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CASE STUDY

Bespoke software and data collection app sparks a shift in electric and gas inspection workflow.

Here you will find information relating to the design and build of a fully bespoke management system and related app designed for compliancy and certification.

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Vital Statistics:

Project: Compliancy certification system with remote data collection app
Client: National electrical compliance inspector
Sector(s): Electric and gas installation inspections for both public and private sector commercial and residential properties
Service(s) Delivered: Bespoke software design and development and data collection app
Location: UK
Project Date/timescale: Initial phase six months, additional development over 18 months and ongoing upgrades to remain current and compliant.

The Electrical Compliancy project in brief...

Electrical and gas installation and compliance testing within commercial and residential property is a serious business to keep residents and occupiers safe and secure.

Looking to develop its own proprietary compliancy certification system, this electrical inspection client came to CodeHub 200 for support in building a fully bespoke management system which could streamline its workflow and provide an auditable project tracking system combin-ing all of its inspections and certifications.

With CodeHub’s extensive experience within the electrical certification and compliance marketplace, the new client was confident we could bring a wealth of knowledge to the project.

The team worked to successfully to develop a cloud-based software system and iOS app with an intuitive user interface for secure remote data collection.

Inspecting the outcome

Since automating the inspection data collection process they have been able to:

• Carry out over 31,000 housing tests

• Complete more than 30,000 certifications

• Raise over 1,000 repairs to improve safety

Benefits to the business include:

• Removing the need for 3rd party software and related costly license fees

• Streamlining and automating workflow processes

• Rolling out fast and efficient data gathering for engineers

• Introducing a full audit trail for all projects from start to finish

• Dynamic project reporting and an interactive dashboard for real time data

• A secure client area to allow them to see progress

First Fix

Covering compliance testing in premises as diverse as single bedroom flats through to football stadiums, they needed a system that would allow their electrical engineers to visit prem-ises, complete a range of tests and electronically record the data.

These inspections resulted in either a pass or a fail and the data needed to be fed back to a centralised management system, via an app to trigger either a quality check and compliance certificate or allocate an engineer to carry our remedial works.

Using an activity flowchart supplied by the client, CodeHub 200 prepared a set of preliminary visuals incorporating all the functionality for data capture for both the cloud-based system and the app. These allowed them to visualise the final system and supply essential usability feedback for further design and development work.

Data Application

An initial wireframe version of the app was story-boarded to ensure that all stages of the data capture process were incorporated from the workflow chart. It was adapted alongside the visuals based on user feedback to develop a native Xcode data collection and certification app.

The engineers use the iOS app on site to collect inspection data from the properties they visit, then wirelessly transfer data back to a secure cloud-based management system, developed utilising C# and JavaScript. This allows them to manage all elements of the system in a secure environment, without using a 3rd Party client.

Bespoke Reporting

Live projects can contain many thousands of individual properties, all requiring various inspections and follow up actions. With the new system they can now track jobs from initial project creation through to sending out customer letters and everything in between.

A live dashboard shows all current activity within the system and highlights project progress or any potential issues from beginning to end. They can also search and retrieve specific project data at any time from a management portal.

Proactive Project Management

To further automate the workflow and reduce administration, we integrated SMS capabilities in to the system. This allowed for SMS inspection reminders to the occupants of the property to be sent out automatically, removing manual processes.

Making The Switch

Due to the complex system and nature of the data, we worked closely with their in-house team to migrate the project from our development servers to their pre-production server, along with all automated tasks and database tables.

We underwent a rigorous phase of testing of both the cloud-based management system and the app to ensure all bugs and glitches were dealt with and removed where possible. We tested all data integration between the app and the cloud-based API to ensure they synchronised and gave accurate live data of any projects in real time.

Only when we were both fully happy and all the team had been trained on the system, sup-ported by a downloadable user manual we created, did we deploy to the live server.

Chris Coomber, Director, CodeHub 200

“The overall project - each management area of the bespoke software system coupled with the app for secure, remote data capture - when combined created a system that is considerably more powerful than its individual parts.

“We have been commissioned to continue developing the system in conjunction with the client’s own in-house development team.

We’re currently working on building an enhanced survey tool with user input based logic and a certificate creator to allow them to build and manage their own certificates, enabling them to generate certification for any requirement. We are also in the process of developing Android and Windows versions of the app.”