’ve had a definite focus – our performance optimisation, coupled with technical-debt elimination has yielded a smoother experience for users and developers alike.
The blend of automation rules and AI looks promising too …
Welcome Sam
1 November 2023
Today we welcomed Sam to team Fusions, bringing his widely varied experience to help us solve problems in code and communication.
Joining our remote-working team as we refine and optimise our way into an AI future, he was up and running in no time at all – thanks to our well-maintained and meticulously documented codebase.
Being used to working remotely, Sam’s enjoying the opportunity to learn and collaborate with an established team of developers working on a robust long-term project.
Annual hackathon retreat
20 September 2023
This year we headed to Matlock Bath to try out new ideas and spend time together as a team.
Highlights included a 6am hike in the rain(!), modernising our browser tests (hello Dusk) and exploring how we configure the different classifications of PIM data we manage for our product-loving customers.
Annual hackathon retreat
21 November 2022
For the second year running, we headed to the outskirts of Oakham for our annual hackathon retreat. Luckily, the power cut didn’t interrupt our curry!
The team made great progress on our migration to Laravel. We’ve been exploring and planning the move for some time now, so it was useful to focus on this project to improve the maintainability of our codebase.
We’re back!
6 December 2021
It was great to get together for our usual Christmas meal again this year. Turkey and paper crowns all round!
The meal followed our regular team planning meetup in the morning, and we came away excited about our PIM plans for 2022 …
Remote working FTW!
1 June 2020
We made the decision way back in 2010 to work 100% remotely, so we’ve been able to continue as normal these past few months.
Obviously, we look forward to meeting up again in person and to visiting customers.
Exploring new technologies
19 September 2019
R&D is fundamental to how we work at Fusions, but we turned it up a notch at our annual team hackathon, this year in the picturesque setting of Rutland Water.
During the past ten years, we’ve built a powerful PIM system capable of scaling alongside one of the UK’s largest retailers. With big plans for the next ten years, it was a good opportunity to take a break from our roadmap, and explore the impact of upgrading our front-end with React — to both accelerate our progress and delight our users!
Welcome Dan
25 June 2019
We recently welcomed Dan to team Fusions, bringing with him over twenty years of experience in web programming.
Joining our remote-working team as we expand to take on new projects, he was up and running in no time at all – exploring new technologies that’ll form the foundation of our next-generation PIM solution.
Used to working remotely, creating specifications and building solutions for clients big and small, Dan’s enjoying the chance to learn and collaborate with an established team of developers working on a robust long-term project.
Wouldn’t it be cool if...?
5 February 2019
Every day we’re researching new ideas, and experimenting to see where we can push the limits of our platform. Truth be told, we’re more than a little obsessed with optimising beyond the everyday product information system. Because only with our level of dedication to innovation — right through to developing bold plans for the future of PIM — do you come up with something truly different…
It’s an overused quote for sure, but "we’re here to put a dent in the universe" and we’re recruiting PHP developers to help us make it happen!
Annual hackathon retreat
12 September 2018
At least once a year, the Fusions team get together for something more special than our usual monthly meetups. In the past, we’ve ventured to the Dutch PHP conference, and been regulars at the annual PHPNW event in Manchester until the organisers took a well-earned break this year.
This time around, we spent a few days in the wonderful Lincolnshire countryside. We put aside our long-term roadmap and played around with those "what if we?" ideas. Good fun, and — best of all, every idea ultimately made it into production code, with the team hackathon agreed as an annual essential! :-)
GDPR ready!
25 May 2018
Following our recent GDPR preparations and commitment to ISO 27001 (see below), we’ve now completed an extensive Privacy Impact Assessment. The result is our new Privacy Policy, which we’ve also notified customers about.
Along with internal training, that’ll do for now – Fusions is GDPR ready! Of course, as with ISO 27001 it’s more a start than an end – privacy and security are ongoing so we’ll continue to keep improving our processes.
