Solution House expands its no-code service-management builder

Cape Town-based software and solutions developer Solution House Software is offering its clients a fast and affordable way of creating integrated service management solutions with customised smartphone apps for their business.

Delivered using a no-code rapid application builder based on the Incident Desk framework, the new service allows customers to build their own service management solutions and smartphone apps without the time and expense of developing their own bespoke applications.

Solution House Software director Tiaan Janse van Rensburg says one of Incident Desk’s many advantages is the included smartphone app that connects all users to the Incident Desk environment and allows them to log service requests and accept tasks on location in real time.

“Our clients embrace Incident Desk for its ability to overcome the limitations of multiple entry books, spreadsheets and proprietary management systems to create a centralised tool for allocating, routing, tracking and resolving service requests and incidents,” says Janse van Rensburg.

“The smartphone app is an important part of the ecosystem because it makes service request logging and management instantly mobile and immediately available to all users,” he says. “But many clients want to go beyond the basic smartphone app included with Incident Desk and customise it to better suit their unique environments, or combine it with other functionality, not to mention brand it so that it forms an extension of their organisations’ identities.

“We created the no-code rapid app builder with these requirements in mind, giving clients a way to create their own unique smartphone apps linked to Incident Desk but branded and coded to function like their own bespoke applications.”

The app builder is part and parcel of the solution. Janse van Rensburg says the process of creating branded apps from scratch could cost hundreds of thousands of rands. “With a few clicks our clients can publish their service management solution in real-time and literally design their own apps for a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time,” he adds.

The Incident Desk no-code framework includes many components commonly used in a modern real-time business environment such as POPIA-compliant facial recognition, document management, people and personal file management, QR code scanning and fixed asset management, mobile user tracking and dispatch management, and an integrated panic button.

“A good example is an application we created for a national fibre installation and project management company. The solution allows the company to create and map projects and assign purchase orders to sub-contractors. The sub-contractors can then accept tasks on the mobile app and Incident Desk will confirm when they are on site in real-time and record the duration for invoicing purposes.

“A further example is a contractor management solution using POPIA-compliant facial recognition developed for a security estate. The facial recognition solution is used to identify a contractor and his or her employees, retrieve the contractor file and status in real-time on a mobile device, and view their service requests or outstanding fines,” says Janse van Rensburg.

Further examples of solutions built with the no-code framework include a COVID health check app and a vehicle check-list solution.

“These are great examples of how we can extend the functionality of Incident Desk on the one hand and create a truly customised experience for our customers and their clients. All of which can be done with zero coding experience, which is quite remarkable,” says Janse van Rensburg.

Incident Desk is an integrated management system that scales from a single customer or site to multiple mixed-use zones, from managing a single room in a single building to managing entire cities. It’s limited only by the number of people assigned to work with it, and given the proper access tools to use it. This diversity of use can already be seen in prominent mixed-used zones like Century City in Cape Town, in the management of multiple city districts in Cape Town and the Johannesburg city centre, by global security firm Securitas, and in the UK’s National Oceanography Centre.