Project type: Web, Mobile, Windows Server Service
Services: Architecture, Design, Development, Testing, Project Management

Project Description:

The application is a set of tools that simplifies routine, helping engineers and other service professionals carry out service tasks remotely. The application increases the efficiency of service staff and reduces their dependence on key specialists. All work orders are available on PDA devices. All items needed for completing the tasks are registered in work orders.

The application can register time and mileage for load carriers. In the back office, the dispatcher can control all shipments, view the map with the exact positions of each vehicle, and much more.

The application uses "live" synchronization with multiple devices. The Web application with AJAX usage allows the dispatcher to manage and follow all technical specialists and service staff out in the field.

The application is also a platform for creating future logistics apps that have similar structure and business logic.

Customer's Need:

The customer, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of logistics solutions, needed a mobile solution for service engineers and other technical specialists or representatives working out in the field. The company also needed a platform to rapidly build in the future logistics applications combining several software modules.

Main challenges:

It was pretty challenging to design the architecture that would allow building such a high standard platform for applications.

Another issue was related to communication and synchronization between the server and the mobile devices: data exchange and synchronization, working in online and offline modes, the secure delivery of data blocks, the detection of synchronization errors, and automatic elimination of those errors.

It was difficult to design the multithreaded GUI to make the mobile application function as several different applications represented as modules. Switching between these modules with the retention of their states and dynamic data updates on the screen of PDA devices (when the new data is received from the server) were also hard to implement.

The Solution:

The team applied multilayered architecture, which is using different layers for allocating the responsibilities of the solution. The solution features application data layer, communication layer, business layer, presentation layer, and application layer. The solution contains the system kernel, API core, GUI core, Server and Client API modules, and Windows Mobile GUI modules.

Multilayered software architecture enabled the team to build a solution that combines Web, Mobile, and Windows Server Service to provide the cutting-edge application for service technicians working out in the field. It also enabled to build the platform for creating logistics applications rapidly by combining software modules.

The team of our Windows Mobile programmers implemented complete synchronization and flawless communication between the server, the application, and the mobile devices. Altoros entirely carried out the management of the project: all working process were tuned to enable the customer to create and maintain future applications based on the platform.

The Outcome:

The customer received a platform that has a precise and predictable structure. It enables the customer to create and maintain applications that have similar business logic and structure. The solution allows to relocate human resources that develop, maintain, and customize different logistics applications for end-customers easily. The customer can now work with only one platform to develop many applications, which is much more time-saving and cost-effective than working with applications that greatly differ from one another.