Your Cat-Scan Summary
Overview
Industry
Pipeline Utility Services
Company size
201-500 employees
Using ConfigCat Since
2021
Use Cases
Gradual Feature Rollouts, Emergency Kill Switches
Key Wins
Overcoming Mobile App Limitations, Kill Switches, and Remote Configurations
Who is behind the flag?
About Ovarro
ControlPoint (Ovarro) delivers digital quality assurance and data management solutions to the utility sector. Its technology is used globally for gas and water pipeline inspections, pairing specialized software with real-time joint analysis during installation. This helps asset owners and contractors stop defective joints from entering the network.
The Purr-fect Stack
Tech Stack & Development Culture
ControlPoint uses an Android mobile app and a web portal connected to a backend. Together, these help welders and clients to perform real-time pipeline joint inspections.
BlueBox is the field app welders use. It ensures photos of joints are taken before welding begins and then analyzed by both human inspectors and AI. If there's a risk of failure, welders know immediately, avoiding costly leaks and keeping projects on track.
JointManager is the companion web portal where clients can view weld data and photos. The two apps are tightly integrated, making them indispensable for contractors and asset owners.
Before ConfigCat Walked In
The Challenge That Needed Feature Flags
As ControlPoint's system grew, they needed more than just an internal feature switch. Their custom “remote feature flag” solution worked for a while but couldn't handle percentage rollouts or the growing need for targeted releases and instant kill switches. They needed a scalable solution designed for every scenario, one that engineers, support, and product teams could all use.
How the Cat Saved the Day
So, Where Does the Feature Flag Fit In?
Using ConfigCat's percentage-based rollout feature, ControlPoint successfully delivered a core new feature step by step, having its finger on the big red Emergency Kill Switch button all the time. This way, they could be sure that their customers would be able to perform their everyday jobs with zero disruption or downtime.
They also look forward to fully using ConfigCat's text and numerical settings, not just boolean (true/false) flags, to enable remote configuration flexibility. This feature allows them to define and update configuration values directly from the ConfigCat Dashboard UI and access them instantly in their applications.
Why They Picked the Cat
Why ControlPoint Chose ConfigCat as a
Feature Flag Management Tool
ConfigCat has been able to provide a quick fix for a common limitation of one of their mobile operating systems. When adding a new blur detection feature to their Android app camera module, they were concerned that it would not work on all the phones available, and users would be unable to use the app to perform their job. They then turned to ConfigCat to confidently roll out the feature on a percentage basis knowing they could either disable it for particular phone models, users, or high-profile clients.
“One example is a feature we added to our camera module. The Android camera is notoriously difficult, as it can behave differently on various devices. We added a blur detection feature to our camera module, but could not be certain that this would work as expected on all the phones available. If this section in our app fails, then it means that the users cannot perform their job, which is a highly undesirable outcome. We have used ConfigCat to gradually roll out this feature on a percentage basis. If users experience any issues with it, then we can either disable it for particular models, users, or high-profile clients."
Read how Andrew Reeman describes ControlPoint's experience with ConfigCat.
From Meow to Wow
Future Plans: Scaling the Utility Sector with Feature Flags
The ControlPoint team is driven by big ambitions that keep them innovating. Their future goals include:
- Increasing their presence in related areas and managing to train operatives and capture data from every area of a pipeline installation.
- Offering a variety of tiered levels for various sizes of clients.
- Leveraging AI and automation to speed up their inspections while maintaining a high level of quality and accountability.
- Deeper integration into clients' back-office systems.
- Building an industry community centred around quality.
By putting feature flag management at the center of their growth strategy, Ovarro/ControlPoint continues to innovate, reduce risk, and deliver safer digital solutions for the utility sector.
Is ConfigCat a Fit for You?
Why Choose ConfigCat for Feature Flagging?
If your team wants to take your feature management game to the next level, ConfigCat is the tool that delivers. ConfigCat stands out for its reliability, ease of use, and developer-first experience.
Whether you're managing rollouts in mobile apps, web platforms, or both, ConfigCat lets you:
- Deploy safely by keeping new features behind flags until you are ready
- Target specific user groups for early access or beta testing
- Roll back changes instantly if something needs fixing
- Release faster and more confidently, without the stress
Join thousands of developers who trust ConfigCat to bring control and agility into their software development workflow.
