Planon International BV

Background
Working for large enterprises throughout Europe it is important to offer the best solutions and Planon International BV has over 26 standard applications that support and enable a range of facilities management functionality for their customers. However, there were still parts of the solutions that were reliant on work dockets and other forms that were paper-driven, and as a result, the company came under increasing pressure to offer mobile extensions to their applications.

As a software vendor, their initial reaction was to look internally to develop a solution and they investigated the development of a mobile solution using .NET and Compact Framework, but decided that this did not make commercial or operational sense. “We needed to mobilise our applications quickly without having to invest months of effort into acquiring PDA knowledge. We recognise that this is not our business and is a rapidly changing market, so we looked to Integral Mobile Data (IMD) to provide us with the necessary expertise”, commented the Manager of International Services, Planon International BV.

Solution
Using Integral mForms® Planon International were able to deliver the mobile extension to their application, using an XML interface, in six man weeks, without the need for specialist resource, and this included everything from specifying the requirements through to final roll out. The application was deployed for use on a ruggedised handset, and there are future plans to port the solution across to BlackBerry® handsets. The extension of the facilities management applications means that Planon’s customers are now able to serve their internal clients more rapidly, reducing the amount of paperwork, increasing productivity, and reducing overall costs. This has enabled significant savings to their customers businesses estimated to be in the region of millions of Euros. The Manager of International Services said, “We have a great relationship with IMD, and they are always supportive, cooperative, and responsive to both our needs and most importantly our customers requirements”.

Benefits
Both Planon International BV and its customers have gained significant benefits from Integral mForms®, the key benefit from the ISV point of view is not having to invest time and money to acquire knowledge in a fast moving mobile solutions market. What’s more, they have gained access to a superior tool set, which is easy to use and enables rapid application and deployment of new applications with little or no need for a large investment. Their customers have increased their productivity and saved significant amounts of time, resources, and money.

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