It wasn’t rocket science, nor we planned as if we were trying to build a spaceship. It was a blend of untiring communication from one of our business development managers and technical know-how of our mobile app development team.

I will unfold the story with a relative scenario...

Imagine a scenario –

You are manager of one of the warehouses of a multinational beverage and brewery company.

Over the years, you have struggled to effectively manage inventory in the warehouse which has prevented you from contributing to the efficacy of the supply chain.

Every day, you strive to better delegate jobs to the workforce and achieve the desired outcomes. One of the critical tasks in your tasks list include accurate counting of pallets and cases in the bins.

You manually assign jobs to your workforce, and direct them to start counting the bins. After two hours of manual counting, the counters make entries in the excel sheet and forward it to you for validation.

Once you receive the data, you start validating it. Unfortunately, the data is partly correct and in the end, all you are left with is a stockpile of inaccurate data. You end up re-directing the workforce to recount the bins resulting in significant time loss, rise in labour cost, frustration and poor inventory management that delays critical deliveries impacting business outcomes.

Though you strive for accuracy, somehow, your manual approach to managing huge inventories dent your efforts that bring bad repute to the warehouse management.

You are not new to this situation, but there is no alternative to overcome this tedious and time-consuming barrier to efficiency.

This is the scenario of the end-client, a multinational brewery and beverage company from South Africa having operations in more than 80 countries.

The owner of this company is a customer of our existing client, a leading developer and supplier of innovative telemetry solution to global companies operating in South Africa.

Our client and the owner of the beverage company happen to be school buddies.

It started on a Golf ground…

While absorbed in an intense golf match, our client’s client started discussing his warehouse management problems where stock counting and stock checking were manually executed using pen, paper and MS excel.

Our client, who is leveraging our technical expertise for one of his business solutions, came up with an idea to develop a simple and intuitive android application that would help to automate the counting process at large warehouses.

What the client wanted?

As an enterprise mobility services provider, our client entrusted us to deliver an android application. We only had five weeks to deliver a robust android application.

We were banked upon to provide end-to-end mobile app development services from business analysis and design to development, testing and deployment.

Right from the outset, we ensured that the project deliverables are documented and agreed by both the teams (client’s technical team and Cygnet). In the process, we suggested valuable features for the mobile app considering the long-term success of the application and its scalability.

Our technical team suggested Xamarin app development. Xamarin enables cross platform app development. So, in case, in the future, the app needs to developed for iOS as well, then the same code can be reused with minor tweaks.

Our business analyst team worked closely with the client’s team, analysed the scope of work and prepared wireframes for the application which were instantly approved by the client.

The design team played their part in quickly designing an immersive user interface.

Within 3 weeks, the development team developed the application, testers tested it rigorously using TestingWhiz – a test automation solution for web, mobile and cloud applications.

The team delivered an android app with the following features;

Online and offline mode

Offline data sync

Error notifications

Tracking of the assigned work

User-friendly interface

This app was just a tip of the iceberg. It was first tested in Lesotho as a pilot project.

The mobile application enabled warehouse managers to automate critical stock counting process, which resulted in;

Increase in operational efficiency

Reduction in labour cost

Significant cost savings across the board

Paperless operations

Quick turnaround to accommodate more jobs thus improving productivity

With the right approach, we delivered an android application within five weeks and with features that radically changed the counting process.

As a long-term vision…

The client is already marketing the app as a solution

Many breweries have approached our client for this solution

RFID based stock counting enhancement in the app is in the pipeline

White labelling is coming in to the picture

There is a lot of scope of automation - our R&D team in already working on it

Mobile device management is also being worked upon

As an enterprise mobility services provider, Cygnet provided end-to-end windows, android and iPhone mobile app development services for developing a disrupting mobile application that has a huge scope in breweries.

We follow the best mobile app development practices that ensure timely delivery of result-oriented mobile apps for global clients. No matter how tiny or complex your idea is, our experience and expertise help you to nurture your brain child.

If you are looking for a reliable technology partner to transform your ideas into actual products, wait no more, contact us or send in your inquiries at inquiry@cygnetinfotech.com.