Hamilton software specialist builds vital tool for businesses struggling to schedule people and equipment

From left: Company-X co-founder Jeremy Hughes, Rachel Primrose, software quality assurance tester, Jes Elliott, Sara Bahr and Company-X co-founder David Hallett. Photo / Supplied

Businesses can more easily schedule and track people and equipment with new business management applications powered by Magnetize and built by Company-X.

New Zealand owned and Pukekohe-based Magnetize launched new business management software after Hamilton software specialist Company-X spent six months redesigning and rebuilding its seven-year-old desktop and mobile app from the ground up.

The result is a vital tool for businesses struggling to schedule people and equipment with full visibility from quote to invoice. Magnetize is used by a wide variety of industries including civil engineering, construction, earthworks, hire, rental and transport companies.

Magnetize handles quoting and scheduling and is integrated with accounting software Xero for invoicing. It allows for the hosting of associated job-specific files like photographs, health and safety documentation such as Microsoft Word documents and PDF files.

Before coming to Company-X for help, Magnetize had spent seven years and millions of dollars with offshore software developers in India building its feature-rich business management software. Users loved the features but found the desktop app overly complicated and cumbersome, and the mobile app unusable.

Magnetize technology partner The Instillery recommended a user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) review and suggested Company-X as a technology partner. UX and UI designer Briana Christey reviewed the existing software and interviewed users concerning their experience.

"Importantly, Magnetize wanted to build a world-class product that was driven by clients and solution for their pain points," Christey said.

"Overall, we found that Magnetize user application was feature-rich, but rated low in usability and aesthetics, affecting overall satisfaction and adoption of the product.

"We were talking constantly with The Instillery general manager Richie Jenkins about our frustrations, our desire to bring development back to New Zealand and to partner with the best," said Magnetize chief executive Paul Lyons.

"He said, 'If you're going to do this, you've got to get Company-X onboard.' "We had development goals but just as important to us was a good cultural fit. Magnetize is a values-driven company. Our values are centred on honesty, integrity and trust-based relationships. We take pride in being accessible.

"It is critically important to us that we partner with similar companies, leaders who excel at client service. We met with the Company-X team, they are outstanding and have exceeded our expectations, which are high and, as they say, the rest is history!"

Company-X senior software architect Luke McGregor, left, discusses a problem with Cory McKenzie. Photo / Stephen Barker

Company-X senior software architect Luke McGregor examined the existing software and recommended a replacement approach as the best and most cost-effective way of resolving the usability issues and modernising the technology.

Company-X led a full product development process which resulted in the design and build of an entirely new, easy to use, version of Magnetize from the ground up.
The decision to rebuild allowed the team to start again with a customer-focused product design methodology.

The project included exhaustive interviews with the Magnetize team behind the original concept as well as existing and prospective users. Feedback was collected at every stage of the project.

In the redesign and rebuild, Company-X humanised the user experience.
"Humanising the experience is about adopting a user-centred approach and thinking about real people, going about their workday, who will be using this software," Christey said.

"Sometimes we would role-play a phone conversation or speak aloud user stories to clarify the contexts we were designing for. At every stage of development, we went back to users and a group of potential users to get their input and feedback. Being user-centred keeps us on track to solve real problems in the best way.

"In Magnetize, users can create a job in a few seconds because we've simplified the number of fields and clustered information into logical groups," Christey said.
The Company-X team prides itself on experience in a wide range of technologies and languages and loves challenging problems.

Company-X is the first Australasian reseller of RealWear head-mounted tablets.

Company-X ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific, a list of the fastest-growing technology companies in the Asia Pacific region, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.