I just love the software we have now, what the web application can do and how it looks like. This is also reflected in the consistently positive feedback from our customers.
Tobias Vock
Application engineering & product development
Increased usability through global versioning and a more intuitive user interface
Labor savings due to lower launch and consulting costs
More flexible use through browser-based development
Founded in 1911 as a sawmill, the family business has developed into an ecologically active manufacturer of timber building materials for the construction and insulation of timber and passive houses, single-family homes and multi-storey timber buildings. Thanks to regional timber, short transport routes and innovative production processes, all products are manufactured in a closed operating and raw material cycle. The company's more than 4,000 customers include carpenters, timber construction companies and prefabricated house manufacturers.
Source: best wood SCHNEIDER®
Source: best wood SCHNEIDER®
As a manufacturer of timber construction elements, best wood SCHNEIDER GmbH not only supports its customers in the production and selection of the right products, but also offers engineering services. An important part of these services is the free structural analysis software best wood STATICS, which allows structural engineers and architects to calculate and display the structural analysis of SCHNEIDER products.
Since the software is primarily used in hospitals and other medical facilities, the processed data is subject to strict regulatory requirements. It was therefore necessary to ensure that all relevant standards were consistently met even during new development.
It wasn't just about developing a successor version of the existing software. Instead, a future-proof platform with a long-term migration strategy should be created. The move to.NET should not only create a more modern and widespread technology base, but also address the growing need for web and cloud applications.
In the course of in-house development, there was a desire to critically question the direction of the project. An external software audit should provide objective feedback on structure, processes, code quality, and software architecture. Saatmann commissioned generic.de for this independent analysis.
Regardless of operating system and device: best wood STATICS as a browser-based web app.
Due to the many dependencies in the inventory code, STATICS had to be completely redesigned as a web application. To do this, our developers worked in an agile team with the original developer - who, as a structural engineer, also brought the necessary domain knowledge.
The big advantage of this was that we were able to rebuild STATICS from the ground up as a sustainable clean code application. "I'm not a programmer - so I can't judge the quality of the code. But: For me as a customer, Clean Code simply gives me the security of being independent. I don't want to be left with a piece of code that no one understands in 10 years' time and have to start from scratch," says project manager Manuel Stuhlinger.
Up to now, new versions have meant one thing in particular for Manuel Stuhlinger: extra work. First, he had to write information about what had changed and why. These had to be sent to customers in the form of newsletters, including a download link. In the end, many customers called anyway - mainly because they hadn't updated and their version was giving incorrect results. Thanks to the web application, software updates can now be imported live and all customers are on the same, up-to-date version - without having to download it.
Tobias Vock says: “The result took a lot of pressure off us internally. We now had neutral confirmation from outside that we were on the right track and knew which adjustments we still needed to work on.”
In addition to adding new features to the existing modules, a completely new module is also planned. In addition to roofs and ceilings, Schneider walls can therefore soon also be statically calculated with bestwood STATICS. We are already developing the new module for the app.
“We deliberately did not want to bring a pure consulting firm on board. It was important to us that we talk to people from practice during the project. We wanted a partner who knew how to develop software in a corporate context and also do it ourselves. That was the case with generic.de. As a result, the collaboration took place on equal footing, which our developers also really appreciated.”