Q3 provides client with a complete fleet management solution

Q3's global sourcing model gives the maximum benefit to customers in terms of cost savings, improved quality, access to highly talented professionals, flexibility of operations and reduced time to market.

Company Profile

The client is an industry-leading vehicle tracking service provider and had more than 6000 vehicles and their number has now increased to 8000 vehicles.

Business Situation

Client had a vision to provide a service for tracking vehicles and cargos for companies which were facing a tough time managing their fleet of vehicles. This service provides real time tracking of vehicles and has both – a web-based tracking system and a desktop tool for tracking and configuring the system. The challenges which were needed to be met are as follows:

• Real Time tracking and monitoring of the fleet of vehicles. System provide user friendly interfaces to display and monitor the real time information related to the connected vehicle/fleet of vehicles and provides both Web and Desktop client interfaces.
• In case of vehicle break down, owner will receive an alarm.
• System will filter and process the captured data, and store the processed data on a database server. Also, the software will invoke an alarm in case of vehicle breakdown and other configured events.
• Provides a two-way communication between the vehicles and the clients, who are monitoring their vehicles.
• Support of RFID Devices.
• Configuring drive smart phone’s ArcPad for Geo fences and synchronizing the same with database geo-fencing.
• Providing Route Player in maps of ArcPad and helping drivers in finding the shortest path on their smart phones.
• Software supports multiple maps and is scalable for future maps.
• Software is able to support different type of devices and phones and has open architecture for future devices and networks.

Technical Situation
The client’s current product was already there but due to the customer feedback and new evolving technologies, new features had to be incorporated. Major driving factors related to the need for new product and enhancements of the Fleet Management System solution are as follows:

• User Interface is not user friendly.
• Product is non-scalable to new devices and does not support different communication mode.
• New business logic needs to be developed and required to be included in the product.
• Support for RFID devices and ArcPad tools needed.

Solution
The developed application is a complete fleet management system solution. Its simple interface handles the complexities of processing the raw data sent by the vehicles, configuring the alarms, and setting the vehicle configurations while giving the user a real-time vehicle monitoring and analysis tool. The key solutions provided to the client are:

1. Front end is developed using MVP architecture as both the web-based application and desktop application needs to be developed.
   
   Why use the MVP?
   
   The MVP Architecture Pattern is used to build ASP.net applications. It refers to splitting up the responsibilities for gathering, displaying, and storing data from a web page into separate objects, such as, a Model object, a View object, and a Presenter object. A View is often an interface which is implemented by an ASP.net web page and a Model is a business object. The Presenter negotiates the transfer of data between the other two objects.
   
   The advantage of using a view as an interface is that it can be implemented by many different presentation models other than a web page, such as a Finesse page, a NUnit mock class, or a Windows application.
2. The second challenge is to support the ArcPad installed on a driver’s mobile phone and monitor the location of the vehicle and the driver. The ArcPad communicates over the GPRS with the vehicle server and the Vehicle server distinguishes between the data sent from the mobile application and vehicle unit device. The ArcPad sends the data in XML which is processed by the Vehicle server and in turn the Vehicle server sends the response in XML, which is interpreted by the ArcPad. These requests are driver’s next assignment. A pickup point is the shortest route and a map in ArcPad also encapsulates the geo fence area of particular vehicle.
3. The Vehicle server is also capable of reading the RFID signal and processing them.
4. Also enables the review of the vehicle history along with real-time monitoring by the owner and the graphical reports with multi-level detail drill down and comprehensive results.
5. Numerous reports as given below were created in Crystal reports, which are as follows:
   
   - Individual Report
   - Group Report
   - Admin Report

The project was initiated by gathering the high level requirements and objectives from the client. A feasibility study was done at Q3 and a Proof of Concept was created to determine the architecture of the system. A Proof of Concept successfully demonstrated the advantages of breaking the application into three different components as it definitely scored high on the performance, scalability and security aspects. The application was designed and developed keeping in mind the scalability and portability and functional benchmarks.

Technologies

Operating System: Windows XP/Server 2003
Tools: ASP.NET 3.5 Framework and Controls/Visual Studio2008 IDE, Arc Pad
Language: C#, Javascript.
Database: mySQL.
IIS V6.0.
AJAX: With Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page.

Benefits:

• Shorter time to market due to highly flexible business model and work culture at Q3. The client used to get continuous feedback and customization requirements from companies, trade shows and partners and all this went on during the course of development process and change requests kept on coming regularly. Q3 ensured that these were processed efficiently, cutting down precious time lines.
• Business model and culture at Q3 entails ownership of the product development process. It is not only the team members who are dedicated to a client; it is the whole company management which works in complete tandem and efficiency to ensure that the relationship is seamless and successful.
• Q3 worked with the client in order to understand the requirement and future possible enhancements. While product development business functions of the client is performed efficiently by Q3, in the same time, client concentrates on adding more customers with the help of his in-house team. Thereby client achieves overall efficiency and sees an increase in profits.

Client takes pride in being able to provide latest technology product, which has more in terms of functionality compared to competition and incurred much lower cost to client. The developed product is scalable enough to encapsulate future requirements with minimal amount of rework. The work practice complies with ISO and SEI CMM standards.