Optex
About Optex
Founded in 1979, Optex Inc. markets products throughout North and South America, which are manufactured by Optex Company Limited of Otsu, Japan. They specialize in indoor and outdoor, passive and active, infrared technology. This includes a wide variety of hardwired and wireless outdoor detectors and photobeams, specialized sensors to trigger CCTV systems, and a one-of-a-kind Class-1 Laser detector for high security applications.
Opportunity
The client wanted an enterprise application for the iPad that would help their business optimize the services offered to clients, by ensuring smoother operations. PLAVEB was put in charge of developing an iPad application that would enable Optex sales representatives to get a clear understanding of a client’s requirements, while having a one on one meeting with them. The focus of the application was to ensure that both the client and company were on the same page, with respect to client requirements. Using this iPad application, the company wanted its sales representatives to be able to give real-time, iPad-based demonstrations to their clients. This required enabling the user to upload an image of the client’s physical layout, or set the location on Google Maps; and then allowing the user to choose the requisite product, and customize its setup on the location image, as per client’s requirements. In addition, when a client was satisfied with the demo, the representative needed to be able to send the product estimation immediately.
Challenges
- Ensuring that the app could only be accessed by users authorized by the company, wherein users would be given exclusive codes by the company in order to access the app.
- Developing a project creation environment that allows users to add a client’s address manually, or find it using GPS, and ensuring that users could reset the default customer location by using drag functionality.
- Designing and developing a custom user interface for the product catalog menu.
- Implementing custom product sensor features to enable placement, resizing of height and width, and deletion; in addition to showing sensor array patterns on the satellite, and on the uploaded image of the job site.
- Project clone functionality.
- Enabling sales representatives and dealers to email and print the created property layout in a matter of minutes, along with an invoiced product list and quote that is based on the product sensors that were used.
- Integrating a project management module to provide project creation, editing, update, email, and delete functionality.
Execution
The application was complex, and catered to a specific internal purpose of the organization. PLAVEB started the project by performing an in-depth analysis of client requirements, and zeroing in on the diverse set of technologies and platforms that would help develop this iPad enterprise application. The seamless execution of the project was a result of thorough planning, close coordination with the client at every step of the development process, and technical competency with the iOS SDK framework and other advanced technologies.
Results
This iPad application perfectly matches the client’s specifications. It enables users to select a particular building or job site, either by uploading its image, or by utilizing Google Maps. Users can also customize the placement of sensors on locations specified by the client, so that the client can envision the sensor’s reach and the areas covered by it.
The application captures the final image, displays the proposed sensor layout, and creates an estimation that is based on the quantity and type of sensors used within the proposed layout. Both the final image of the layout, and the estimation, can then be emailed to the client. The user also has the option of sending the email with the estimation hidden. This iPad application ensures that clients are able to make an informed decision when choosing sensors. In addition, it has streamlined the operations of the company, and made the business cutting-edge.
Technical Details
This iPad application has been developed on the iOS 4 platform, within a Cocoa Framework using xCode, Objective C, SQLite relational database management system, and XML Parsing.