Sydney developer launches Australia's first application for online ordering on behalf of Eagle Boys Pizza

Sydney developer launches Australia's first application for online ordering on behalf of Eagle Boys Pizza

Datacom Software Solutions has led the way in the recent release of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 by developing Australia's first application for online ordering on behalf of Eagle Boys Pizza. The launch marks the first part of an overall AUS$3 million (£1.9m) retail technology implementation by Australia’s second largest pizza chain.

The implementation of the Windows Phone 7 app is built on top of Microsoft Silverlight, and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) technologies, which is the same development platform used by Datacom's core-teams to also produce e-commerce websites, digital signage, and kiosk applications. The standardisation of Microsoft's development platform now means that mobile applications can be produced quickly, but to a high standard – while still incorporating the rich features people come to expect in both rich client applications and smart devices.

Rapid application development

Ben Gracewood, a principal architect within Datacom who managed the implementation of the application, achieved a development cycle of less than two weeks, from proof of concept to production application using the toolset provided by Microsoft. Gracewood said: "We worked with a tight deadline to produce the first version of the Eagle Boys Windows Phone 7 application. The combination of Silverlight and .NET 3.5 on the phone provides for an incredibly productive environment for building applications. The process of going from mock-ups and raw data files to a finished application took less than two weeks. The Windows Phone 7 development platform was the main reason we finished on time."

The application, which will be released in two phases focuses on using Microsoft's own User Experience (UX) guidelines to allow users to navigate through Eagle Boys’ Pizza menu, find their local stores, and sign up to exclusive offers. Using the guidelines has since led to the Windows Phone 7 application to become easy to use and intuitive for the end-user – an experience, which is critical to the launch of the second phase of the application in early 2011 that will allow full online ordering capabilities from the mobile device.