Route Management Software for Amusement Operator

Our client

Based in Kentucky, USA, Revenue Boosters is a leading amusement operator specializing in the placement and maintenance of various coin-operated machines, like arcade games, pinball machines, and claw machines. They employ a team of collectors who service these machines and manage revenue retrieval. The company uses a unique revenue-sharing model when the collected money is split between Revenue Boosters and store owners where amusement machines are located. To track collectors and manage financial operations, Revenue Boosters used a cloud-based route management system. When that software ceased functioning due to a lack of maintenance, Revenue Boosters faced a critical challenge. To address this issue, they made the strategic decision to start with development of their own solution that would help enhance their financial management and tracking and explore the potential for reselling it as a SaaS application. As we had to deliver the product within tight deadlines to prevent disruption in the workflow, we sped up the process by employing cross-platform technologies such as React Native. We also implemented our NestJS REST API boilerplate and Admin Bro, an auto-generated admin panel, which resulted in faster product development.

Bridging expertise gaps with Brocoders

When Revenue Boosters decided to build a robust SaaS solution for amusement operators, they already had a development team in place. However, being busy with their regular tasks, in-house engineers lacked time to develop the software within the deadlines set, so the company reached out to us. David Finley, a business consultant at Revenue Boosters, came to Brocoders with an idea to create a solution comprising a mobile application to track collectors’ work and a web tool to help business owners manage machines and see reports.

How we built a solution for amusement operators with just 4 team members in 3,5 months

With a dedicated development team comprising skilled frontend and backend developers, a proficient project manager, and a meticulous QA engineer, we accomplished the development of an MVP of a route management SaaS application within a concise timeframe of 3,5 months. Using React Native for mobile app development, we managed to achieve fast development speed while maintaining high-quality code. This comprehensive solution encompasses both a versatile mobile application designed for Android and iOS platforms and a user-friendly admin panel, ensuring seamless functionality and ease of management for business owners.

Using our NestJS REST API boilerplate to speed up the development process

As we were working on a minimum viable product, we had to maintain a rapid development pace without compromising on code quality. To speed up the process of backend development, we used our NestJS REST API boilerplate — a comprehensive starter kit equipped with the most requested features for building apps such as sign-in and sign-up, admin and user roles, database integration, file uploads, and more. Instead of developing these functionalities from scratch, we used pre-configured modules, which helped us significantly reduce time to market. You can read more about our boilerplate solutions here.

Implementing multitenant architecture to serve multiple customers efficiently

As Revenue Boosters planned to develop software that could be further scaled across other similar businesses, we had to ensure the developed app served multiple customers efficiently and securely. That’s why we designed a multitenant architecture. It helped us reduce infrastructure and operational costs while providing scalability and flexibility to accommodate future growth.

Integrating with Google Maps and Geoapify

For location-based services, like location viewing and route planning, we integrated the software with both Google Maps and Geoapify, a service providing APIs and components that help create custom maps, analyze locations, and more. With real-time location data and robust mapping functionalities at their fingertips, collectors can optimize their routes and enhance operational efficiency.

Developing functionality to meet the unique needs of amusement operators

Depending on their role, administrator or collector, users have access to different functions and capabilities within the system.

Functions assigned to collectors

When a collector at Revenue Boosters enters the application, they get access to the locations assigned. They can manage locations as well as plan the optimal route for the day. Collectors also have a list of machines at each location with detailed information about each machine, like the amount of cash and refunds. After the earnings are retrieved, a collector saves a summary report so that business owners can track revenue from every machine on the dashboard. When a specific arcade machine needs repairing, collectors fix it and report about repair status in the app. In the offline mode, the app can be connected to a printer to print reports.

Functionality assigned to administrators

We built the admin panel using AdminBro, an auto-generated admin panel for Node.js applications. Apart from high development speed, it helped us accelerate the deployment process while maintaining the company’s branded interface. The admin panel features a dashboard empowering users to efficiently manage amusement machines and fee accounts, allowing for the customization of invoices.

Result: From an internal tool to SaaS for amusement operators

Initially, Revenue Boosters planned to build the route management solution for internal use. However, understanding the need for this type of software in the industry, they decided to develop a SaaS product that could be further adopted by similar companies in the USA. Our development team released the MVP with basic functionality within the agreed timeframe and tested it with users to iterate and improve the product. Thanks to the multitenant architecture we implemented, the delivered solution can be scaled to accommodate a growing user base efficiently without compromising performance or security.

What’s next?

After successfully delivering the MVP, we keep enhancing the inventory management functionality. Our goal now is not only to build a comprehensive solution to streamline the internal operations of our client ‒ Revenue Boosters, but also to equip the product with the capabilities to cater to the needs of similar companies within the industry.