The Objectives
Visibility was the key. The business unit had contractors and employees who were getting work done the old fashion way, with paper and e-mail. However, the dispatchers had no visibility into the activities of the techs once the work orders were sent out. In some cases they were finding out about problems that were preventing the tech from accomplishing the work long after the due date. The nature of this client’s business was such that if their technician’s job isn’t done on time, it could cause catastrophic results.
In order to achieve the goal of better visibility, the customer needed to have a mobile application that could deliver work orders, in priority sequence, to the field workforce and collect the necessary data, in real time, about the work activities in the field. Visibility is a two-way street; the users needed improved insights into the work so they could be more effective. Therefore, the application would need to provide them the ability to view locations on a large map, view site details on a detailed map view, and report back to the office any details or problems about the job. Further, all of this would have to be done while tracking the status of the work order, viewable by a manager in an office in real time, on a web based dashboard.
The Team
- We immediately brought our team together including:
- One experienced mobile application developer focused on building screens
- One experienced mobile application developer focused on functionality and application processes
- One UI/UX designer
- One database/services expert to work with our mBaaS partner and handle database set up
- One web developer to build the web dashboard and widgets