WebCitz started working with this client in 2013
- Client: I-CAR
- Platform: Laravel
- Industry: Non Profit / Religious, Automotive / Powersports, Education
- Services: Web Development, Web Hosting, Maintenance / Support, Mobile Apps, Digital Marketing
The Challenge
The RTS portal is the primary technical resource for the collision repair industry, housing tens of thousands of critical articles, OEM procedures, and technical bulletins. The challenges were immense:
- Technical Debt: Upgrading a massive, legacy Joomla 1.x site without losing a decade of technical data.
- Performance at Scale: Providing near-instant search results across tens of thousands of complex technical articles.
- Cross-Platform Accessibility: Creating a mobile experience that allows technicians on the shop floor to access data via VIN scanning.
- Identity Management: Synchronizing user authentication across multiple industry-standard platforms like NetForum, Salesforce, and SEMA.
The WebCitz Solution
Since 2013, WebCitz has evolved from a maintenance partner to the lead architectural team for the RTS digital ecosystem:
- Enterprise Joomla Lifecycle Management: We have successfully navigated RTS through every major Joomla version upgrade. This included rebuilding custom themes and complex extensions to ensure the site remained secure and modern while preserving its massive content library.
- High-Performance Laravel Search Engine: We engineered a custom Laravel backend specifically to handle the site’s data-heavy search requirements. This system delivers incredibly fast query results across tens of thousands of articles, serving as the high-speed “brain” for both the desktop site and the mobile application.
- Ionic Framework Mobile App: We developed a native-style mobile app using the Ionic Framework. This single-codebase solution allowed us to deploy to both Apple and Google Play stores. Key features include:
- VIN Decoding: Technicians can take a photo of a VIN, which the app decodes into the search bar to automatically filter results by year, make, and model.
- Offline Access & Sync: Users can log in and store vehicle search data for quick reference in the shop.
- Real-Time FileMaker Integration: To ensure data accuracy, we built a real-time synchronization bridge between I-CAR’s internal FileMaker database and the Joomla/Laravel databases. This allows the RTS team to update technical data internally and see those changes reflected on the website and app instantly.
- Complex Single Sign-On (SSO): We built a sophisticated SSO application that bridges authentication between NetForum, Salesforce, SEMA, Auth0, and more. This allows I-CAR members to move seamlessly between different industry platforms with a single set of credentials, dramatically improving the user experience for thousands of professionals.
The Result
WebCitz has transformed the I-CAR RTS portal into a high-speed, multi-platform powerhouse. By bridging the gap between legacy internal databases and modern web/mobile technologies, we’ve provided the collision repair industry with a reliable, lightning-fast tool that works as hard as the technicians who use it. Our 13+ year partnership is a testament to WebCitz’s ability to solve the most complex enterprise data and authentication challenges.
