Project Objective: Troy Web Consulting was tasked with developing a mobile application for Virtual Moving Technologies in 2015 which planned to disrupt the moving industry. Over the years, the Troy Web Consulting team has implemented multiple integrations/improvements to the application. The objective was to create an application that streamlines the process for estimating a move by eliminating the need for a salesperson to go onsite. Furthermore, this application increases the accuracy of the estimates by utilizing both voice-to-text and video analysis.
Project Background: Moving is hard and the Virtual Moving Technologies (VMT) application makes moving easier than ever. Using VMT means no salespeople in your home, no appointments to keep, and no wasted time when moving. Movers can now inventory their own belongings with ease and get a quote from a moving company (Learn more at Moveprice). Moving companies also benefit from VMT by being able to provide estimating services to their customers on the web and through the mobile app (Learn more at www.virtualmovingtech.com)
Troy Web Consulting has worked with Virtual Moving Technologies since its inception to make improvements on the application that makes it easier for movers and moving companies to get a more accurate quote.
The Challenge: The role of VMT staff and the value of the VMT platform is in the assessment of the inventory for the purpose of quoting and preparing for the moving job. Originally, VMT staff would review video uploads and create an inventory on behalf of the customer. As time went on and technology evolved, Troy Web Consulting made the following improvements allowing for better dictation and video analysis of items to be moved.
Rekognition Proof of Concept (POC) Recognizing a grand piano vs. a large coffee table through video can be harder than you think. With shaky, low-quality videos, the VMT staff had a hard time recognizing certain objects while reviewing. Conveniently, Amazon released a new program called Rekognition which allows apps to identify objects, people, and text within a video. Troy Web Consulting implemented the Rekognition service into the application, which ultimately resulted in more accurate object recognition.
Live Video Support As a solution to pre-recorded videos and unclear images of items to be moved, the VMT staff requested a live video feature to better serve their clients. Troy Web Consulting implemented this feature along with scheduling times for live video with the help of integrated applications like Cordova, Calendly, and Tokbox.
Quickbooks Integration As VMT grew its clientele, invoicing became more complicated and more time-consuming. Rather than building a payment processing system from scratch, Troy Web Consulting integrated QuickBooks Online to the platform, allowing for setting per-customer billing rates, better management of customers and invoices, and more.
Online Portal Development As the number of moving companies that rely on VMT to serve their clients grew, so did the need for a better way to manage their clients. Troy Web Consulting designed a web application for moving companies to manage sending surveys, obtain inventory information, and manually input furniture/inventory information.
Voice Recognition Moving involves a lot of inventory and because of this, it is imperative that the VMT staff be able to simplify their inventory management process. Troy Web Consulting has built a voice-activated feature to allow staff to “talk-to-type” their inventory commands, making inventorying easier than ever.
Business Impact: The continuous improvements of Virtual Moving Technologies’ software led to visible improvements to its process and overall customer satisfaction. The voice recognition, for example, increased the overall performance and reliability of day-to-day operations for VMT staff and assisted them with their inventory management. The Quickbooks integration made improved invoicing for their customers, allowing VMT to bill each customer both individually and more accurately. These integrations also play a key role in the ability for VMT to scale their business as they begin contracting with more large moving companies, including government contractors providing moving services for military families.
“Our plan has always been to scale Virtual Moving Technologies to the international level,” said Tom Tama, CEO of VMT. “We now have contracts with large moving companies and we are growing exponentially. Our partnership with Troy Web to continue to advance our platform and incorporate leading edge technology has been instrumental in our ability to operate at the next level. Troy Web has been reliable, flexible and they not only understand technology, they understand our business. The investment has been worth every dime.” — Tom Tama, CEO of Virtual Moving Technologies