A company with 30 years of experience in the field of Quality Assurance developed the concept for a commercial software product that would be sold to automobile dealerships and auto service businesses.
The software product would enable the auto service client location to offer a free safety inspection to each customer, record the inspection results, and present safety and maintenance service recommendations to the customer. The web-enabled product would also facilitate follow up communications with customers, leading to repeat business for the auto service client location.
The originating company asked B–Three Solutions to turn its vision into a viable product. B Three worked closely with them to produce a comprehensive Requirements Specification for the software product. The document included a detailed functional description and an analysis of the appropriate system architecture and hardware/software requirements.
The project continued through design, development, and testing. The cloud-based package consists of a number of cooperating components. The back end is built with the Apache Struts web application framework and Hibernate persistence framework, all on top of a SQL Server database. A separate Node.js WebSocket server provides real-time communication between clients. On the front end, jQuery and AngularJS are utilized to provide a dynamic experience.
Following successful beta testing of the package at several local auto dealerships, the originating company began marketing the package to dealerships in Western Pennsylvania.
Automobile dealers responded enthusiastically to the introduction of the product, and sales grew rapidly. Dealers who installed the software package reported a consistently favorable response from their customers.
Beyond the positive feedback from customers, the dealers found that the package’s workflow features produced a significant impact on their internal operations. The system tracks every step in the service provided to the customer.
With the success of the product at its initial dealerships – producing improvements that were both internal (tracking steps in service provided) and external (enhancing customer satisfaction) – sales of the product took off. It is now in use at more than 50 dealerships, and the sales territory has expanded beyond Western Pennsylvania.
B-Three continues to support the product, implementing new features and enhancing existing capabilities, in a process driven largely by the feedback from the growing customer base.