Neti and TsDS developed mobile application for control of construction and contractors

2020: Development of mobile application for control of construction and contractors

On June 3, 2020 it became known that Neti companies and TsDS developed mobile application for control of construction and contractors.

As it was reported, the Center of Shared-equity Construction Group came up against a situation when their service for control of construction and contractors did not solve all problems. The Neti company suggested to take this case in implementation.

The task consisted in the following - to develop service for registration of notes by engineers with an opportunity to check the solution of this or that error.

This solution is relevant for many large builders: during accomplishment of installation and construction works and before commissioning of the facility, each builder fixes all notes and carries out works on their elimination. Using this service, the builder will be able to see the broad picture: on what objects and according to what sections (categories) of works there is a defect.

Here two more reasons for benefit of solution development:

• In many construction companies engineers of construction supervision, security service of work, designers, marketing make out the notes most often on paper, send claims to contractors via WhatsApp or other messengers less often. That the contractor started elimination of the note, there has to be a legal confirmation. Therefore, engineers should look for contractors and to issue them notes on paper carrier under painting. On it a lot of time and forces leaves.
• The lack of the simple and convenient tool with a possibility of mobile registration of notes considerably reduces efficiency of specialists. Notes are lost, it is impossible to tell what percent of comments is resolved. For comparison, having notes on paper carrier, the engineer physically does not manage to cover qualitatively all building site in a short time. At a design on paper some violations are often missed. For example, in the normal mode in day about 3-4 notes on completion are issued, and a system will allow to issue in day till 12-18 of notes.

The legal and organizational lever, the tool with a high speed of work and with low housekeeping overheads will help with all these situations.

After discussion of the project, partners came to a conclusion that the most optimal solution will be to develop mobile application. Representatives of the TsDS group acted as directors of technical specifications.

The Neti command in structure undertook the project: project manager, two backend of the developer, iOs developer, two developers Android, 2 web developer and designer.

The created MVP (Minimum Viable Product) - the simplest working product prototype became the first intermediate result of two-month work. Decided to begin with it as soon as possible to roll the developed product in combat conditions. Weekly there was an obligatory call with partners from TsDS. MVP tested on building in actual practice. According to the results of created a pool of completions.

The next step representatives of Neti company and the TsDS group jointly developed the action plan on transition: made loading of drawings in a system, appointed project participants, created structure, trained employees, issued working the equipment. Since January 1, 2020 the application was brought into commercial operation. In parallel the main functionality was improved.

To make the solution effective, the development team of Neti provided support of the following functions:

• Work with multilayer pdf-files. Construction documentation can be loaded into the "as is" system without additional converting and formatting. The application works with any PDF formats.
• Support of offline mode. The application works with files locally and allows to fix points with notes even in the absence of an Internet access, for example, in basements. At emergence of communication synchronization is automatic.
• Full integration between mobile and the web application. After completion of survey engineers can continue work for the desktop PC. All marks, sheaves and the statuses are synchronized in a cloud environment and are available on any device.
• Existence of graphic and tabular reports. Reports, tables and diagrams are available to fast and evident assessment of progress on any object. The user can estimate work of each contractor at one click as a mouse or one tapas on the screen.
• Integration with other components. If necessary Neti developers can integrate a control system with any corporate applications, using the standard API interface. For June, 2020 work on embedding of the solution in Microsoft Dynamics AX is conducted.

Floor-by-floor plans of each object in full detail are loaded into the application, and notes are placed in a graphics mode directly over plans and schemes.

For each note the status is provided: "Openly", "Is executed" (when it is already corrected) or "Is complete" (when the engineer who created this note accepts corrections and closes the note). Each status has the color. Viewing notes is available both in the form of the list, and in a graphic format with marks in the floor-by-floor plan.

Mobile application "Control of construction and contractors" was thought over so that each engineer could enter notes directly on the mobile device — the smartphone or the tablet running Android or iOS.

Mobile application allows TsDS company:

• support the objective information on all construction objects in real time;
• store data on all notes and claims to contractors;
• avoid falsification and formal execution of works;
• apply photofixing to acceleration of work with notes;
• not allow signing of acts and payments to contractors before elimination of all notes.

It is possible to connect an unlimited number of users without additional payment to a system. A possibility of fixing and transfer of notes online helped to optimize processes of construction supervision and sending orders to contractors, having saved the companies considerable time and financial resources.

All project was implemented far off, except for testings on the platform of the partner. At this stage there were personally representatives of Neti and representatives of TsDS company.