PMP Distribution (a division of PMP (NZ) Limited) delivers catalogues, flyers, direct marketing material, newspapers, and product samples direct to residential letterboxes throughout New Zealand.
To provide a competitive, quality assured service to customers, the delivery firm needs to be able to confirm times and details of deliveries made. An audit process, where area supervisors check random addresses, is used to achieve this, but PMP’s existing auditor app was no longer up to task. The app needed regular, in-person updates to keep running. With a workforce of area supervisors throughout New Zealand, manual data update processes every time a delivery area changed was not practical. And the Windows Mobile devices the app ran on were no longer available, so could not be replaced if they broke.
PMP worked with Theta to develop an alternative solution, one that would work well for both the company and its customers. The resulting mobile auditor app, built for Android phones, makes full use of device features including GPS and camera to process audits on a sampling basis, and then collect, store and send delivery evidence, in the form of GPS matched address data confirmations and GPS and address matched letterbox photographs.
PMP (NZ) Limited IS Manager (NZ) Mark Clayton comments:
Our area supervisors have found the application easy to use and far more reliable than the previous technology. The application is simple to administer and the over-the-air data updates have saved a lot of time both in the office and out in the field. The team are really pleased with the results that it has delivered. The use of leading edge technology by Theta has also given us reassurance in the longer term future of the application. This application is an important part of our service offering to our customers and gives us the confidence to help meet their expectations of our service.
The mobile auditor app was developed using HTML5, PhoneGap and Bootstrap frameworks, with ASP.NET WebAPI at the back end. These technologies are the foundation for LoCoMo, our mobile development framework that gets you from functional HTML5 mockups to working application code, fast.
Benefits
- A reliable mobile app built using the latest technology, and well suited to the needs of a field-based and distributed workforce.
- Increased accountability and customer confidence in delivery performance.
Technologies
PhoneGap
ASP.NET Web API
Twitter Bootstrap
