The client
Northumbrian Water Group is a leading UK utility company that supplies water and wastewater services in the North East of England. With a focus on customer satisfaction and environmental sustainability, they are dedicated to delivering clean, safe water and efficient wastewater management to millions of customers.
The challenge
Enhance the management of NWG’s field operations through a bespoke enterprise app.
The solution
A high quality app with a robust infrastructure being rolled out and implemented within their existing ecosystem.
Consumer grade UX/UI
Following user interviews and a thorough audit of requirements, we created detailed user flows and wireframes to validate and test the proposed UX of a mobile app that would hold all the information technicians needed day to day.
Catering to SMO needs
The app comes with a download facade to allow offline actions and data captured to be queued up and recorded once a connection is re-established, allowing sewerage maintenance operatives (SMOs) to work in remote, offline locations with their user experience unchanged.
Field testing the app
We worked with NWG to ensure robust technician field testing to help solve any issues our team might not be able to encounter while testing in an office setting. This ensured the app catered to field technicians’ needs without while providing NWG with the data they needed to capture.
Technology
Our expertise in Xamarin mobile and integrations development allowed us to deliver a robust and scalable app.
Xamarin
Using the powerful Xamarin mobile development framework, we are able to cut development costs and deliver apps in a shorter time frame, without compromising on a high quality user interface and user experience.
Azure
To meet security requirements, we used Azure Active Directory and a layered token exchange principal via Azure API Management to protect NWG internal systems. This combined with the use of Azure Hybrid Connection provides the end-to-end security needed by critical infrastructure companies.
Results
As NWG needed a solid infrastructure to support the rollout of future applications, the high quality of the app and its robust infrastructure caters for this requirement and has allowed them to implement the infrastructure into their ecosystem.
As an innovation focused company, we’re delighted to have been able to help NWG drive forward the innovation work they’re doing across their organisation, and help them reach their goals in innovating and overhauling their existing systems to the delight of their staff. Our working relationship has continued beyond the initial project, and we continue to support them in their other endeavours – such as their annual Innovation Festival.