Blogs

When I started working on DentLab Manager, the first challenge was to improve the usability of the system. The goal was allowing the user to go over the screens using only the tab key. At the time, my work was based on doing this on the order screen, which includes many fields. Because of that, we had to analyze with detail which of those were the most used fields during the creation or edition of an order, and finally which could be the best sequence to go over them, bearing in mind our clients suggestions.

Then the same procedure was applied to other screens. Although we are continually making improvements, at this point the challenge was to improve the performance of DentLab Manager to enhance the user experience. That was a hard work for the team, based on client's feedback, and looking for those spots where the system spent an amount of time larger than expected. We analyzed each of them, in order to find the best solution which means greater performance in a less time. We hope we have successfully fulfilled our task, which will never end, because we will always look for further improvement.

I have not always applied improvements to DentLab Manager, I have also been dedicated, along with the development team to implement new features, some of them are called "modules".

The first one was about the exportation of accounting data files, which would then be used in third party accounting systems. This meant a great challenge for the whole team, which has always taken every implementation of a new functionality very seriously and respectfully. In this case we had a new challenge, being able to generate files that comply with requirements of external systems. To carry out this module implementation, it was necessary the direct interaction with customers who were interested in this module, gathering data on the required configuration and different file formats, to meet the requirements set forth. The customers’ cooperation was decisive, to validate and corroborate that the implementation complied with their expectations and the requirements of each external system used by them.

After this module many others were implemented, the one that I enjoyed developing the most, was the barcode module. When our product owner told us that we had to implement a module to facilitate user's work on an order simply by using bar codes, we thought this would be a very good challenge to test us again. The specifications were clear, using bar codes, we had to provide DentLab Manager’s users a simple way to grab and close procedures in a requisition, add material to a product, and associate batches codes of materials within an order. So after meetings, analysis and conclusions, we developed the module that makes possible to print a report from a requisition which contains bar codes for the order, products, materials and procedures thereof. DentLab Manager’s users, through these bar codes are able to perform the required tasks without keyboard or mouse usage, only with the bar code scanner.

Once we received congratulations from customers who use the barcode module, we were happy to have reached their expectations. Thus , day by day, we also address the questions and suggestions from our customers, we are always looking for a new DentLab Manager improvement to enhance the user's experience , as well as new challenges that invite us to investigate and learn a bit more about our customers and their needs to turn them into DentLab Manager’s functionalities.