Preparations for GDPR
3 May 2018
As 25 May approaches — the date on which the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force — we’ve released several changes to help our customers (data controllers in GDPR-speak!) manage their users within Fusions:
・Job titles/descriptions for users weren’t necessary, so have been removed
・Users have improved visibility of their details and how to amend them
・Details of users without associated data can be deleted rather than archived
・Users can better see and manage which email alerts they’re subscribed to
Committed to ISO 27001
21 April 2018
We’ve contracted with the British Assessment Bureau to undertake certification to the BS EN ISO/IEC 27001:2017 standard(s) — hurrah!
Being proud of our information security policies is one thing, but being able to prove we do what is set out in them – well, it’s something we get asked about more and more in these security-conscious times. Of course, we hope to learn a few things along the way too, and further develop our team’s continual improvement mindset.
Our move to PaaS
14 August 2017
After six months of planning, development and (a lot!) of testing, Fusions is now entirely hosted on Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) architecture. This brings us immediate benefits in terms of robustness and development focus, plus ensures future scalability.
Several years back, we (along with everyone else) moved to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS or “cloud servers”), where virtual servers are treated as a rented utility without the need to deal with hardware. PaaS is the next evolutionary step along, and ensures we no longer need to deal with the operating system or software packages. Instead, we now leave all the installation/configuration/maintenance fun to a team of experts who take care of managing, securing and optimising a rock-solid platform for us to build upon.
We’re now able to focus our energies entirely on the application level, assured that everything below is in safe hands.
Scaling up for increased volumes of data, or heavy processing is now just a matter of a couple of clicks. And all with the usual top-notch security, data isolation and so on just as before.
Welcome Liam
3 July 2017
Liam is the newest addition to team Fusions, having previously managed ecommerce product review databases, as well as system integrations within the optical industry.
With his interest in magic from a young age, we have to keep a close eye on the cards during our planning poker sessions!
Joining our remote-working team, he was up and running in no time at all – pushing to our PHP 7 code base and deploying a fully tested fix to production within his first week. If that sounds good to you and you’re looking for a PHP developer job, we’re always keen to chat to skilled and likeminded developers!
PHPNW16 conference
1 October 2016
The Fusions team recently attended another fantastic PHP conference. This year (we make a point of doing this annually), we headed north to Manchester for PHPNW16 for a long weekend of tutorials, the best speakers in the PHP community and beyond, plus a couple of social events.
Of particular interest this year was the Continuously delivering talk – something we feel we’re close to, but are now looking to push towards more fully!
Customer love :-)
23 June 2016
We love working with the Fusions integration team within Asda, a smart bunch who really get the most out of our PIM software and are always coming up with great new ideas and development suggestions.
Finding out they have a special Fusions corner made us smile!
Pizza hackathon time
27 October 2016
Our entire team work remotely, meeting up in person every week or two for an informal get-together and chat. We also meet more formally to groom, estimate and plan our next sprint.
Occasionally though, we visit clients to get everyone in one room and tackle an upcoming challenge. To help Asda with some taxing category reorganisation needs, we all met up for white-board and pizza-powered thinking!
We saved Amsterdam!
28 June 2015
After leaving the excellent Dutch PHP conference, we had a few hours to kill before our flight home. We headed over to the Save Amsterdam escape rooms and put our puzzle-solving skills to the test.
Fortunately, we managed to save the city from a zombie apocalypse and find our way out well within the time! It wasn’t the first escape room for a couple of the team, but we all agreed it was the best!
Dutch PHP conference
26 June 2015
Keeping up to date with new developments and improving our PHP skills is something we all continuously work hard at. It’s good to take some dedicated time for this too, and attending a conference is a great way to learn and meet others in the great PHP community we’re lucky to be a part of.
A couple of “Wow, that’s a great idea and quick to do!” changes are already making our lives easier, and the team came away feeling energised and full of inspiration for Fusions improvements to come …
