Franchise operations SaaS platform

Cross-platform app development that empowered our customer to serve world-famous franchise businesses like Subway and PlanetFitness

ABOUT
the project

Client:

SaaS Software Provider

Location:

USA

Austin

Company Size:

8+ Employees

Industry:

Hospitality

Solution:

Custom Software

Services:

Web App Development

Mobile App Development

Technologies:

.NET

ASP.NET

Web Forms

Web API

SQL

DevExpress

AJAX Control Toolkit

HTML

CSS

jQuery

Bootstrap

JIRA

TFS

A SaaS application designed to streamline operations for multi-location businesses, such as franchises and chains. Acting as a centralized hub, it provides management tools to facilitate smoother communication and operational efficiency across various locations.

The most impressive thing about Leobit is that we can just tell them what we need with basic requirements, and they complete the task on time and better than expected. Their developers don’t just write code — they really care about us and that commitment really shines through in the software they deliver. Outsourcing our app development to Leobit was one of the best decisions.

Jason D.

CEO

Customer

Our customer is a US-based company helping multi-unit franchise businesses easily and effectively manage daily operations and report issues across locations. Established in 2006, the company saw firsthand how franchises commonly relied on manual processes, including Excel spreadsheet usage and emails, to handle operational matters across locations. Our customer aimed to deliver a single, cohesive platform for operations.

Business Challenge

The client initially had a website but struggled with performance and scalability issues due to persistent bugs. They aimed to expand functionality with new features and launch a separate cross-platform application tailored to franchise managers and employees. Lacking in-house .NET and cross-platform expertise, the client decided to turn to outsourcing, and Leobit was selected to drive the project forward.

Why Leobit

The company’s CEO had a long-standing professional relationship with Leobit’s CEO and Founder, Oleksa Stelmakh. Having collaborated on several projects, he knew Leobit’s team of experienced developers would be the perfect fit to transform and grow his SaaS platform.

Project
in detail

Leobit’s team began with a thorough QA assessment to identify and prioritize issues within the existing web application. After resolving critical bugs, our team moved on to enhance the platform’s functionality and scalability. We then developed a cross-platform app to allow franchise managers and employees to access essential functions from their mobile devices.

Role-based access

We used .NET’s Identity framework to establish a role-based access system in the web application and assign granular permissions for three primary user roles: franchise owners, franchisee managers, and employees. Each role has distinct access to tools and data within the application. Franchise owners can oversee overall operations, manage inventory, and monitor incident resolution. At the same time, franchisee managers handle day-to-day scheduling and incident assignments, and employees can report issues, check their schedules, and access relevant resources.

Employee scheduling

Franchisee managers can create and manage employee schedules, track work hours, and note incidents that arise during shifts (if any). To build it, we used ASP.NET for the backend, supported by a SQL Server database to store shift data and work hour logs. This feature helps maintain accountability and enables managers to know exactly who was responsible during specific incidents, streamlining follow-ups and incident resolution.

Integration with accounting tools

To enhance operational efficiency, Leobit integrated the application with Xero, a leading financial management tool. Using Xero’s API, the app automatically synced payroll data, tracked employee work hours, and generated financial reports. This integration simplified financial management for franchise owners by eliminating manual processes and ensuring accurate data exchange between systems.

Incident management

This module allows employees to report issues such as equipment malfunctions directly in the application (e.g., coffee machine breakdowns). This feature uses RESTful APIs to ensure real-time data synchronization across web and mobile platforms. When an issue is reported, the app automatically assigns it to the relevant franchisee manager based on location. To visually track incident resolution, the module incorporates progress indicators and status updates.

Inventory management

Franchise owners can track inventory levels at each location, identify equipment needing maintenance, and specify approved suppliers. Franchisee managers can request additional inventory as needed, and the module includes a maintenance calendar to help track and schedule equipment servicing. We used a relational SQL Server database with a well-optimized schema for fast query performance to store Inventory data, including stock levels, equipment details, and supplier information.

CI/CD implementation

Our full stack experts implemented CI/CD, which, at that time was considered an innovational solution. We used JetBrains’ TeamCity, which allowed us to automate and streamline the entire build and deployment pipeline, ensuring that code changes could be tested, integrated, and released rapidly.

