Visline is committed to enhancing efficiency in logistics operations through innovative software solutions. They were looking for a tech partner to help them with development and optimisation of the Vision application, and Yameo was ready to take up the challenge. Now, Vision, serves as a crucial tool for monitoring transport orders and tracking loading, facilitating seamless coordination and control within their operations.

What was the Vision project about? 

Visline wanted to stand out from their competition by offering a seamless freight execution experience for its clients, carriers, and internal staff. Thus, idea for the Vision application was created. They were looking for a trusted technological partner for the development and optimisation of the Vision application and our Yameo Team was ready to help them with that project

How did the Development & Optimisation project start?

Our primary focus was on gathering Visline’s requirements, understanding their business objectives and operations. Our efforts were directed towards developing the MVP, which took approximately three months to complete. Initially, the Vision application was aimed to cater specifically to drivers, facilitating the smooth execution of Visline’s transports. Its core functionalities revolved around enabling drivers to efficiently receive orders, provide loading and unloading updates, and seamlessly attach necessary documents. Following the successful launch of the MVP, we continued to iterate and enhance the application, releasing new versions in production over the course of the subsequent year. This iterative approach allowed us to incorporate new integrations and features, further enhancing Visline’s operational efficiency and ensuring the continuous improvement of the Vision application. 

Order Management: 

• Enables users to create, update, and track the status of shipping orders. 
• Provides real-time visibility into order progression for enhanced coordination. 

Driver Updates: 

• Allows drivers to quickly update order statuses as milestones (like collection or delivery) are reached. 
• Facilitates smooth communication and progress tracking between drivers and dispatchers with dedicated mobile application. 

Document Attachment: 

• Enables users to attach necessary documents to specific orders. 
• Centralizes all relevant documentation for easy access and reference. 

Integration with Pascom: 

• Seamlessly integrates with Pascom desktop application for comprehensive transport fleet management and invoicing. 
• Provides real-time insights into orders, carriers, and drivers for improved decision-making. 

Data Synchronization: 

• Adopts a unified database approach across systems for synchronized and secure data management. 
• Ensures up-to-date and reliable information for all stakeholders. 

Locking Mechanisms: 

• Implements pessimistic and optimistic locking mechanisms to enhance data integrity. 
• Prevents conflicts during simultaneous edits and provides clear notifications of changes. 

Nowadays, humanitarian organizations like World Vision International face the complex challenge of efficiently and securely delivering aid to vulnerable communities during times of crisis. For over a decade, WVI had been relying on the Last Mobile Mile Solution (LMMS) to facilitate disaster management and food commodity distribution. However, the organization recognized the need for a technological transformation to address evolving demands and improve its aid delivery capabilities.

The Challenge

WVI had identified several critical issues that necessitated the development of a comprehensive asset tracking system:

• Data Silos: WVI’s existing systems lacked the ability to swiftly exchange data, causing inefficiencies and hindering collaboration among teams.
• Offline Distribution: Humanitarian work often occurs in remote areas with limited internet connectivity. WVI needed a solution that could facilitate offline distribution without relying on an internet connection.
• Beneficiary Privacy: Protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and upholding beneficiary dignity were paramount. Existing systems posed privacy challenges.
• Donor Compliance: Ensuring compliance with donor requirements was crucial for accountability and transparency.
• Mobility: The solution had to support the mobility of aid workers, enabling them to work in challenging conditions.
• Cost Efficiency: WVI aimed to reduce the cost of using local roaming servers by leveraging mobile devices’ synchronization capabilities.

Project Initiation

The project commenced with a collaborative effort between WVI and Yameo. Firstly, WVI had prepared a preliminary prototype, and we divided the project into iterations and tasks. We conducted extensive discovery workshops to ensure a thorough understanding of WVI’s requirements, and all workshops were recorded to ensure consistency of arrangements in the later stages of the project.

