Smart Company Project:
Constructiv

Constructiv is a service organization for the construction industry. It’s an umbrella company which represents different construction companies. One of Constructiv’s objectives is to support individuals, allow their talents to grow and provide them with the necessary requirements to find their way in the industry. This implies providing certifications and exams to ensure the necessary competencies and safe working conditions are met on the construction site.

What was needed?

Certain tasks on a construction site can only be performed by certified personnel. Precisely for this reason, site managers must be able to verify that workers are capable to perform certain jobs. In the past, construction workers therefore had to bring paper copies of their certificates. These copies had to be carefully managed by both site supervisors and employees to ensure that they had not gone lost, that they were still valid and had not expired.

In order to make this process run smoother, Constructiv asked for a website where employees could add new certificates, manage existing certificates and import old certificates. Employees needed to be able to schedule and manage their exams. Furthermore, the website had to be able to generate PDFs of these imported certificates. These requirements were necessary on the level of the employees who obtained the certificate and on the level of the site supervisors. Finally, it was important that the application could integrate with the existing Kentico CMS system.

What Sirus provided

Because of Constructiv’s needs, Sirus built a twofold application. We set up the frontend using the Blazor framework. Since the solution had to be able to integrate with Constructiv’s existing Kentico CMS we made sure the web API allows integration of external applications, such as the Kentico CMS. This CMS is used by the employees to retrieve their certificates as well as to view scheduled exams. Subsequently, the backend utilizes the ODATA protocol. This protocol allowed us to quickly set up the frontend using the Radzen framework.

The solution further integrates with Constructiv’s existing infrastructure. Not only is there an integration with Active Directory for authorization and authentication, but the PDFs of imported certificates are also stored in Constructiv’s SharePoint and the management of confidential documents is done through Constructiv’s Azure KeyVault.

During interim completions, the system was carefully tested so that feedback could be given and the system could be adjusted where necessary. As a result of this constant feedback loop, the system itself became very user friendly: if users go to the website, they can easily navigate through the different functionalities. Furthermore, the solution was adapted for the future and is therefore designed with the possibility to install and integrate extra plugins.

Technicalities of the project

Planning and managing code:

Azure devops
Repositories devops
Scrumbord azure devops
Azure KeyVault.
Sharepoint

Frontend:

Blazor: ODATA API
Radzen
Kentico CMS: Rest API, C#, Net Core 3.1

What’s next?

The project was finalized well within the agreed term. Further expansions to the project are possible, but might not be relevant right now. This however does not mean that the cooperation between Sirus and Constructiv reaches an ending. Due to the smooth cooperation, new plans are being made for more projects in collaboration with Sirus.

What our Sirus’ members think about the case

“When new certificates are obtained, PDFs of these certificates have to be generated. Making this process performant was a nice challenge for me.” – Arnaud Van der Poorten

“Working together with different stakeholders made sure the project was challenging and varied. I think we were able to deliver a very nice result”. – Maarten De Muynck

What the client thinks about the case

“During this project, the communication was always very clear and pleasant. This efficient communication resulted in a smooth collaboration. The Sirus team discussed every different aspect of the project and kept a careful watch over the efficiency of the project in its totality.

Another aspect we really liked about this collaboration with Sirus was the involvement of the developers. They were clearly thinking along to understand our business and wanted to help in creating the optimal solution adapted to our needs. The Sirus team maintained an open and honest communication and always informed us about their progress, unexpected issues and what solution they proposed.

The project was finalized well within the agreed deadline. Sirus sometimes gave feedback to implement certain technicalities differently in order to make the system more efficient. These implementations sometimes required certain deadlines to be postponed, but this was always done in mutual agreement with us.

Thanks to the knowledge of Sirus and the expertise, good communication and thinking-along-mentality of the developers, the solution was built optimally. It was a correct and honest collaboration with an optimal communication flow which allowed us to put our project completely and safely in Sirus’ capable hands.”

Marina Deroulou, IT manager at Constructiv & Willem Van Peer, Technical Competence Center Manager