We had a fantastic time in Nablus at the App2Action Showcase where all of our developers had a chance to present their apps to a panel of technical experts from the municipal and IT sectors in Palestine. All of the apps addressed at least one of the following three challenges:

1. Increasing the efficiency in water distribution
2. Automating communication systems for water management concerns
3. Incentivizing and encouraging on time payment for water services

After extensive deliberations the judges picked the winning teams. Here is a look at the teams and their apps. 

Grand Prize Winners: Radi Barq and Ahmad Amer

The application allows customers to upload maintenance requests to municipality servers. These reports include location, photo, description, and phone number. In the interest of transparency, all users can see reports (without personal data) and interact with them using a like feature to let the municipality know how many people the issue is affecting. The municipality can update the status of each report for customers to see its progress. Check out their video demo!

Second Prize Winners: Ahmad Abu-Omar, May Awayes, Ihab Haje, Naje Karaja

The Codytec team named their app Water Eye. The Water Eye app has three separate modules that allows the municipality to: see previous water distribution data through graphs and search functionalities; auto-schedule future water distribution based on projections from analysis of previous data; and automate the customer survey process with push notifications and real-time data recording, Check out their video demo!

Best Use of Esri Winners: Mohammad Sayeh, Moen Anabtawi, Ahmed Irshaid

The application enhances maintenance procedures by using a locating system to provide the customer with the position of the municipality’s nearest maintenance worker and the estimated time arrival time. The app also facilitates the payment process by introducing coded cards with a defined value to the market place. The codes on the card are to be entered into the application and thus the customer could pay their bill while sitting at home. A reward system funded by ad space available in the app encourages clients to pay on time. Check out their video demo!

Over the next several months our winning team will be given the opportunity to work with Nablus municipality to test and implement their app. Stay tuned for additional updates on our Twitter and Facebook!