Saltegra

Application to facilitate the process of auditing and certification of industrial companies

web app

Together with the client, we developed a fully functional application while operating across three different time zones.

About Project

About the company

Saltegra is a consulting firm with headquarters in California and an engineering team in the Philippines that specializes in safety and process risk management. The company's activities are focused on helping enterprises achieve their business goals while reducing risk as much as possible.

Saltegra's mission

Due to extensive multidisciplinary expertise and industry technical experience, Saltegra provides its clients with effective collaboration using the necessary methodologies and tools.

our work

Project Management

UX & UI

Frontend

Backend

QA

Purpose of Cooperation

Improving the audit and certification process for industrial companies that deal with chemical and hazardous material storage.

1. Process

The client approached us in early 2020 to develop an application that would streamline their audit and certification processes for industrial clients. This was accomplishedusing a number of tools. Among the tools they had been using prior to working with us were Google Drive, Microsoft Excel and Asana. This form of project management significantly increased the time of the entire process. Therefore, due to the large number of service categories provided by Saltegra, the idea arose to manage all these operational aspects from a single application.

Working with the client was a logistical challenge, as we were operating in three different countries (Poland, USA, Philippines) located in three different time zones. Therefore, we had to work out a solution that would allow us to get together at times convenient for everyone. Before we started the MVP application development, we jointly conducted a Discovery Phase session to better understand the reality of the project and think carefully about the functionalities of the solution being developed.

The project team consisted of:

1 x Project
Manager

1 x Team
Leader

1 x Frontend
Developer

1 x Backend
Developer

1 x UX/UI
Designer

1 x QA
Specialist

Discovery Phase

Our first step with the client was a Discovery Phase meeting. During the session, we discussed the project vision and the various functionalities that were to be included in the application. The joint workshop helped us to familiarize ourselves with the reality of the industry in which Saltegra operates. Conducting safety audits and granting certifications among chemical-related companies is not a simple activity. Especially in the case of all kinds of industrial processes related to the storage of chemicals and potentially hazardous materials, which are subject to specific legislation. We paid attention to the client's competition and looked for its competitive edge against the background of companies with a similar business profile available on the market. The Discovery Phase was also a kind of prelude to the application MVP development we undertook next.

MVP Development

We started working on the Minimum Viable Product application in June 2020 and the whole process took several further months. While working on the MVP, we drew on the resources we created during the Discovery Phase. By using the personas we defined, we began working on the process dissected earlier. We established the scope of the project and prepared the first app designs, which covered three personas: admin, engineer and client.

Szymon, Senior Ruby on Rails Developer

I very much appreciate the cooperation on the Saltegra project. This is a project that was a big learning field for me due to the specifics of the client's industry. In addition, communication with the client took place without any complaints, so I felt adequate support throughout the project. At the same time, from a developer point of view, working within Vue.js gave me a lot of pleasure during the development of the application.

Roles of personas in the project

The admin capabilities are designed to manage the engineering team from within the application. He assigns them specific clients and projects. The engineer is able to see all the necessary information to which he was previously assigned by a delegated person. The last person operating within the application is the customer. This person's role focuses on project management. Each client has an overview of all projects and can comment on the actions taken by the team. The delineation of each of these roles was a very important factor for the entire project. It allowed us to define the relationship between different users of the application and divide the functions assigned to them. This resulted in the development of an authorization solution which made sure that users could only access resources that were related to their duties.

2. The features

Project development and management

With this feature, Saltegra representatives were able to create projects and enter the necessary data into them. In addition, special reminders can be added to each project based on the assumptions covering each of the company's services. The functionality also enabled file upload. This is a very important option that allows for the exchange of technical specifications between team members and the client.

Project Hierarchy

An important feature of the application was the development of a project hierarchy. This feature makes it possible to create, manage and assign teams to clients. Thanks to this division, it was possible to create a system in which each team member knows what they are responsible for and to which group they belong. In this way, we streamlined the delegation of tasks, but also the responsibility for specific duties. Each user has a precise definition of what falls under his or her responsibility.

Reminders about deadlines

Due to the large number of projects and services undertaken by Saltegra, we have introduced special reminders for deadlines. These are posted on the application's dashboard, but are also sent by email. The notifications make it possible to complete the project in the planned time and at the same time improve the management process. Reminders were displayed based on the approaching deadline to deliver a particular part of the project.

Import of technical information

The most difficult task when working on functionalities was importing technical information. Due to the nature of the industry in which Salterga operates, it was difficult to understand all the technical issues related to, for example, technical attributes associated with chemicals. It took a lot of time to familiarize ourselves with these details in order to properly design the system in line with the required legal guidelines. In addition, we often had to import data that was in different systems and formats which caused problems. Therefore, we decided to standardize everything properly so that the data would not change during the import and the upload would take place without any disruption.

Components of the service

The data structure was divided into three areas: project, services and chemicals inventory. The most important in this hierarchy was the project, which formed the basis of the entire process. In the case of services, each of them could be further nested. As part of a risk analysis, for example, the client can include project details like location, deadline, status, as well as add files.

3. Technologies & integrations

Rails
PostgreSQL
Vue.js
Boostrap
Amazon S3
AWS SES
Figma
Miro

4. UX/UI

For the Saltegra application, we developed designs tailored to each type of user. Whether it was an administrator, an engineer or a customer, each persona stood out visually, thanks to the different colors assigned to them. In addition, UX/UI work also addressed the other functionalities of the application. A great example to illustrate the design issues is the color-coding of upcoming deadlines, which reminded users of the upcoming time to prepare the various stages of the project.

Konrad, Senior Front-End Developer

For me, the biggest challenge was to create logic under bootstrap so that different color versions of the application could be visualized. The project itself was very inspiring, and I'm sure the experience I gained from it will pay off more than once in my future work.

Final Product

RESULTS & FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

The result of the cooperation with Saltegra was the commissioning of an application enabling more efficient management of the company's processes and reducing the number of external tools used. By bringing together the functionalities described above, the client has a tool that integrates with each other all the most important stakeholder groups assigned to its business. It included both engineers and service recipients.

An unquestionable challenge for us was the client's industry, which we learned from scratch throughout the project, adapting our solutions to its realities. It is also worth mentioning the cooperation across different time zones, which was an important factor we had to take into account when planning support sessions, meetings and workshops. During the development process we regularly provided demos of the application to show the client the progress of the work and to correct any inaccuracies that appeared at the time.

Testimonial:

Railwaymen has proven to be a trusted partner in new product introductions and early prototypes. Their skilled engineers always aim for the perfect balance between outcome now and future scale. In addition, they don't stay with a narrow view of our first solution. Their team helpfully provides recommendations for future opportunity and growth in the solutions they develop as well. Finally, their team is extremely communicative and punctual and gives a high level of transparency; it makes it quite easy to work with them.

Rion Angeles, Technical Advisor, Saltegra

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Joanna Brzezińska-Wajda - Head of Sales

Joanna Brzezińska-Wajda

Head of Sales

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