The client is one of the leaders in digital sales for home builders. They wanted to build an application that would act as a compelling sales tool and support sales executives in presentation to customers. The application should engage homebuyers during their visit to a sales center, in effect improving the conversion rate for sales centers of home builders.
Digital Sales Assistant (DSA) was their original application, which provides a touchscreen presentation system and was built using Flash. This application was designed to encourage home shoppers to interact with floorplans, site plans, & options and to "virtually" explore their new neighborhood's amenities and features. However, it was not only difficult to customize but also ineffective to retain buyers. In order to help increase sales and the overall effectiveness of the sales presentation, the client required a Cloud based solution. They wanted to build an architecture that would support homebuilders with a content management system (CMS) to help customize the content. In addition, the application should be consistent with the builder and its community brand(s). The client also wanted to implement analytics to gain a better understanding of how DSA is being used, how customers are targeted, and what the customers are interested in.
The core challenge was to leverage an evolving technology for re-implementation of DSA. Enabling offline functionality with faster responses and multi-touch optimization for portable or handheld devices was another challenging task to accomplish. The new architecture should allow the home builders to print a customized brochure based on the buyer preferences. The client also wanted to integrate this tool with an external application i.e. Online Lot Availability (OLA) and to dynamically drive content.
PBS expertise in providing Microsoft Azure cloud solutions to the clients across varied industries. We have produced a cloud based architecture to re-imagine and re-implement DSA for the client. Our team built the cloud solution platform using Microsoft Azure (PaaS).
We have used SQL Azure to manage multi-tenant database for multiple home builders, and MVC architecture to manage multiple modules. HTML5 was used in building the application as it has features like video and audio support, cross browser support, mobile and touch device support, better interaction, and a smarter storage. We used ASP. Net Web API to consume the REST APIs through JQUERY , since HTML5 application is supported by all the devices, and is accessed only on HTTP protocols. Our experts used Kendo UI to support rich data visualization and Microsoft Translator to translate the application into various languages like French, Dutch, Spanish etc.
With the Azure cloud solution delivered by PBS team, our client can now enjoy new interface designed to actively engage visitors from the minute they enter the sales office or browse the web on any device. Using the DSA application with plugged-in Azure components, homebuilders now have the ability to move beyond the standard, static topography table and passive signage to a real-time, interactive display. The implementation of Azure analytics module in the DSA, makes it possible to track each buyer's journey to provide customer insights. Thus, continually improving the experience of both the buyers and home builders or sales executive.
