Project

Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Testing (CVRT) Auditing Application & Reporting tools.

Nature & scope

The Road Safety Authority has overall responsibility for the monitoring, testing and enforcement of the roadworthiness of all vehicles in Ireland, the supervision of CVR Testing Centres and CVR Operators and the supervision of the National Car Testing Service (NCTS) Contractor under the NCTS Contract.

The RSA entered into an agreement with a Contractor whereby the Contractor provides technical inspection, auditing and related services to the RSA. The RSA and the Contractor required Dataconversion to develop a tablet-based inspection and auditing management system to allow the Contractor’s on-site inspectors assess the RSA’s Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Test facilities, their vehicle inspectors and their processes while in the field.

Dataconversion’s role and responsibilities

Dataconversion developed, delivered and hosts the software application (the App). This allows the Contractor’s on-the-ground inspectors provide the inspections and audits. Dataconversion also provides support for the bespoke business solution that administers these services.

Due to the geographic location of some of the country’s NCT and CVRT centres, the App needed to be mobile-compatible (tablet-based) and available and useable off-line. It also needed to allow the inspectors to upload their findings once they regained internet access, and the uploaded data synched with a centralised database and shared with a 3^rd party via an API.

The CVRT App includes the following:

• A tablet-based (Mobile App) inspection and auditing management system that functioned equally well both on and offline crucially aiding in the gathering of field data.
• Various functionality including
  • Work Scheduler
  • User Administration
  • Deliver Credit Calculator (Reporting Engine)
  • Performance Management tool
  • Workflow creator / editor, custom Workflows
• Core system training
• Upload of Inspection data, report and documents to the CoVIS API, handling data validation and business logic
• Update of incomplete inspections through the CoVIS API
• A central (Azure-hosted) hub that handled communications with the tablets once they were back online.
• A central hub that stored the inspection results.
• Facilitated reporting and analytics on the inspection system.
• Enabled system administration.
• Enabled calendars, appointments and schedules.
• Brought into existence multiple bidirectional APIs to communicate with various systems within the RSA.
• Robust security and access controls and MFA
• Flexibility to scale as more users are on-boarded
• Android Mobile Applications for AA Testers to carry out tests based on the template assigned and rules implemented for the particular job.
• API to enable the Mobile App to communicate (via REST API) with the
• Management reporting suite incl output to Excel /pdf etc

Essentially, Dataconversion developed a web application for the Contractor’s inspectors to create, manage, view the progress/schedule, view reports, build/edit job templates of CVRT jobs. The application includes highly customisable workflows and was produced in line with a project plan that was both time critical and safety critical.

The development required extensive interaction with RSA stakeholders, the Contractor’s stakeholders as well as third parties (e.g. Fujitsu and SGS), to be able to successfully deliver on time and on budget. Thus demonstrating Dataconversion’s ability to work well with various partners

In addition, an entire reporting suite was developed, which replaced the error-prone manual process that had been used to date and also offers various rolled-up summary reports specific to Contractor and RSA stakeholders. Furthermore, not only does the fully automated reporting solution give the RSA a view of ongoing jobs, but it also offers full visibility on various issues including defects and results from any operators which are at variance with standard results.

Summary

The project delivered a reliable, easy-to-use mobile system that helps inspectors carry out and manage CVRT audits more efficiently.

It replaced manual processes with a secure, automated solution that works both online and offline, improves reporting, and gives the RSA better oversight of vehicle testing across the country.

The success of the project shows Dataconversion’s ability to deliver effective technical solutions on time and in partnership with multiple stakeholders.