Users of Magnetize’s heavy equipment and machinery job enablement web and mobile app drove a new product development phase led by software specialist Company-X.
Company-X senior software architect Luke McGregor insisted on talking to six users of the old version of the Magnetize web and mobile app about their needs before redesigning and rebuilding the software.
McGregor wanted to hear about the problems the software was being built to solve first-hand.
“One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is getting information secondhand doesn’t always work,” McGregor said. “So, we’ve had clients that we’ve been able to consult with.
“The first thing that we did was went to Auckland and interviewed six different Magnetize customers and potential customers from quite different businesses.
“We talked through different issues that they were facing in their businesses, the software that they were using at the moment, the pain points that they had, and the ways that they talked and thought about the problems that they had.
“There’s nothing like firsthand experience as a software person of the customers who will be using this in the end.”
Leading Auckland earthworks and excavation firm Dingo Groundworx particularly resonated with McGregor. As well as earthmoving and excavation, Dingo Groundworx supply diggers, named after the Marvel Avengers, Hulk and Thor, and is involved in landscaping and truck cartage.
“Dingo Groundworx does all sorts of things from digging a pool to foundations for houses,” McGregor said. “Their jobs are reasonably short. They started contracting out with a guy on a digger going and built their business from there. They also have a hydroseeding business where they plant lawns and spray grass seed on road verges,” McGregor said.
“We talked to them about the kinds of issues they were having.
“It was cool to hear the ways that they thought about their business, the kind of challenges that they had, the things that had become big issues, like health and safety, and how they had worked with existing software to try and achieve their goals.
“It was cool to talk to them in person and hear the kinds of issues they were raising around scheduling their diggers and knowing where the individual diggers were on a given day, so that they have the right equipment on site for the right jobs at the right time, and the right people to deal with them.”
Existing software focussed on smaller-scale operations did not meet Dingo Groundworx’s needs.
About Magnetize
Software from Magnetize that proved itself essential for enabling heavy plant and people in the reconstruction of Christchurch has been rebuilt from the ground up by Company-X. Magnetize was built by Pro-Drill Specialist Drilling Engineers to help the company keep on top of the rising workflow during the reconstruction of Christchurch.
“Before we went to Christchurch we were doing maybe 50 to 70 jobs per month in Auckland and within a year we had gone from 12 staff to 32 staff in Christchurch doing about 400 jobs per month,” said Magnetize product owner Scott Sherwin.
“A lot of people saw the software and asked where they could get it from, which gave us the idea that other people would want it.”
New Zealand software specialist Company-X redesigned and rebuilt Magnetize from the ground up in 2021 after a user experience review and a new product development phase involving user interviews.
Pro-Drill Specialist Drilling Engineers uses Magnetize to manage its teams based out of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
“We started with a pad and a pen a decade ago, but now there’s no way that we’d be able to run our company without Magnetize. Drilling equipment operators went from scanning their logs every day, printing them out and sending them to the office, to doing it all on a mobile app while sitting in their truck. Boom!”
Magnetize chief executive Paul Lyons said it was very hard for him to imagine running a heavy equipment and machinery business without Magnetize. “It’s just horrendous and unthinkable, because of the stress of it,” he said.
Lyons said there was nothing else on the market like his company’s web and mobile app combo.
DESKTOP DELIGHT- Magnetize’s new look job creation screen
