We have developed a mobile app for the construction concern to track the working hours of road facilities involved in the construction.

The app performs a centralized record of the beginning and end of the working day, the location of the employee, and photographic evidence.

Customer's background

The concern, whose name we cannot disclose, is a diversified construction company operating in Finland and abroad.

Task

Help the management of a construction corporation to keep an automated record of working hours at remote sites. The problem is that employees are often late for work, are absent during working hours, and go home earlier. Due to a large amount of employees it is difficult to keep a manual record of late arrivals or illnesses. 

They turned to us for a systematic accounting system. The system must register the start and end time of the working day of each employee with photographs and data entry on the customer’s local server. 

Solution

We studied up in detail the specifics of the customer’s work. We found out that there are often situations when construction work takes place at remote sites in the absence of Internet coverage. It was also found that many employees have enough archived smartphones, so the installed app should be lightweight and simple in functionality.

Having considered all the features, we have developed the app’s logic so that it is as clear as possible to everyone, and at the same time task fulfilling. 

At first, we finalized the passes of all the company’s employees, providing them with special QR codes. In order for the customer to make new passes itself, we have developed a QR code generator recording the personal data of each employee.

In the app, we have implemented reading of QR codes, their synchronization with the server in the presence of an Internet connection, collection of data about the device location, and photographing an employee with its pass in hand (in case another person has the pass). The app automatically checks for updates in the server database for new or dismissed employees, and if found, this data is stored offline until the next connection to the server.

The app is implemented for Apple and Android devices and is distributed under a corporate license.

What we have provided

• Mobile app interface design
• Interface layout
• Extended data QR code generator
• QR code reader
• GPS tracking device
• Photographic evidence functionality 
• Caching data on the device
• Checking Internet connection
• Synchronization of data sets with the server and maintaining the history of previous synchronizations
• Preparation of apps and instructions for distribution under a corporate license

How it works

Upon arrival, the employee launches the mobile app. The message “Scan the QR code on your pass” is displayed on the screen. As soon as the camera reads the QR code, the app is synchronized with the server, if possible, if not, then checks the data against the database from the cache. After successful authorization, the rear camera is activated on the server on photo mode. The screen displays the full name of the person whose pass was scanned along with the message “take a photo”.

If necessary, the camera can be switched from front to rear. Once the photo is taken, it is optimized for sending to the server. Two buttons are shown on the screen: “Beginning of the working day”, “End of the working day”. The user presses the button, after which the app automatically fixes the GPS coordinate in which the device is located.

Each time the app is launched, it tries to synchronize with the server, sends the received data and receives an updated employee database. If an employee hasn't done the app synchronization for a long time, it will remind him of this need. The management receives a message about the long-term lack of synchronization, after which an inspection will be organized. 

Equipment

Any Apple devices of version 9.0 or higher, and Android version 4.4 or higher

Result

After implementation of our app the performance indexes have been significantly improved. Workers have improved their work discipline, and the sending of reports, the collection of statistics on employees employed at the facility, the number of hours worked and the distribution of labor costs have become automatic.