Artisans of custom drain manufacturing, local company Stormtech wanted to provide an online application to allow their distributors, and members of the public alike, to design and build their own custom drainage channels for installation in renovations and new builds.
Custom drainage channels were originally born from a requirement to meet special needs shower access for a disabled customer and has blossomed into an industry niche that enables customers architectural design freedom. The drainage design invented by Stormtech founder John Creighton to meet the needs of the wheelchair-bound customer is now a patented range of Stormtech drainage products.
Like any custom product, precision and accuracy are crucial to a successful end result and this traditionally involved a long paper-based lead-in process of form filling and coordinating between customer, builder/plumber and distributor. Stormtech’s goal was to overhaul this system to achieve a streamlined, visual, accurate procedure that meshed seamlessly with their other business processes.
Off-the-shelf products did not provide an adequate level of control or integration with their existing manufacturing and design systems and a few prior web-based attempts at a solution were unsuccessful.
But knowing intimately the rewards that can be achieved by thinking outside the box, Stormtech carried on its investigations into custom app development and IT Basecamp's software development team (never scared of a challenge) were able to build a solution using a number of different technologies and grit and determination. Some key technical aspects of the solution:
It had to be fast!! - development of a Single Page App using VueJS (client-side) and Laravel (server-side) frameworks. No 'traditional' website here … the result is an extremely fast and responsive application.
Animation effects - as the drain model starts to take shape, dynamic SVG rendering adapts the model according to changing inputs. Other animation effects enhance the customer experience making the product configuration a very visual process.
Custom PDF generation - this is not merely plonking data on the table and printing it out. Drain models need to be dynamically generated in real-time for PDF presentation.
Systems Integration - distributor lists, product thresholds, elaborate pricing models all needed to be incorporated. Rather than have to duplicate all of that data, the application provides bi-directional synchronisation for seamless integration with in-house systems thus miminising administrative overheads.
Check it out now. Go to Stormtech homepage and click on the Product Configurator.
Need help with a solution to your business processes? Get in touch today.
ITBasecamp acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of the country in this area and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. The South Coast of New South Wales where we live is Yuin country but indigenous people here come from a number of different groups including Brinja-Yuin, Budawang, Jerrinja, Murramarang, Walbunja, Wandandian and Wodi Wodi. We recognise their continuing connection and contribution to this land.