a real-time collaboration platform for construction company

Re-engineered a Collaboration Platform for

the Construction Industry (Australia)

1Enterprise Mobility Services

The Product

• A real-time collaboration platform

• Enables builders, contractors and suppliers to

coordinate and exchange critical documents

using web, mobile and API services

• The core objective of the application is to

help better accomplish construction related

tasks

We were approached to re-engineer

the product into a new form to

realize quality improvements in

operation, system capability,

functionality and performance

without risking existing customers.


The need to re-engineer the product

• Product was operational for more than 8 years

• Existing infrastructure was struggling to cope

with a wide range of API services

• Different supplier systems struggled to integrate

with our client’s product

• Servicing individual requests increased overhead

• Lapse in data control affected consumers of data

• Glitches while exchanging documents and

communication between builders and suppliers

• Addition of features over the years complicated

usability of the product


• We identified that the existing servers, network,

storage and user interface of the product

needed to be aligned with the growing business

needs

• The existing database was not scalable or

flexible and had limited capability to support

new initiatives

• The existing infrastructure resulted in higher

maintenance cost, increasing inefficiencies,

complexity and security gaps


During the initial IT infrastructure review,

Technology Analysis


Existing technology stack Proposed technology stack

.NET framework 4.5 Front End : ASP.NET MVC 5.0, AngularJS,

Twitter Bootstrap

Front End : ASP.NET MVC 4.0, JQuery, Twitter

Bootstrap

Service Layer : Web API 2.0 with ODATA

Service Layer : Web API 1.0 with ODATA Back End : SQL Server 2008 R2

Back End : SQL Server 2008 R2 Version Control : Bit Bucket

Build Server : Team City with continuous

integration

Unit Testing Framework : NUnit

Deployment : Amazon Cloud EC2 Mocking Framework : Rhino Mocks

Version Control : Tortoise Hg – Kiln Logging Framework : NLog

Bug and Project Tracking : JIRA Dependency IOC container : Microsoft Unity

Documentation : Confluence Deployment: Amazon

Mobile technology: PhoneGap, HTML5, JQuery

Mobile UI, CSS3

Critical modules that needed to be re-engineered included;


• A role-based Job creation, allocation & management module

with email notification facilities

• Account Management module with billing and invoicing

facilities along with user authentication management

• Integration of Google Map API to attribute and map tasks with

construction sites

• Contract Documents and Job Information Management

module to enable seamless coordination

• Mobile apps for Android, iOS and Windows operating systems

using PhoneGap

• Several independent APIs to integrate with third-party systems

• Chargify payment gateway integration to subscribe for

different service plans of the solution

• A front-end interface design for both Web and Mobile version

of the solution

Considering the project requirements, our team;


• Adopted a highly agile development methodology

with 2 weeks of sprint

• Used rapid development tools and smart frameworks

developed in-house

• Redesigned the architecture to accommodate rapidly

changing business requirements

• Automated unit testing implementation and

continuous integration

• Documented each functionality in the form of

technical diagrams that eliminated individual

dependency

• To ensure timely deliverables, daily stand up, sprint

plan, status and retrospective meetings with our client

were conducted for higher degree of efficiency

• Before the development, our testers validated and

verified the existing application and reported issues in UI

and several functionalities

• Based on the analysis a test plan was prepared with

detailed test cases and scenarios

• Once the development started, our testers parallelly kept

testing the application to ensure it comes out as a

consistent and effective product

• Developers performed unit testing by isolating each

component to avoid the development risk

• Testers parallelly tested different components of the

application and their interface with other modules

• In the end, user and system acceptance were performed

to deliver the final product

The re-engineering journey


To Summarize, we provided;

• End-to-end enterprise mobility services under a single

roof

• Freed our client to focus on improving customer

relationships and marketing of product

• Helped reduce development cost significantly

• Ensured quick turn-around time for deliverables

• Managed skilled resources and ensured their

sustainability

• Effectively managed cost, quality and timely

deliverables

• Ensured maintenance and support throughout

• Accelerated project execution whenever required


+91-79-30487422+91-79-67124000

[email protected]

India Headquarters

Cygnet Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

16-Swastik Society, Nr. AMCO Bank,

Stadium Circle, Navrangpura,

Ahmedabad 380009, Gujarat, India

www.cygnet-infotech.com

Contact us

Germany

+49 3222 1090 129

USA

+1-646-915-00210South Africa

+27 (0) 21 3002981

Australia

+61-280-147-206India (Pune)

+91-20-30226125

New Zealand

+64 9 534 8000

UK

+44-20-8099-1653

Enterprise Mobility Services 11

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.cygnet-infotech.com/

a real-time collaboration platform for construction company

Engineering