Working at Modality
Meet Cas
From graduation project to permanent position
Hot off the press: our newest team member, web developer Cas! During his graduation internship at Modality, he laid the foundation for a uniform Business Intelligence solution. This standard module offers all our clients—even those without BI expertise—easy insight into their operational logistics data. This development has allowed us to make data even more accessible to our clients, ultimately earning Cas a permanent position on our team.
Turning customisation into standardisation
Our systems hold vast amounts of operational and financial data, but until now, analysing this required specific BI skills. We would often build customised KPI dashboards for clients, tailored to their individual needs and unique Modality system. Cas was tasked with changing this by rebuilding an easy-to-integrate standard web module that could be used by multiple clients, without the need for customisation. A key element of his assignment was finding a logical and scalable structure. The goal: a uniform foundation that could later be enriched with universal KPIs and graphs relevant to all our clients.
The assignment
The challenge was both technical and functional. How do you create an accessible BI environment that shows the most important KPIs without the client needing to master Power BI or a similar tool? Cas started with thorough research: which data is so valuable that it needs to be included first and which technology is best suited for a flexible, future-proof standard module? After testing five frameworks, React emerged as the best choice.
Next came the design phase. Using interactive mock-ups, Cas visualised what the unified module should look like. This phase was fully completed, resulting in a solid foundation. Some sample KPIs are already visible, but the focus of the assignment was on establishing the blueprint—not on delivering a ready-made product.
Cas:
"I appreciate the mix of an informal and formal work environment at Modality. I also like having structure in the form of an individual work schedule whilst still having room for personal input."
Impact and next steps
This basic structure allows us to quickly move on to the next step: supplementing the BI module with a set of core KPIs and graphs that are relevant to all clients. Once this set has been completed, the uniform module is ready for wide deployment. In the future, this will allow us to adapt more quickly, improve our decision-making and extract more value from data – without technical barriers.
Cas enjoys the friendly atmosphere with his colleagues and appreciates our way of working. Previously, he completed a minor in Data Science and one in Machine Learning & AI. Computer Science ultimately appeals to Cas the most because he has a wide range of interests and, in his own words, it represents a middle ground among all these. And that is why we can now literally and figuratively call Cas our youngest team member. Reason enough for us to share some more personal information about Cas.
His broad interests are also evident in his personal life. For example, he enjoys a wide range of sports, from paddle tennis to fitness and from korfball to running. He also has a broad musical taste and we cannot pin him down to just one genre (which works out well for our annual outing to "De Vrienden van Amstel" [a major annual Dutch-language music festival, ed]). Now that he's completed his studies and is working fulltime, he is also keen to save as much money as possible: Cas has never been outside Europe and would love to see more of the world.
