HASKI - Application for Optimizing Work with customers

Organic ads worked great since all of our previous clients were happy with the work. Representatives of Haski, an outsourcing service operator, contacted our manager and ordered a project. It turned out to be quite challenging for BuildApps because there were some problems with the confusing data exchange system and the lack of structure and documentation. Before starting, we needed to organize the existing data and then develop apps for convenient management of logistics processes.

Haski is a leading outsourcing service provider. It has been operating on the market since 2008 and has already firmly established itself in the niche. The company implemented effective personnel management and managed to introduce a structured training of employees, certification of specialists, and scheduled briefings on standards and work methods. The only problem was mediocre software that could not provide the proper level of service for clients and had limited managerial functionality and an inconvenient administrative panel.

Key tasks that the customer entrusted to us

The customer decided to scale, so the existing functionality became insufficient. Therefore, it was decided to expand it. Initially, we had little technical documentation and scripts, which made it difficult to precisely understand how to perform the management activities in the app. Communication with clients was also hampered due to the lack of necessary tools. To understand the technical aspects and implement them correctly, we constantly kept in touch with the customer. We were assigned specific tasks:

• Implement a full-fledged IT product with accounts division for three main roles: client, manager, and administrator.
• Develop a unique solution to increase brand awareness.
• Implement functionality for the management apparatus, CRM system, and other tools.

Solving these tasks, we must achieve the following results:

• Improve the quality of customer service.
• Improve user experience.
• Delineate functionality.
• Link users to a service provider.

Having accepted the assignment, we assembled a team to analyze the customer's finished product and plan further actions.

Having examined the client's solution, we detected a lot of problems to be urgently resolved. The project was built with a tech stack that did not quite match the customer's business objectives, which affected the product’s viability negatively. Here are some points:

• Poor implementation of data exchange with 1C DB via Odata. The essence of the problem is that routing and the workflow are not optimized and take more resources than they must.
• Inconsistency of the finished management system with new tasks. The implemented administrative panel needs to be improved or even reworked from scratch.
• Unstructured information coming from the database. After the analysis, we found that some of the information received upon request is irrelevant.
• Blurred technical specification. The customer explained the goal but did not know how to achieve it. There was no list of required functions, interaction models, etc.

After analyzing the current situation, we decided to fix all the shortcomings of the previous system to build a completely new IT product.

Brainstorming: Our approach to planning the perfect product

Faced with a number of challenges, we gathered a team to brainstorm. Having processed dozens of options, we selected the most promising ideas and came up with the concept of the perfect IT product:

• A mobile app for Android and iOS.
• Structured API with the integration of multiple services.
• Built-in functionality for working with the OData protocol.
• Filter system for sorting employees.
• Modern design with a new interface.
• Rest API architecture or in-app base.

We believe that all of the above points fit perfectly into the concept and objectives of the project. Having offered this list to the customer, we received approval for its implementation. Having built a roadmap and dividing the process into sprints, we proceeded to the development.

4 experts and 4 months of work: how we dealt with the project

After assessing the complexity of the project, we divided tasks into stages and started working. 4 people were engaged to solve urgent problems:

• Involved a 1C expert in assessing the state of the system and design fixes
• Investigated the tasks and adjusted the functionality, displaying it in the layout graphically.
• Analyzed the text content and corrected it with new information.
• Split the project into sprints and defined the MVP functionality for testing.

After we agreed on the layout with the customer, the team proceeded to development, focusing on the project’s main features. The entire path to the finished IT product took us about four months, during which we did the following:

• Developed a cross-platform mobile app using Xamarin.Forms and C#.
• Implemented 3-level access to the program tools.
• Connected third-party services via API.
• Introduced a system of filters to speed up the work of the staff.
• Optimized and structured data exchange with 1C.
• Increased revenue by attracting new customers and retaining old ones.

The workflow turned out to be surprisingly interesting and varied but complex and unusual in technical implementation. During development, we created a new product, transferred old data to a new environment, integrated it with a ready-made database, and ensured the exchange of information between them.

What the customer received after the complete development cycle

Despite the “raw” initial idea, we managed to achieve the result, spending a lot of time and a minimum of BuildApp resources. The customer highly appreciated the quality of the final IT product and became our regular client. Here’s what we got at the release:

• Apps for two top mobile operating systems.
• User-friendly UI and optimized UX.
• Three levels of access: client, employee, and manager.
• Social network features: order notifications and company news.
• A filter system with customer information.
• Database of employees and personnel.
• Hybrid shift management complex, etc.

We implemented all the tasks set by the customer. Based on the priority software model, our specialists made a unique product that compensates for the shortcomings of the old version.