Zamboanga Amusement & Recreational Inc.
Built an Android data-collection app and the reporting platform behind it across ~10 branches.
About the company
Zamboanga Amusement & Recreational Inc. is an amusement and recreation company operating around ten branches across Mindanao. Each branch collected operational data on the ground, and the head office needed a reliable way to gather that data and turn it into reports.
My journey there
This was my first job after university, and I wore two hats: Android developer and system administrator.
The main problem was simple to describe and harder to solve. Staff at each branch were recording data by hand, and it took too long for that information to reach the people who needed it. I built an Android application that let each branch capture data on a device, and a web platform on the other end where administrators could see reports across all branches in near real time.
The part that taught me the most was synchronization. Branches did not always have a stable connection, and losing a record because a request failed was not acceptable. I implemented a retry mechanism for mobile-to-server synchronization so data would eventually arrive even when the network was unreliable, and made sure the transfer between the app and the web platform was secure. It was my first real lesson in designing for failure instead of assuming the happy path.
Because I also looked after the systems, I spent time with the internal teams, listening to how they actually used the app and the reports. Many of the improvements came from those conversations: small changes to the data flow or the interface that made day-to-day work easier and the reports more useful for decisions.
Notable contributions
- Developed an Android data-collection application deployed across ~10 operational branches.
- Designed and maintained an administrator data analytics platform providing real-time reporting across those branches.
- Implemented a retry mechanism for mobile-to-server synchronization, reaching a 99.9% successful delivery rate.
- Implemented secure data transfer between the Android app and the web platform.
Closing thoughts
I did not know it at the time, but this job set the direction for the rest of my career. The problems I cared about most were not on the screen. They were in how data moved, what happened when something failed, and how to make a system dependable for the people relying on it.
It was also where I learned that talking to the people who use what you build is part of the job. Those lessons carried over when I moved to web development at RightJob Solutions later that year.