Case Study: Cost management platform development
A cost management system for equipment in the construction industry
8
-months
MVP delivered and investor-ready
55
%
reduction in charge rate preparation time
Business сhallenge
The Client referred to us with specific business goals and expectations. As top developers, we were expected to:
- check that the business idea is feasible from a technical perspective;
- build a complex system that calculates charge rates of construction equipment;
- implement a core charge rates calculator algorithm that must encompass all equipment costs during the exploitation;
- add a variety of visualizations and analytics to display vast amounts of information;
- be fully transparent: provide weekly work progress reports and monthly budget forecasts, and stick to the strict delivery schedule;
- be able to work within quickly evolving and changing requirements. Ability to track changes and keep up with requirements updates;
- achieve and maintain top development speed, present the Pilot version to potential Clients and investors on time;
- reach desired technical metrics regarding performance, security, and scalability.
Our solution
Client got a full-fledged platform with complex logic of real-time calculations and visualizations. The solution proves that the business idea is viable and helps the Client to move forward with the next investor rounds and further concept evolution.
- We developed a full-fledged web platform with all major functionality implemented. The MVP is ready for presentation to users and investors.
- We managed to programm algorithm that calculates the equiments charge rates. The algorythm encompasses custody and operating costs. Thanks to that, we proved that the business idea was viable.
- Comprehensive construction equipment management interfaces. Cost breakdown structure, construction equipment list with its properties, standard and unique properties for every type of equipment.
- Scalable architecture that can store and calculate a large number of machine equipment.
- Rich real-time visualization thanks to React framework and the Highcharts visualization library. If any changes are applied, the platform displays them on-the-fly.
- We applied management and Business Analysis approaches to handle changing and evolving requirements. The scope changed weekly, so the development process was based on a constant Design Thinking Process. The Client expanded, altered, and splited the requirements for the majority of features. We, in turn, had to adopt our plans and time estimation. As a result, classical fixed sprint planning turned out to be ineffective. Kanban was selected as the only possible method of work.
- Forecast employment for the rent period
Before:
- Equipment charge rates were calculated manually using spreadsheets – error-prone and time-consuming across custody, operating, and depreciation cost components.
- Cost data was fragmented across separate documents and tools with no unified breakdown of each equipment type’s properties.
- The business concept had no working software demonstration – investor conversations relied on documentation, not a live system.
- Evolving requirements were tracked informally, creating misalignment risk across a complex feature scope.
After:
- Real-time charge rate engine calculates rates across all cost components automatically, reducing preparation time by ~55%.
- A unified cost breakdown structure organizes standard and unique properties for each equipment type in one interface, updated on the fly.
- A production-ready MVP delivered in 8 months validated the technical concept and enabled the Client to advance to the next investor round.
- A Kanban-based delivery process absorbed weekly requirement changes while maintaining full scope delivery throughout the engagement.