API development

Since the original website was built on an outdated ASP.NET Web Forms framework, it faced performance bottlenecks that hindered backend communication. To modernize data accessibility, we developed a RESTful API that enables web and mobile applications to work seamlessly with the same data. This API layer reuses existing business logic, allowing both applications to deliver a consistent and responsive user experience.

Multi-tenant architecture development

Previously, the app was built using legacy ASP.NET Web Forms architecture, which lacked scalability and modern features necessary for efficient multi-tenant operations. We reengineered the infrastructure and developed a robust multi-tenant architecture to address the unique needs of franchise businesses, enabling multiple franchises to operate within a single application instance while maintaining their independence. This architecture was designed to provide an efficient, scalable, and secure solution, ensuring each franchise tenant could customize their experience while sharing the application’s underlying infrastructure.

The foundation of this solution was built using .NET Core, paired with Entity Framework for seamless database abstraction. To ensure data isolation, each franchise’s information was logically segregated within the shared database using unique tenant identifiers. This approach allowed us to safeguard data security and optimize resource usage across the system.

We also used Kubernetes to containerize and manage the application. Thanks to its rolling update capabilities, any improvements, fixes, or upgrades could be applied across all tenants simultaneously without causing disruptions.

Inspection forms

Franchise inspectors needed a structured way to conduct evaluations, but each franchise had a unique inspection form, which previously relied on customized Excel forms. We developed a flexible inspection form that inspectors could use on-site via the web and mobile app. Each franchise can tailor that form on the website to meet their specific needs.

We used the AJAX Control Toolkit to auto-save entries, validate fields, and dynamically load options specific to each franchise location without refreshing the page. This made the form submission smoother and reduced data entry errors in real time.

Employee handbook

A built-in employee handbook provides onboarding checklists and guidelines for handling common situations for new and existing employees. We used ASP.NET MVC for the backend and Razor views for dynamic content rendering to allow franchise owners to upload, update, and manage checklists and guidelines. The information is stored in a SQL Server database to ensure scalability and fast retrieval.

To improve usability, the handbook includes a search functionality powered by Elasticsearch. It allows employees to quickly find relevant guidelines or procedures. This module ensures that all franchise locations have access to standardized training materials, which, in turn, improves operational consistency and reduces onboarding time.

Cross-platform application development

We developed a cross-platform application using Xamarin that served franchisees, managers, and inspectors as a central hub for various operational functions. The app provides a unified platform with a range of essential features tailored to streamline franchise management.

The app incorporated features such as real-time synchronization between devices and the web platform, ensuring that franchisees and managers could access the latest data regardless of their location. To achieve this, Leobit integrated SQLite for offline data storage and SignalR for seamless real-time communication between the mobile app and the server. The backend was powered by .NET Core, which handled API requests efficiently and supported the scalable architecture required for managing multiple franchises.

As the Xamarin framework reached its end-of-life, Leobit proactively migrated the application to .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI), Xamarin’s successor. The transition to MAUI provided numerous advantages, including enhanced performance, simplified codebase management, and broader support for modern design patterns like MVU (Model-View-Update).

Thanks to the transition, the page load times were reduced by 50%. The migration involved updating dependencies, refactoring code to align with MAUI’s new architecture, and redesigning certain UI components to use MAUI’s enhanced styling and layout capabilities.

Technology Solutions

Applying the AJAX Control Toolkit helped us reduce page load times, improve responsiveness, and make the user experience more interactive and seamless, particularly for functions that require frequent updates or dynamic data entry.
RESTful API integration empowered users to access up-to-date information regardless of whether they were using the mobile app or the web portal.
Migration to .NET MAUI simplified codebase management and offered broader support for modern design patterns.
Elasticsearch allows employees to quickly find relevant guidelines or procedures in the employee handbook.
Kubernetes adoption allowed us to make fixes and upgrades across all tenants simultaneously without causing disruptions.

Value Delivered

The platform we developed served more than 50 tenants across thousands of locations, including world-famous brands like Subway and PlanetFitness.
The transition from Xamarin to .NET MAUI significantly improved app performance, cutting page load times by 50%.
Using the SaaS platform reduced administrative tasks by 30%–50%, which translated to saving franchise locations an estimated 10–15 hours per week.