PHP Commercial Painting today reached an important technology milestone by launching a development staging environment for PaintWorks and beginning the transfer of data from the company’s existing business-management system.
The staging environment gives PHP a controlled place to begin building and testing PaintWorks without disrupting the systems employees still depend on for daily operations.
Just one week earlier, PHP had begun planning a replacement for the company’s collection of disconnected technology platforms. The goal was to create a system designed around PHP’s own employees, projects and workflows rather than continuing to adapt the business to software built for broader purposes.
Moving the Company’s Operational History
Building the new platform required more than creating screens and features. PaintWorks also needed the company information already stored in the existing system.
The initial transfer included employee information, customer records, jobs, timekeeping data and other operational records. Preserving the relationships between that information was essential. A customer needed to remain connected to the correct projects, time records needed to remain associated with the proper employees and jobs, and historical project information needed to remain accessible.
Job photos presented one of the largest challenges.
PHP had accumulated approximately 24,000 photos connected to projects in the existing system. Those images represented completed work, project conditions, progress documentation and years of company history.
The existing platform did not provide an application programming interface, commonly called an API, that PaintWorks could use to retrieve the information through a normal automated connection. That meant each category of data had to be evaluated carefully and a reliable transfer process had to be developed.
“There were about 24,000 photos associated with the jobs, and the old system did not provide an API,” Chief Technology Officer Joshua Herbison said. “That was one of the biggest challenges.”
A Development Milestone, Not a Finished Product
Today’s launch does not mean PaintWorks is ready to replace the existing system. It marks the beginning of the development and migration process.
The staging area allowed PHP to build the foundation, study the existing data, test how information would be organized and identify problems before they could affect daily operations.
It also moved PaintWorks from an idea discussed in technology meetings into an active development project.
For PHP Commercial Painting, the work beginning today is about protecting the company’s operational history while creating a technology foundation designed specifically for where the business intends to go next.