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plInter Cars SA – the biggest automotive spare parts importer and distributor in Central Europe. The listed company’s offer ranges over 2 million car, van and truck products. The current company capitalization is approximately USD 850 million.
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Inter Cars
PL | Transport
6
People in the project
4
Months
2019-2020
Cooperation
Client
Problem
The aim of the project was to increase customer engagement with the brand by delivering a mobile application that would serve as everyday help in regular car maintenance and monitoring of internal systems performance. The proposed solution was application offering free basic features and paid access to functionalities available with a hardware device connected to the car’s electronic monitoring system.
Results
InterCars GO is an application that allows the user to find and book a visit at the nearest workshop. The paid version of the service (with a diagnostic device plugged into the car) provides the User with a tool for monitoring the car’s systems and provides notifications about any issues in real time. The system’s backend analyzes the data from the diagnostic device and proposes solutions to issues that appear e.g. if the car battery’s voltage drops below a certain level, the app will suggest the nearest Inter Cars dealership providing battery services. The application also reminds the drivers of their car insurance renewal, MOT test expiration date, brake wear, mileage for tires.
Strategy
Creating the solution required close cooperation with the client and a thorough, mutual understanding of requirements. The backend of the system was to be delivered by Inter Cars’ team. itCraft was the provider of the full development of the app and connectivity with the car-installed peripheral device. Started cooperation with Inter Cars from joint UX workshops, which we carry out for each new project. After the UX workshops and the full UX / UI design process, we started working in the Agile team – from our side the Android team with QA and PM, from Inter Cars side – a team of backend developers. The Inter Cars team participated in every project meeting. Full transparency of operations increased efficiency and effectiveness of information flow in the project team. All Scrum ceremonies were conducted jointly – daily, retro, sprint planning and sprint review. The proper organization of the project meant that the work was carried out in a planned and very effective manner.
Technical Solution
The application was created in Native Android.
Thanks to the Bluetooth protocol it integrates with the OBD2 connector of the car.
Technological challenge
The reason why we decided on using native technologies in the Inter Cars project was:
- Low-level integration with third party hardware (OBD2 cube),
- One mobile platform – Android for pilot implementation of the solution,
- Highest quality of the solution required,
- Application was to be available for a variety of Android devices and versions of Android,
- Native technologies offer the best solutions for bluetooth connectivity.
The application is innovative due to the fact that this app connects to the car – we use elements that until now have been reserved for car workshops and diagnostic workshops. It supports sales because we can arrange a service that interests us in the car workshop.
The biggest technological challenge in the project was to communicate app with diagnostic device (OBD2). Supporting the OBD2 diagnostic device turned out to be a demanding integration task for mobile programmers. The problems encountered in parallel downloading data from the device had to be properly implemented to maintain the reliability of data download and presentation for the application user.
Client's review
Chief Product Owner
Inter Cars S.A.
itCraft is extremely ethical and very communicative, making the development process an enjoyable one for all parties involved. The best part of working with them is the time and focus they spent understanding what we wanted to build.