Eugster & Frismag Trial Request Management

📋 Overview

Eugster & Frismag, a leading manufacturer of small domestic appliances, modernised its critical production-line trial request process. The new Power Apps application removed the dependency on obsolete Lotus Notes, accelerating the quality and innovation cycle.

🎯 The Challenge

Business context The company relied on a Lotus Notes system to manage quality trial and validation requests. The system was rigid, hard to maintain and unreachable outside fixed office workstations. That lack of mobility created bottlenecks: engineers on the factory floor had to walk away from the line to record data, delaying sample collection and the approval of new production batches.

Technical requirements

• Mobility: tablet and smartphone access for recording in situ.
• Complex workflow: a multi-level approval chain that depends on the test type.
• Historical archive: migration and easy consultation of historical quality data.
• Traceability: a complete audit log of who requested, approved and executed each test.
• SLA alerts: notifications for requests left sitting too long.

💡 The Solution

Strategic approach Use the Power Platform to build a fast low-code solution integrated natively with SharePoint for document and list storage. That allowed the previous system’s complex business logic to be reproduced in a modern interface within weeks.

Technical implementation We built a canvas app optimised for tablets, letting laboratory technicians and quality engineers submit requests directly at the assembly line. The interface uses conditional logic to show only the fields relevant to each test type — electrical, mechanical, service life.

The approval engine runs on Power Automate. When a request is submitted, the flow routes the task to the correct approver based on the organisational hierarchy defined in Azure AD and on the product type. Teams integration allows approvals in a single click, without opening the application.

Timeline

• Phase 1 (requirements): 2 weeks
• Phase 2 (Power Apps development): 4 weeks
• Phase 3 (UAT and data migration): 3 weeks
• Phase 4 (go-live and support): 2 weeks

📈 The Results

Success metrics

• ⚡ Cycle time: 40% less total time from request to completed test.
• 📱 Mobility: 60% of requests are now started or consulted on a mobile device.
• 👥 User experience: user satisfaction rose from 2/5 with Lotus Notes to 4.8/5 with the Power App.
• 💰 Maintenance: legacy Lotus Notes server support costs for this process eliminated.

Business impact The agility gained in the testing process feeds directly into time to market. Quality problems are found and resolved faster, and the technological barrier between the office and the factory floor is gone, encouraging a more collaborative quality culture.

🛠️ Technology Stack

• Power Apps (canvas): a flexible, mobile interface for complex data capture.
• Power Automate: approval orchestration and notification logic.
• SharePoint Online: scalable, secure data backend.
• Microsoft Teams: the point of interaction for notifications and quick approvals.

💬 Client Testimonial

“Moving off Lotus Notes seemed impossible given how complex our flows are. Avantit’s solution not only reproduced what we had, it dramatically improved usability. Our quality team can now focus on the products rather than on software bureaucracy.”

IT Manager Eugster & Frismag

🎓 Lessons Learned

• Legacy migration: the key to replacing an old system like Lotus Notes is not copying its fields, but rethinking the process for a mobile world.
• Change management: involving key users from the screen design stage reduced resistance to change to zero on launch day.