A handy location-finding service from BT, which fuses an online mapping utility with The BT Phone Book, has been hailed as a 'fantastic example of agile development.'
The service, known as BT Out and About, went from concept to developed service in less than a month. Users perform an online search to pinpoint chosen business services in a particular geographic area. Then, using BT's powerful directories database, together with Google, the service displays the precise locations of the search findings on a map.
This kind of internet application, where diverse services, applications or technologies from different service providers are combined together in a single application, is known as a mash-up.
"Mash-ups are becoming increasingly popular among users and service providers," said Chris Hall of the BT Beta team which devised and built BT Out and About. "Good mash-ups enhance the end-user experience providing an additional service on top of the basic service -and that’s exactly what BT Out and About does."
"Personally, I’ve found it really useful already," said Chris. "For example, last week I needed a haircut. So, from my PC, I used Out and About to do a business search for hairdressers in Ipswich, my local area.
"Within seconds I could see the nearest ten different hairdressers pinpointed on my map, along with their numbers and addresses from the BT phonebook. It really is a simple to use but highly convenient and effective service."
BT Out and About came about after the BT Beta team which developed it began mixing a database containing geographical information on BT's UK payphones with Google Map's standard application programming interface. "That was quite fun to do," said Chris Hall. "It was a bizarre idea, but it worked. The services functioned together and we could see exactly where BT payphones were located on the map in any area."
"We then hit upon the idea of combining the BT Phonebook with Google Maps and began working on it. Within weeks we had a working application that enabled users to search and see the location of any business listed in The Phone Book as well as being able to see precisely where their nearest BT OpenZone hotspots were."
The team demonstrated its work to Al-Noor Ramji, CIO, BT Group, who was greatly impressed. "Al-Noor appreciated how quickly the service had been developed. He told us that he thought it was a fantastic example of agile development and improving the customer experience," said Chris.
"It really is a unique and handy service. But there’s the potential for a lot more. We've been continually refining the service based on the feedback of users and we are also looking at developing a version for mobile phone users and for drivers with satellite navigation products."
Concluded Chris: "This project has been a great example of something that has shined because of its simplicity, its usability and the speed of its development. But the development work isn’t over by a long way."