National Equity Fund

Mobile GIS App

About the National Equity Fund

The National Equity Fund (NEF) is a nonprofit Chicago-based affiliate of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and a leading syndicator of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). They play an integral role in creating affordable housing options, revitalizing communities, and strengthening local economies.

Executive Summary

Pumex developed a mobile app on the Xamarin cross-mobile platform that integrated with the ArcGIS mapping tool. This interactive app allows users to search graphically and by census tract, program sponsor, program name, and location.

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NEF needed assistance developing a user-friendly mobile app that allowed its users to easily navigate the locations of each of the NEF real estate projects. NEF chose the Xamarin platform for their mobile app. Optimal performance and system stability were of the utmost importance due to the dynamic capabilities the app needed to have.

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Despite several challenges presented with developing a mobile GIS app with the Xamarin platform, Pumex was able to deliver a fully functioning app within the designated timeframe and budget. Pumex performed an extensive requirement gathering process to cut down on potential scope creep from evolving features, making it easier to develop the app and help the client maintain controls on cost.

Immediate Results

Customizable mobile app

End-users of the NEF mobile application can customize the layers that will be displayed.

App speed and stability

Pumex built in optimizations to ensure that the corresponding KML files were downloaded to the user’s device on-load to ensure faster access and improved application stability.

Android or iOS functionality

Due to the choice of using Xamarin, the mobile app will operate on any platform (Android or iOS) a user chooses while only using a single code base.

Native app effects

Since Xamarin can access the phone's native API's, this results in faster development time, easier maintenance, and lower development costs.

Long-Term Goals & Projected Results

Pumex recommended a phased roll out of the consolidated legacy systems to allow decommissioning over time while the systems continued to run in parallel through the development process. This will ensure easier organizational onboarding and help to relieve training burdens by reducing productivity issues and employee downtime.