D3G Versa
About D3G
Dominion Due Diligence Group (D3G) is the nation's leading real estate due diligence provider specializing in Multi-Family and Healthcare facilities. For the last 25 years D3G has relied on innovation, creativity and flexibility to stay ahead of our competition and on the forefront of the commercial real estate industry. We pride ourselves in not only in identifying a problem, but also understanding the solution. Our subject matter experts work directly with our clients to provide a clear path forward, ensuring that their real estate transaction stays on track. By providing Engineering and Environmental Assessments along with Architectural Review and Energy & Sustainability services, we can facilitate the entire due diligence process with an "all under one roof" approach.
Nearing 150 employees and producing over 5,000 reports per year, D3G has invested heavily in tools to create efficiencies in data collection, organization and management for our field staff responsible for the physical inspection and report creation. Stephen White, Senior Software Engineer, has been an integral part of Versa's development by utilizing Microsoft's Dot Net Core platform in addition to Developer Express' controls. Since our projects are scattered all over the United States, we needed to streamline our process so that we could produce a versatile report that is compatible with various lending applications. An example being HUD's Capital Needs Assessment (CNA) e-Tool, which is an excel-based program that utilizes an online web portal to communicate and evaluate property data. Versa has enabled our staff to save time and create consistency within our approach to report writing. In addition to the time savings, which is estimated to be between 12-16 hours per project, the more projects we input, the smarter our database becomes. This enables us to enhance our ancillary SQL reporting and continue to bolster the organization's ability to react to our constantly changing industry.
Project Name: D3G Versa
D3G Versa is a report writing system developed in-house by D3G's internal tech department, primarily by our Senior Software Engineer, Stephen White. It is a WPF application that uses the latest technologies, including Dot Net Core 3.0+, The Desktop Bridge, Microsoft SQL Server and the Universal Windows Platform and of course DevExpress' libraries.
In the past, D3G primarily wrote many of its reports in a combination of various applications, primarily Microsoft Excel and Word. This legacy system led to many issues with data retention, application maintenance (due to the fact that the code was all in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and was isolated to each Office file) and also limitations with flexibility in terms of being able to utilize newer technologies. Thanks to both Microsoft's latest technologies and of course DevExpress, Versa was able to be built and customized to meet the needs of the business without sacrificing quality and also done in a rapid fashion that would not have been possible with likely any other solution.
One of the key features of D3G Versa is the ways it leverages DevExpress' famous WPF Grid Control and theming to allow for rapid data entry, shaping and a far more cohesive and intuitive interface, versus what would have been possible in Excel and VBA. In addition, the application allows the report to be adjusted in real time to fit a variety of different scenarios and specs which are dictated by the various protocols that the reports fall underneath.
Why Did We Chose DevExpress and Dot Net?
D3G has historically been a Microsoft only shop when it comes to its IT choices, so we immediately knew that we wanted the platform to replace our legacy system to be something leveraging both Dot Net and Microsoft SQL Server. We also knew that we wanted to use WPF to take advantage of the maintainability it provides when used with the MVVM pattern and allow us to create a stunning user interface. Thanks to the prior experiences that our Senior Developer, Stephen White had with both Dot Net and DevExpress, he was able to compare it to the offerings of other vendors and quickly decided that DevExpress would provide us with the greatest benefit and also support for creating our new system.
What Key Benefits Do DevExpress' Libraries Provide?
According to Stephen White, the best benefit is the amazing support that DevExpress provides. In his 6+ years as working as a professional software developer, he can say with the utmost confidence that DevExpress provides some of the best support received from any company in his career. They are always quick to respond to inquiries, handle things with the utmost care, and always work diligently to help D3G find the best solutions in our times of need.
The other key benefit that DevExpress provides, is that they provide an amazing MVVM framework for WPF that Stephen believes is easily the best one on the market versus the other MVVM frameworks that are available. It allows for one to quickly develop amazing applications for Windows at amazing speed and it does not sacrifice code quality or performance. It is also very intuitive and DevExpress provides great examples on it. And of course, their support is always quick to answer questions about MVVM framework for WPF.
And finally, DevExpress' component library is extensive and allowed for D3G to greatly customize its own software for its own needs without any compromises.
Target Platform: WPF Desktop .Net Core / Windows 10
App Name: D3G Versa
Company: Dominion Due Dilligence (D3G)
Company Website: www.d3g.com
DevExpress Products Used: WPF Subscription, DevExpress Reports, Office File API, DevExpress MVVM Framework
