Industry Leading Auto Transport App Taps Softensity Expertise for Technology Upgrade
Overview
A leading auto services company was one of the first to market with an auto transportation application that matches auto shippers and carriers in an efficient online logistics marketplace. The technology automates the process that shippers and carriers use to connect, which was formerly dependent upon phone calls and paper transactions. In 2019, the company sought to modernize the legacy application using the latest technology in order to expand its capabilities.
Challenge
The company had several new features and capabilities it wanted to develop, but recognized that a technology upgrade would be necessary to implement the functionality. The complex app included numerous different software programs and outdated legacy technology. While the firm had a robust IT team, acquiring the skill sets required to expand its digital capabilities would have required a significant amount of time and resources.
The Solution
The auto services company had an existing relationship with Softensity, and were confident tapping into proven resources for help with the modernization project. Softensity’s highly skilled team traveled to the company’s offices for three weeks of face-to-face project immersion. The team’s prior experience working within a sophisticated technological framework ensured that there was no disruption in continuity, and no extra training required. All of Softensity’s expert resources were onboarded and integrated into the existing IT team seamlessly.
The highly valued team easily adopted existing processes, including Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) development working within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). The complex project involved interacting with a host of legacy applications and various programming languages to create autonomous interacting applications that could also interact with legacy systems.
Softensity’s team successfully modernized the code base and replaced outdated technologies with newer .NET languages in a React Native cross-platform mobile development framework. This allowed the team to add several new features and significantly advance the app’s functionality.
The Results
The full-service logistics system now connects shippers with more than 13,000 auto transportation companies. The powerful app is unmatched in features and capabilities, including services that range from condition reports to real-time location tracking that accounts for cellular dead zones.
Dealers and brokers can easily select the best carrier based on location, performance and pricing. The app also makes it simple for carriers of any size to maximize their loads on-the-go with a search function and other enterprise-level tools. These capabilities have helped clients facilitate inventory management at a time when supply chain disruptions have made inventory optimization more critical than ever.
The successful collaboration spanned two years and evolved into a long-term partnership that continues today. The auto services leader has been able to accelerate a variety of development projects over the years by tapping into Softensity’s flexible pool of expert resources — at times working with up to 50 team members.