Irth uses .NET MAUI to modernize its mobile app, helping workers who service critical network infrastructure operate safely and efficiently

When Irth Solutions (Irth) set out to modernize its risk management, damage prevention, and infrastructure protection mobile app, the company wanted to deliver a responsive application that makes it easy for users to ensure the safety, resiliency, and reliability of critical network infrastructure, including pipes, wires, and fiber-optic cables. The Irth mobile app helps gas and electric utilities, governments, telecommunications companies, construction crews, and others service this infrastructure so that homes and businesses remain supplied with water, electricity, gas, and communications.

Lives depend on the application working smoothly. “We want to provide 360-degree awareness of risk to the worker and risk to assets,” says Brad Gammons, CEO of Irth. “At the same time, we want to help our clients perform their work in the field efficiently.”

Irth needs its mobile app to work seamlessly on Android, iOS, and Windows so its clients can use the product wherever they are. The company wanted a more efficient solution than having its developers write code in multiple programming languages such as Java, Objective C, and SWIFT. Irth had already migrated its systems to Microsoft Azure to enhance reliability and increase scale, so when the company saw that its developers could write one code base in .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) for many operating systems at once, it decided to become an early adopter of the framework. “The support that we’ve received from the Microsoft team is way beyond what I would expect for a company of our size,” says Gammons. 

Building an app that will deliver value for years

The Irth mobile app includes geographic information system capabilities and photos so that field technicians can precisely locate aboveground and underground utility infrastructure. Major enterprises as well as small municipalities use it to keep workers, the public, and critical infrastructure safe. In total, the app has nearly 27,000 users, roughly 15 percent of whom employ the mobile application every day. Irth wanted to triple that percentage by increasing the value that it delivers to them.

The company knew that enhancing app responsiveness while providing more data was vital to achieving that goal. “Our app had very heavy syncing,” says Matthew Abbitt, Chief Product Officer of Irth. “As we added more features and photo sizes kept growing, syncing took longer and longer.”

In addition to delighting customers by improving features, Irth was focused on delivering business value. “It just didn’t make sense to invest this kind of time and money into a product that was going to be antiquated within the next couple of years,” says Rod Ball, Chief Technical Officer of Irth. “That’s why we went down the .NET MAUI path.”

The company was eager to use a new framework to build an app that will provide business value for years. 

Engaging teams with .NET MAUI

Irth provides apps that work on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, and it must innovate rapidly to accommodate the preferences of field users. The company opted to use .NET MAUI to build native applications across operating systems using C# and XAML. “The ability to reference every operating system in the shared code base of .NET MAUI is very helpful,” says Travis Sauder, Mobile Team Lead at Irth.

Teams at Irth are enthusiastic about the opportunity to use a truly modern product. “Our younger developers are excited to be working on new code with .NET MAUI,” says Abbitt. The company’s teams used the .NET MAUI Community Toolkit to accelerate development through reusable elements. They also worked with .NET MAUI Handlers to reduce boilerplate code and code quantity. And even though the company rebuilt the app in a new code base, it still delivered the improved version in the same amount of time it would have taken if the developers had been using a more familiar code.

Reducing sync times by more than 50 percent on Azure

With its application in place, Irth is confident it can advance its mobile-first strategy. “For the new app, we’re taking a connected-first approach in which we’re synchronizing data continuously,” says Ball. “People will no longer be waiting on large synchronizations.” Results from early users indicate that the new app reduces sync times by more than 50 percent.

By making it easier to use the mobile app, Irth can accelerate innovation by collecting more data on how its application is being used. The company plans to add more mobile apps and extend their use into prospective acquisitions. And because the back end of the solution is on Azure, the company is confident that it will scale to meet client needs. The result will be greater resilience and lower risk for critical network infrastructure.

In using .NET MAUI, Irth was thinking ahead. “We strive to be the thought leader in our industry, and we like to use forward-thinking products before our competitors do,” says Abbitt. “By using .NET MAUI, we’re doing that again.”

Continuing to deliver new features that enhance safety

Irth set up an early adopter program for its new mobile app, and early results suggested that people were thrilled with the new product. “I feel like it’s set up our field users for the future of where we’re heading as a company,” says Ball. “It’s put us in the position to provide them with the tools they need to do their work in the field efficiently—and enjoy doing it.”

The company has already envisioned the next phase of its mobile-first strategy. “We want to enhance visibility into the risk associated with field user activity,” says Abbitt. “Then, we want to tap into AI models to deliver intelligent recommendations. That’s the future of this app.”