Solving the Problem with Asset Tracking System

The Item Tracking System project took about 1.5 years, during which our teams worked diligently to deliver the best solution possible. The development of the Item Tracking System (ITS) aimed to transform LMMS into a modern platform that addressed all of WVI’s challenges. The key objectives of ITS were as follows:

• Data Privacy: ITS focused on data privacy, ensuring that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) remained secure.
• Offline Capability: ITS allowed for offline distribution, enabling aid workers to operate effectively in areas with limited internet access.
• Beneficiary Dignity: The solution upheld the dignity of beneficiaries by safeguarding their personal information.
• Donor Compliance: ITS ensured compliance with donor requirements, enhancing transparency and accountability.
• Mobility: Aid workers could now operate more efficiently in challenging conditions, thanks to ITS’s mobility features.
• Cost Efficiency: The system reduced costs by eliminating the need for local roaming servers and leveraging mobile device capabilities.
• Data Analysis: ITS provided the ability to analyze data, facilitating better identification of project progress and future needs.
• Integration with Existing Systems: ITS seamlessly integrated with the existing systems responsible for beneficiary registration and humanitarian project management, enhancing coordination and efficiency across all aspects of WVI’s operations.

When you are doing unbelievably important work like World Vision International, where everything you do directly impacts real world problems and people – you need to have a solid software development partner. In 2015 when World Vision International invited us to take part in their Request For Proposal (RFP), we understood they had an internal IT team, just not specialised in Java development. Additionally, they needed experts who could assess and advise on the next steps of their application developments and how they would align with their strategic goals. Simply put – they needed a reliable software development partner.

While the eventul outcome has been years of great cooperation between World Vision International and Yameo, we have also seen that the solid solutions we helped developed have also had a real impact.

The real-world usage was key!

After our first discussion with the WorldVision International team we understood that the real-world usage would be important to understand. We learnt that the environment where the LMMS solution would be used could often have little to no internet connectivity. This was key for us as it meant it would impact how we would develop their Java based solutions.

The Last Mile Mobile Solutions RFP

The Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS®) was created to address a fundamental business problem in food commodity distribution – the ability to ensure the food gets to the intended recipient in a timely and accountable manner. Starting from the identification and registration of persons entitled to the benefit, then enrolling them into a project (typically grant funded), and schedule distributions at an agreed upon final distribution point. Reporting and compliance are key elements of meeting requirements as well as analytics, tracking attendance and activity for conditional humanitarian interventions such as cash and food for work.

One project borne continuous collaboration for application development

After the initial RFP we supported their IT and Disaster Management team and developed a working solution. The initial solution built focused on:

• data privacy
• offline capability
• beneficiary dignity
• donor compliance
• mobility to enable humanitarian aid workers to deliver to the most vulnerable.

The LMMS CORE application drives the definition certain processes that are executed for data collection on a thin-client mobile application, reported on the application and in a separate dashboard application and integrated (via API) with a mobile registration application and attendance mobile application.  To specifically address the need to track commodities in warehouses, a separate Commodity Tracking System was created with manual integration when commodities move from warehouse to distribution.

Continual Development

After the initial launch and success of the solid solution we were asked to continue and help develop and continually update the solutions.

We continually analysed their work environment

As their industry evolved and cash in various modalities emerged, it introduced new partners such as financial service providers (FSP), mobile money operators, banks and merchants, requiring greater digital dexterity, security and agility. To address this shift we discussed with WorldVision International about investments in enabling technology for the latest advancements and mechanisms provided by donors for individuals and households – born was the multipurpose Cash and Electronic Voucher.

So what have been the results of these developments?

