Recycling businesses—from scrap yards to large industrial players—rely on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to manage their operations.
For Shared Logic’s customers, the RIMAS platform is an industry-leader in powering intake, payment, processing, and more. The platform had served its customers well for years, but with technology evolving rapidly, Shared Logic recognized the need to modernize.
They turned to Michigan Software Labs to help shift RIMAS from a client-server solution to a cloud-based platform that could meet future demands, including scaling their company.
“Working with Michigan Software Labs over the past two years has been a great partnership—from the technical assessment and recommendation to our final Beta rollout of our new RIMAS Horizons web-based product,” said Todd Piper, CIO for Shared Logic. “The entire experience was professional, and MichiganLabs brought technical experts to the table that helped us jumpstart our move to the cloud.”
Building the modern ERP
Shared Logic’s existing platform is robust and valued by its users. But the limitations of an on-premise solution were becoming apparent.
As the recycling industry grows and technology advances, Shared Logic wanted to ensure its customers could continue running their businesses smoothly.
We started with a digital product strategy phase, where we defined the scope of the new platform. Shared Logic wanted a cloud-based system that kept the features customers loved, while enabling the company to reach more users with a scalable, accessible solution. We also consulted on their business strategy, market positioning, and go-to-market strategy
Shared Logic provided the technical direction, opting for Blazor within a C# framework to align with their current tech stack and future maintenance needs. Although Blazor was a newer framework for our team, we adapted quickly. We leveraged our expertise in building component-based web applications and translated it into this toolset. This choice allowed Shared Logic to hire and build an internal team that specialized in Microsoft platforms and be confident in their ability to maintain the platform.
MichiganLabs led the charge on best practices—establishing a strong integration testing framework while taking time to mentor and support Shared Logic’s developers. Our goal was to ensure that, by the time the project wrapped, Shared Logic was equipped to continue developing and maintaining the platform on their own.
“Michigan Software Labs' communication and knowledge sharing throughout this partnership was outstanding. From helping run meetings to developer pairing to documentation, their professionalism and class were impressive and helped set the bar for our entire team,” said Tim Chatman, product manager for Shared Logic.
Shaping a strong agile product team
One of the most meaningful aspects of our partnership was helping Shared Logic build their internal product team.
Initially, the separation of front-end (MichiganLabs) and back-end development (Shared Logic) caused communication gaps and rework. To address this, we encouraged teams to work closely together—reducing delays and enabling developers to stay aligned across tasks.
As Shared Logic expanded its team, we introduced Agile practices like stand-ups and sprint planning—while also coaching their team members on what we learned in Blazor. By the project’s end, Shared Logic’s team was leading the planning and refinement sessions, creating a collaborative process that reduced faulty assumptions and allowed for precise planning.
At the start of the project, MichiganLabs and Shared Logic saw the importance of a close, full-stack development approach to ensure seamless collaboration. We began by gradually aligning front-end and back-end processes, taking iterative steps to improve communication and reduce delays. This intentional evolution kept both teams synchronized.
As Shared Logic grew its team, we embraced Agile practices like daily stand-ups and sprint planning to enhance collaboration. Along the way, we shared insights on Blazor, empowering their developers to build confidence in the framework. By the end of the project, Shared Logic had taken ownership of the planning and refinement sessions—creating a collaborative, iterative workflow that reduced assumptions and enabled precise planning.
“Michigan Software Labs provided us with the expertise required to train our team on agile software development best practices. This then gave us the requirements to hire new team members and quickly acclimate them into our processes. By leveraging this methodology, we were able to greatly scale our team,” added Piper.
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As the project progressed, the Shared Logic team adopted a more customer-centered approach, shifting focus from individual productivity metrics to delivering meaningful value to their customers. This cultural shift ensured that the new platform would not only meet the needs of the business but also serve their customers well into the future.
Shared Logic’s commitment to modernization and customer service—combined with our expertise in SaaS development and Agile practices—has laid a strong foundation for the future of RIMAS.
