According to Bonser, the top three benefits of using the Kendo UI framework were the speed of development, the completeness of the tool suite and the tools’ extensibility.
“The tools are very well-built, they’re quick and they render nicely,” he said. “They’re very extensible—everything I need is there and I can style them according to my needs.”
Time savings has been significant. “I estimate that Kendo UI framework saved me 20 to 40 hours on this project,” said Bonser. “I was able to implement the Kendo UI tools quickly using the extensive documentation, which, unlike that of many other tool sets, is straightforward and easy to understand.”
Additionally, adding to the application is a breeze. “Users ask us to add functionality, and it typically takes only about 15 minutes to do it,” he said. “You just code the grid, tell it what you want it to do, and it does it.”
Bonser’s favorite thing about Kendo UI framework is that it is client-side based. “I’m into doing client-side coding now, and trying to make my pages much more responsive and quicker,” he said. “It just makes it a much nicer user experience.”
This wasn’t the first time Bonser benefitted from switching to a Telerik solution. He said that at the company he worked for prior to Donnelley, he was using a tool for uploading documents, and was having problems with the application timing out and accommodating large file sizes. “We were selling this tool to clients, and we needed to fix the issues,” he said. “I suggested we look at Telerik UI for WinForms. We switched to Telerik and implemented the new tool in a day or two, and it worked like a champ.”
Bonser’s team will be using Kendo UI framework to rebuild additional older applications, as well as creating a new tool called “Evolve,” a time-tracking tool. Additionally, a new workflow development tool is in the works, and will enable workflow developers to drag and drop components onto a design surface rather than hand-code with XML. “With Kendo UI tools, modernizing old applications goes smoothly,” he said. “It’s helping to make our jobs easier, and our end users’ jobs easier, as well.”