Well according to WorldVision International, users of LMMS have reported efficiency gains, cost benefits and improvements in accountability, including:

• At least a 50% time reduction for registration, distribution & reporting activities
• 47% reduction in registration time
• 30% reduction in project related budgetary costs for LMMS versus manual activities
• 40% reduction in distribution staff and a corresponding reduction in related office and travel costs
• Multiple agencies report a reduction in fraud and double dipping – zero losses in inventory post LMMS
• Improved beneficiary targeting and savings through reuse of data
• Electronic audit trail of user activity and reports on which family member collected rations.
• Comprehensive reports by LMMS eliminate the need to capture thumbprints or signatures on paper – a development welcomed by both donors and beneficiaries alike

“LMMS enables efficiencies in time and cost, improves reporting and accountability, and enhances the experience for aid recipients.”

The benefits of a solid software development partner

Through our excellent cooperation with World Vision International we have also developed other solutions for them and their subsidiaries.

1. Loan Officer App: Platform aimed at helping families leave poverty – for good.
2. EBODAC: Community engagement platform to help with distribution of Ebola vaccins.

Who doesn’t love good food? Nobody. However, knowing how to cook quality food is a different thing – and that is where Bosch & Siemens Hausgeräte comes into play with their idea for MiClassa – a customised video communication solution. Why flip through a cookbook or search for cooking classes in your area when you can turn your own kitchen into a live cooking class? But how exactly do you do that?

Let’s start with the goal in mind

BSH wanted to create a social cooking application to engage their Kitchen & Home Appliance customers. This customised video communication solution should allow end-customers to sign-up for live cooking sessions with professional chefs. This way, their customers could take part in exciting cooking classes, recreate recipes with others, and learn something new no matter if they’re a beginner or if they have spent their fair share of time in the kitchen. Customers should also be able to ask audio questions, type messages and share photos of their cooking progress with other users and the chef.

And, of course, cook together!

Now we knew what goal we needed to achieve. However, there are always some challenges along the way to the desired destination…

BSH wanted their solution to be supported on iOS devices. What’s more, MiClassa end-users shouldn’t have to download any new software in order to use it. It should be a simple cooking app, which is easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and modern – so that people want to use it and come back to it to attend more cooking classes and engage with other customers. Last but not least, it had to be GDPR and ISO27001 compliant.

A customised video communication solution – Let’s talk requirements

MiClassa had to have only one-way video streaming, allowing only the chef to be visible but not allowing a customer to video-stream themselves. However, the customers should be able to leave audio recordings with their questions and comments and share photos of their cooking progress during the session. This product also had to provide multi-video chat rooms and live chats, and be built on REST API for integration purposes. Of course, future changes had to be taken into consideration, so it also needed to be flexible to allow for those future additions.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Development

In order to prove that the solution works and that customers were happy – we started a MVP development project first. Bosch & Siemens required the basic solution to first work and showcase it to their customers for feedback. We spent 4 months working intensively with Bosch & Siemens’ Project Managers using Agile development practices to show bi-weekly our progress, new features and collect their feedback – whilst keeping them up to date on the progress of the project.

So how did Yameo help them with achieving their goal?

Well we delivered what we promised. Based on the requirements we had agreed and by showing every 2 weeks our progress we kept Bosch & Siemens up to date. We launched the MVP into production to be tested and awaited eagerly the results!

Success – now let’s really go big!

The success of the MVP project meant new funding, new impetus and more motivation to expand what we had already developed. To be fair this sometimes felt like a whole separate project since we were focusing now more on business elements like scalability and flexible infrastructure. For the video engine we had decided on a robust provider and how Bosch & Siemens could host the video component themselves. We helped train them in maintenance and management of this component.

We expanded the features to include more complex social functionalities such as custom emoticons during chat, multiple camera angles for the chef and expanded the number of participants for sessions. All in all it was very exciting to know we were developing a solution which had already proven to be a success.

Self-hosting

After development Bosch & Siemens decided to host the solution themselves and maintain and manage the platform internally. We provided in-depth training workshops for their staff to learn how to manage and maintain the solution, as well as the video component. After deployment to their servers we helped with launching the solution and its initial run-time. We couldn’t be more pleased with how the launch went!