Mobile Documents Management Application

The client’s Electronic Document Management System had existed for many years. The system served internal business processes in the customer’s main business — real estate. The system included a web portal and several desktop applications, and had been actively used by the customer’s employees. At the same time, the customer needed to extend its functionality and integrate it with other software products, particularly with Microsoft Office components.

There was also a need to extend the functionality of the system by adding mobile applications. Using mobile features, the employees could access Document Management System even when they were out of office. These mobile applications would provide additional features available only on smartphones, e.g., a direct phone call from the application, taking picture or video with the camera, getting location using GPS.

The first step was implementing a custom web service using .NET technologies that would enable communication between mobile applications and the Document Management System. The next phase was designing and implementing iOS and Android apps that communicate with this web service. Working in close collaboration with the customer, Software Country's team implemented the features that were very important for the end users, tested these features on several mobile devices and then uploaded iPhone app into App Store. Development of these features for Android is in progress; the completed application will be uploaded to Google Play.

Here is the list of new features:

• View office information (address, phone, fax, driving directions, web links).
• Push notifications on important events.
• Optionally lock application with passcode each time it goes to background.
• Optionally enable two-factor authentication — SMS message with a PIN is sent each time the user logins.
• Place new orders in one of the user’s offices using a corresponding wizard.
• Get address of the current location.
• Search for orders, view short information about an order, view property address on the map.
• View detailed information about the buyer and the seller (name, title, company, phone number, address).
• Upload photo or video from the camera or a photo album.
• Record and upload audio.
• Preview documents using a web browser (for most file types).
• Play video and audio files using a media player.
• View and edit PDF files using the custom viewer.
• Convert any document to PDF.
• Distribute documents using our email wizard and the standard email composer.

Outsourcing a significant part of software development to an offshore partner helped the customer to concentrate on its business goals. New features and improvements allow the customer to optimize work efforts of its employees and increase their efficiency. Some features that we implemented enable automation of common employees' actions. Other features give convenient and useful synchronization with the Document Management System.

The customer estimated the total expenses reduction from these features at millions of US dollars over a 12-month period.