The customer chose to protect their confidential information
A Back-End Middleware Platform for Logistics
About the client
Andersen was approached by a woodworking company. The company was determined to keep up with the latest industry trends and follow the best practices to be as globally competitive as possible. Therefore, they made the decision to build reliable fleet management software (FMS).
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Project overview
Andersen was approached by a woodworking company. The company was determined to keep up with the latest industry trends and follow the best practices to be as globally competitive as possible. Therefore, they made the decision to build reliable fleet management software (FMS). With it at their disposal, they intended to fully automate their document circulation processes and significantly simplify their overall workflows.
When Andersen was contacted by the company, they already had the initial version of the logistics management solution built. That IT platform was developed by their in-house tech team and subsequently refined by a third-party vendor.
However, the first version failed to attain the goals set. The customer was still facing numerous challenges generated by the platform's performance and extensibility. As an outcome, endless time-consuming operations and the high costs of implementing features made it clear that the business needs a brand-new app to improve usability and ensure a personalized UX.
We were entrusted with becoming the customer's strategic partner and assisting them with the reinvention of their plans and product. Owing to our deep expertise in mobile and SaaS AWS LaaS-based development – as well as in DevOps consulting services – Andersen turned out to be a perfect match to develop an Android mobile app and cloud-based middleware.
Solution
The customer ordered an Internet-based logistics management software. The main task was twofold – on the one hand, the new software was expected to consolidate all core functionalities of the previous app more reliably; on the other hand, it was required to add a new set of features to that resulting single turnkey system capable of orchestrating each product management process.
To resolve the task, we assisted the customer with migrating their core business to the cloud via microservice software development. Further, working closely with the customer's team, Andersen designed a detailed roadmap and planned a series of workshops. During them, our tech specialists shared their expertise and knowledge of cloud platform development for logistics, while the customer's in-house IT members specified the functionalities to be migrated to the platform.
Within this collaborative and transparent framework, our engineers managed to set up and configure a scalable yet totally reliable cloud infrastructure. The latter offered both a set of instantly available tools to run SaaS solutions and public APIs to manage them.
After accomplishing the platform infrastructure stage, we proceeded with migrating the customer's legacy monolithic apps and brand-new microservice-based apps to the cloud platform and refactoring them.
App functionality
The project deliverables provided by Andersen have totally satisfied the customer's expectations. The resulting solution can:
- Maintain a seamless and instant document flow covering the entire fleet. Among other things, one can monitor and track the statuses of vehicle licenses and set reminders to renew these licenses on time. In addition, the software notifies end-users about the upcoming expiration of any license and enables them to schedule vehicle tech checks
- Give service providers direct access to information concerning fleet clients. As such, it has replaced the old-fashioned processes based on paper job cards. Instead, the solution makes it possible for the service providers to create and submit job e-cards whenever work is finished
- Assign tasks to mechanics (e.g., "vehicle A requires fresh oil," "vehicle B needs its engine to be repaired," "vehicle C has a jammed trunk handle"). The app is also capable of prompting technicians to complete thorough vehicle inspections and checkups following the set guidelines. In this fashion, the app boosts the service effectiveness via such means as images validating work completion and rebilling all submitted work directly to the fleet client, without any delay
- Optimize the eventual cost of fleet maintenance. Namely, it displays instant information about how costly it is to maintain the fleet at a given moment (including repairs, replacement parts, inspections, etc.). It also informs the end-users about how much fuel each vehicle consumes and how much money is spent on it (with daily-weekly-monthly breakdowns)
- Plan vehicle routes and track vehicles' statuses via GPS trackers. Thus, the end-users can see where any vehicle is, whether it is idle time or not, how much time is spent on the road, and when there will be a next planned stop
- Invoice fleet clients instantly to save the service providers' time and allow fleets to manage vehicles in a more cost-effective fashion
Project results
Andersen made the quickest possible progress to implement the solution and let our collaboration with the customer gain steam. Thus, we swiftly deployed the required cloud-based system and transferred several mission-critical services to it. As an result, the customer company has found itself in the right position to run the functionalities in the full production mode.
Overall, the improvements that Andersen delivered have increased client satisfaction rates and boosted the customer's competitive edge.
- Achieved a significant reduction in paperwork, resulting in a more efficient and streamlined workflow for the woodworking company.
- Improved fleet efficiency rates by 30%, allowing the company to stay competitive in the industry.
- Implemented a cloud-based middleware platform that can be easily scaled and customized to meet the company's specific needs.
- Migrated legacy monolithic apps and implemented new microservice-based apps, resulting in a more reliable and user-friendly logistics management solution.
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