A regional electrical testing company relied on custom legacy software to capture and report high-voltage test results — until hard-coded templates and paper-based workarounds began holding the business back. Techlancer supported the aging system for years, then delivered a full rewrite that changed how the company collects, reviews, and shares its auditing data.
Key outcomes at a glance:
- Business process improvement
- Improved customer experience
- More accurate reporting results
- Labor reduction
- Data accessibility
Client: Regional Electrical Testing Company
Problem
The client performs high-voltage electrical testing at customer sites across their region, using custom legacy software to run the testing process — capturing data in the field and reporting the results. That software was built around hard-coded form templates, and as customers adopted new electrical equipment, those templates fell further and further out of date.
Field technicians also frequently needed historical test results to spot worsening issues, but with little to no access to that data on-site, they were left without the supporting information they needed to do their jobs.
The frustrations piled up. Staff had to shoehorn data into fields that didn’t fit, and there was no way to update templates as equipment inevitably changed. Technicians resorted to recording test results on paper, and office staff were employed to transcribe those notes into the legacy application. Emailing PDF reports to customers felt equally archaic and inefficient.
These problems had existed for years and were getting worse. Continuing to hard-code new templates was technically possible, but it was never going to be a sound long-term answer as technology kept evolving. Off-the-shelf template software did exist for the industry, but none of it offered the template creation and editing flexibility — or the data accessibility — the client wanted.
Solution
Techlancer built custom software that lets technicians record test results at customer sites in real time and deliver customer-facing results through a dedicated customer portal.
The new system also puts template control in the client’s hands: they can customize report templates themselves, keeping pace with changing equipment standards and providing better insights to their customers.
The field techs were thrilled to enter data in real time. Office staff shifted from transcribing handwritten notes to editing and packaging data. And with history tracking and the client portal, the company gained a real edge over its competitors.
Results / Outcomes
- Business process improvement
- Improved customer experience
- More accurate reporting results
- Labor reduction
- Data accessibility
Capabilities Demonstrated
- Web App Development
- Business Process Improvement Assessment
- Business Process Improvement
- Legacy software modernization
- Legacy software support
- Legacy software assessment
- MS Access Conversion
- Software integration with an in-house application
- Web Portal Development
- Data accessibility
- User interface design
- User training
- Mobile interface
- Cloud migration
- Cloud-based application development
Before the software was updated
Before each job, technicians printed paper copies of the form templates for every piece of equipment they needed to test. The papers were handed out to the team, results were recorded by hand, and after the job the team had to key everything into the legacy application — often falling back on generic text explanations instead of specific data points.
At times, office staff were brought in to transcribe the handwritten notes into the legacy system just to avoid testing delays. Finished reports were packaged as PDFs and emailed to the customer, with no way for the customer to access all of their reports in one place or gain any insight into worsening problems.
After the updated software was delivered
With the updated software, technicians can view historical information from their portal on a tablet or laptop while on-site. They enter information as tests are taken, eliminating the need to transcribe anything later. Office staff see test results as they come in, and senior engineers can review them to identify additional testing needs.
Customers now have a single location to review all upcoming and historical tests, with easy access to results and a summary of outstanding issues.
Overview
The modernized software provides:
- Ability to customize templates
- Real-time data entry on location via tablet or laptop
- Digital delivery (PDF and web view) of reports to the customer
- Historical views of equipment results and issues
- Results trending
Legacy Software Assessment
After a few years of straightforward legacy system support, we met with the client to review how their existing system was being used and where it fell short.
We continued meeting with staff across the company to understand how the system worked day to day, what frustrated them, and how they thought it could be improved — and we interjected our own questions and ideas along the way to gauge how valuable each potential change would be.
Demo & Scope
We put together a demo application and an initial scope, along with a ballpark estimate for the project.
Development
Once the project was greenlit, we fine-tuned the scope and began development.
We established a weekly sprint cadence, meeting with the client’s stakeholders each week to review progress and gather the answers we needed along the way.
Testing
As initial development wrapped up, we performed our internal end-to-end QA (Quality Assurance) and worked with the client to build a UAT (User Acceptance Testing) plan.
The new application ran side-by-side with the legacy application on select client jobs, with staff reporting issues and suggesting improvements. We implemented the updates and continued UAT.
Launch
Once the client was confident the application was performing as needed, a full launch date was set and all operations moved to the new application.
Ongoing Maintenance & Support
We continue to work closely with the client’s staff, supporting any issues that come up.
Features
- Real-time data collection
- Flexible web form design
- Equipment and issue history tracking
- Customer web portal
Technologies
Need your legacy business software updated?
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