Servoy enables DB Services GmbH to quickly create powerful Android applications

DB Services evaluated a number of development platforms. The company chose Servoy’s Mobile Application platform because it offers the flexibility DB Services was looking for.

With Servoy Mobile, the code can run seamlessly in any environment, from desktops to smartphones of all kinds. Servoy also provides a framework of components that can be used to cut down development time, effort and cost. DB Services also appreciated the dedication of the Servoy team to help customers and partners. Thomas Kammerer, ITC Project Leader at DB Services, says: “Jan Blok, Servoy’s Chief Technology Officer, spent a lot of time answering our questions during ServoyWorld. It provided a huge boost to our project’s productivity.”

Migration to the Servoy platform began in March 2012 and was expected to take between 12 and 18 months. The project included a complete redevelopment of the QES application, extending it to all mobile clients. It took only a short presentation by the Servoy team for DB Services’ development team to learn to use the platform.

Ongoing help from Servoy kept the momentum going for maximum productivity. A “quality, capture and evaluation” system was developed for the cleaning of buildings and vehicles. An initial pilot was run in Hamburg and Stralsund.

Most of the 30,000 trains used by Deutsche Bahn are cleaned every day, with 5% of the cleanings checked for quality. The application must therefore be easy to use on-site while providing access to all data. The station inspection system contains data for the more than 5,000 stations. The mobile device displays the location, vehicle and service performed. Based on this information, the system automatically generates a test list: what needs to be checked, how it needs to be checked and what quality levels have been agreed on. The data captured during the checks is transferred from the Android device to the application server. 

The data is transmitted immediately if the device is online, or at the next synchronization with the server. As a result, the latest data is always available for analysis or further processing. Data evaluation has also been simplified. Until now, data from different domains had to be aggregated manually to provide a countrywide report for DB Services’ management in Berlin. With the new system, all the data is available in a single system, providing comprehensive and detailed information on all the checks that were performed. The data can also be visualized in dashboards.

The Servoy Mobile platform provided the development team with a modern environment. The old system was distributed over several group servers and required regular synchronizations of the databases. The new application sits on a single server, which is always up to date.

Development with Servoy is simplified and accelerated, requiring less effort. The code runs on all mobile devices out of a single code base. Whether the team is developing new applications or integrating existing applications and databases (now an easy and straightforward task), the Servoy platform consistently generates a massive productivity increase.

The automatic, bidirectional synchronization of all data captured on mobile devices makes it immediately available for analysis and reports. This allows quick documentation and evaluation of the data, and timely introduction of control measures, if needed. The code can be implemented independently of databases, operating systems, or devices, dramatically reducing maintenance.

The development team can focus entirely on migrating the remaining DB Services applications to the new environment. Thomas Kammerer summarizes the benefits of the new development environment: “With Servoy Mobile, it’s quick and easy for us to develop flexible applications that run on any platform.”