Business Problem: Our client is a construction company in a fast-growing area. Management set a business goal to effectively track and report on internal inspections of company projects. Doing so would allow them to:
- identify employees who could benefit from additional training
- control costs by ensuring projects are delivered in complete and correct conditions
Solution: First Celtic Wolf consulted with our client to produce a requirements document, detailing an application to fulfill their needs. It included:
- all of the functions management wanted to track, access and manage from the inspection records.
- all of the information about the servers and workstations on which the application would need to run.
- requirements for using information from QuickBooks® Enterprise Solutions (the client’s accounting software).
- a list of reports the client would like to produce from the data collected.
Once the requirements document was approved by our client, Celtic Wolf produced a design document including screen mock-ups, data diagrams and detailed descriptions of how the application would function. We worked with them to make sure the design met their needs as defined in the requirements document and that it would be deliverable within our client’s schedule and budget.
Finally, Celtic Wolf created the application using Microsoft Visual C#® to run on the .NET platform. Data are stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2000®, which was already deployed on our client’s servers, thus saving the client any additional cost.
A major challenge we faced was enabling our client’s construction inspectors to access records on laptops without Internet access. To accomplish this, we deployed a copy of the database locally using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express®. This is a stripped-down version of the SQL Server intended for desktops, rather than client-server applications. Now, inspectors simply input records at the time of their inspections and then synchronize the two sets of data once they reconnect to the corporate network. If any defects are found during the synchronization process, emails listing those defects are automatically sent to the appropriate management and supervisory personnel. The progress of fixing any defects can be tracked on a daily basis through a variety of reports, such as:
- Defects by Project
- Defects by Field Personnel
- Defects by Type
A free-form search capability was also created to allow users to select records based on ad hoc criteria. With this, our client can handle unforeseen requirements without incurring additional development costs.
