Mobile application to simplify and streamline workflow management
Development team and time
- Team: 25 members
- Development time: Approximately 2 years
Background
Our customer provides business systems to agriculture, construction, and material handling equipment dealers in the USA and Canada. They possess a robust collection of core products, including sales and service management, parts and equipment inventory control, all accounting functions, and advanced communications with suppliers.
To meet the growing demand for immediate and convenient access, the client wanted to add mobile capability to the system for their customer’s outbound sales staff. The mobile application would enable them to manage parts and equipment inventory and achieve seamless communication with suppliers from their mobile devices.
Challenges
The key requirements GEM’s team had to address in this project were:
- Cross-platform compatibility: The mobile system needed to be functional on both Android and iOS devices.
- Integration with Legacy Systems: It had to connect seamlessly with the existing IBM iSeries platform used by the company’s 2000+ customers.
- Available offline options and data synchronization: Since many farms and construction sites lacked reliable Internet access, the mobile application had to support offline operations and would automatically sync with the users’ mainframe whenever Internet connectivity is available.
- Data handling capacity: The mobile application must be capable of managing large volumes of data, including customer details, inventory levels, and sales records.
Solution
To address these requirements, GEM’s team used APIs to connect the IBM mainframes running at the customer’s sites to a cloud repository to fetch the data. This setup allowed mobile devices to access and update their local databases, ensuring effective synchronization with the mainframes.
Furthermore, to guarantee the project’s success and timely completion, GEM deployed a team of developers to the U.S. for several months to work on-site with the company’s mainframe developers.
Tech stack
- Platform: iOS, Android
- Programming language: Objective C, Java
- Web services: RESTful
- QR code, NFC, GPS…
Output
The mobile application was successfully built and soon became a major component of the client’s offerings. It allows staff to manage the following tasks from their mobile devices:
- Human resource management
- User rights management
- Inventory management
- Account receivable/ Account payable management
- Service and product portfolio management
- Communication with suppliers
Impact
For several years since its release, the mobile application has been a welcomed addition to the company’s core products. It was the top-selling feature for about 2 years with many major customers giving it positive reviews.
Closing remarks
In a world where speed and convenience are appreciated features, condensing capabilities into a mobile application solution has been the go-to approach of many businesses. This case study gives in-depth insights into how, with the right development tools and methods, such a solution can easily meet these evolving needs without compromising on functionalities and capabilities.
