SwiftComply
B2B service marketplace platform for restaurants
About the project
SwiftComply is a complex project designed to modernize regulatory processes and improve relationships between restaurant owners and regulators. It consists of a B2B service marketplace that matches restaurants with the most reliable local grease haulers (SwiftQuote), a platform where cities can manage restaurants as to their compliance with grease regulations (SwiftComply City), and a CRM where service providers can manage their prospects, customers, and compliance (SwiftWorks).
Project summary
SwiftComply connects food entrepreneurs, regulators, and
service providers on a single platform with the purpose of protecting the community and
environment. The project helps cities modernize their operations and ensure their compliance
programs fit into the constantly evolving regulatory landscape.
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Categories:
Service
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Location:
Pleasanton, CA
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Services:
Web development, Web design, Ruby on Rails development, support and maintenance services
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Business type:
Startup
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Project history
The customer is a startup launched in 2016. However, the project idea dates back to 2008. At that time, its owner and founder, Mick O’Dwyer, had been working at the Dublin City Council, where he had created the first fat, oil, and grease regulation program in Europe. The aim was to address the pressing problem of an excessive build-up of FOG.
Having noticed that outdated regulatory processes and the fragmented relationship between restaurant owners and regulators brought to naught all clean-up efforts, Mike O’Dwyer came up with the idea of creating a specific tool to modernize the way cities collaborate with the foodservice industry, and thus, fix this issue.
In 2016, the customer started bringing his ideas into reality. Gradually, several separate software products have been created. They were SwiftComply City 2, a platform where cities could manage the compliance of restaurants with local grease regulations, and a service marketplace SwiftQuote/SwiftWorks that connected restaurants with grease haulers.
Moving forward, Mike O’Dwyer needed extra developers to enhance his products with new functionality. After careful consideration, Mike decided to outsource his project to a remote software development company. His core requirements were extensive knowledge of Ruby on Rails and expertise in building online marketplaces.
Syndicode fully satisfied all these requirements and our development team was eager to take on this project.
The core idea behind the
SwiftComply project
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Help food entrepreneurs and grease haulers comply with city regulations.
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Allow restaurants to find and book the most reliable service provided based on their price, reviews, and availability.
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Enable service providers to manage their prospects, customers, and compliance within a single, convenient, and user-friendly platform.
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Allow grease haulers to upload service manifests on behalf of their customers to make sure local regulators mark them as compliant.
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Help business owners to keep up with the grease compliance deadline and avoid unnecessary fines.
Technical challenges
Integration with other SwiftComply products
We integrated the service marketplace SwiftQuote with other SwiftComply products, namely with SwiftComply City 2. This way, restaurants and service providers can publish the compliance reports directly to the regulator’s database.
Integration with a convenient and secure payment gateway
The choice of the reliable payment option was crucial for this project since it greatly influences the number of orders and, consequently, the platform profitability.
We integrated StripeConnect to allow service providers to send professional invoices and receive online payments.
Implementation of a specific system to assess providers’ competence
We have revised and improved a similar system that has been used in our project, HLPRS. Currently, it is successfully implemented in project SwiftComply. The system implies giving providers a certain number of points when they have fulfilled predefined conditions.
It works the following way. The provider’s profile is evaluated based on specific parameters such as subscription, the registration date or the dae of last login.
Restaurants can’t see the list of service providers with points they got and categories that have been evaluated. This way, we simplified the task of choosing the most reliable and qualified grease hauler.
The workflow on the platform SwiftQuote
(restaurants)
Step 1. Restaurants register an account on the platform.
Step 2. They create a quote request for an individual service provider. Restaurants specify their key requirements, and local businesses will bid on their services to fulfill the request.
Alternatively, they can search for a relevant plumbing and drainage services provider in their specific area.
Food entrepreneurs can specify their search criteria by filtering search results by services needed (backflow testing, drain line jetting, etc.) and using such filters as location, price, experience, and feedback.
Step 3. Restaurants select the preferred service provider. By clicking on the company name, customers can get additional information about this grease hauler, as in their profile and work history, and check the reviews that prove its trustworthiness.
Each provider has a rating, which is based on the average score the company gets across their jobs performed on the platform.
Step 4. The next step restaurants take is to schedule this service. Here restaurants have the ability to set up recurring services. With this feature, a particular service will occur on a specific timeline. For example, a food entrepreneur orders a monthly grease pump-out. The restaurant owner can automate this service to meet the compliance deadline.
Step 5. As soon as the service is delivered, restaurants choose the most suitable payment option. They can purchase the service in cash, check, or via a credit card.
The workflow on the platform SwiftQuote
(services providers)
Step 1. Grease haulers register on the platform. They create a portfolio to showcase their works and differentiate their business from the competitors. Apart from that, entrepreneurs upload their photos, IDs, and business licenses to ensure their reliability.
Step 2. They choose the subscription plan that suits their business needs the most. The plans have been designed to meet the primary requirements of both new businesses and large, well-established organizations.
Each subscription gives service providers a certain number of credits that can be used to bid on restaurants’ job requests.
Step 3. Grease haulers create a company profile to showcase the key information about their business and add photos to establish trustworthiness.
Step 4. As soon as a new request quote is created, SwiftQuote alerts relevant service providers within a specific area. They can view the job details and message the customer directly if they require additional information.
When looking through the requests left by restaurants, grease haulers can filter results by a particular type of service.
Step 5. Service providers bid on a local job that suits them the most.
Step 6. As soon as the job is done, grease haulers are paid online via Stripe or receive cash payments directly from restaurants.
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Primary functionality
Quote request creation functionality
With this feature, restaurants can complete and send quote requests to all trusted and approved service providers within their specific location. All restaurants have to do is to specify the required service, area, and price range, and all offers that meet your requirements will be sent to their inbox.
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Profiles for service providers
This functionality allows grease haulers to publish their work history and provide restaurants with a brief overview of their businesses and the services they provide. Customers, in their turn, can send their feedback as the service is delivered. Restaurants can assess grease haulers based on the following criteria: value, communication, functionality, and quality.
Customer relationship management system for service providers
In general, the SwiftWorks platform helps grease haulers address three important challenges, which are lead generation, customer management, and compliance reporting. To be more specific, it performs the following functions:- Enables service providers to view all information about their prospects and existing customers from one location.
- Provides grease haulers with a simple way to get a 360 review of their business. The user-friendly dashboard displays crucial information such as upcoming orders, outstanding payments, and estimated revenue.
- Allow grease haulers to upload service manifest and review the customer’s compliance status.
Notifications
Both restaurants and grease haulers receive notifications when the service is booked, rescheduled, or canceled.
We are happy to announce that the highest quality of our code, the complete transparency of the development process, and our dedication to the customer’s success have paid off. The best reward for our software development team was a great review left by Mike O’Dwyer on the rating and reviews platform Clutch.
Final thoughts
Currently, the project SwiftComply is actively developing. Our development team is constantly working on adding new features to increase the customer base.
At the present moment, SwiftComply collaborates with 450 cities and over 100,000 restaurants. We hope these figures will grow even more.