For an industrial laundry, a software update should never cause a stir on the production floor. Behind every smooth ABSSolute upgrade is a structured release process built to protect daily operations. Laura Constantinescu, Application Delivery Manager at ABS Laundry Business Solutions, is responsible for that process. After more than 12 years at ABS, she knows both the software and the laundry business from the inside.
In this Industry Insight, Laura explains how predictable software delivery works in practice, what goes into a reliable ERP release, and which questions every laundry can ask its software partner.
“The perfect release is the one that nobody knows about. It just happens, it is installed, and nothing big is raised because of it.”
Predictable software delivery gives industrial laundries ERP updates that arrive on time, work as agreed and do not disrupt production, logistics, customer service or invoicing. At ABS Laundry Business Solutions, this rests on five pillars: a yearly release schedule shared well in advance, release content prioritised on customer deadlines, a dedicated maintenance team after every go live, security and logging built into every new application, and a retrospective after every release.
A good release is a quiet release
An ERP system is the backbone of a laundry. Production, logistics, customer service and invoicing all depend on it. A release that arrives late, shows up unannounced or contains surprises affects more than the IT department. It reaches the people on the floor, the drivers on the road and the customers waiting for clean textiles.
That is why release planning at ABS always starts with the customer. A laundry may be waiting on a customer specific implementation, or it may need to upgrade because of a support schedule. Each release has to deliver as many new features as possible without putting those timelines at risk.
Laura’s career at ABS covers almost every part of software development. She started as a tester and went on to work as a report developer, a database developer and a full stack developer in the ABSSolute Infinity team. Along the way she also served as release technical coordinator, which made her current role a natural next step.
Today her task is clear. ABS software has to reach the customer on time, within the agreed time frame and in good shape, with every release risk mitigated.
“Think of me as someone who checks that everything is packed. Everybody who needed to do something for that release has done it, and everything that was agreed to be in the release is there.”
Predictability starts early. Every year, around the fourth quarter, the product department proposes the release schedule for the year ahead in close collaboration with the project management department and the technical teams. From the start of the year, it is clear when the main releases will land.
Plans can still change. When the content of a release no longer fits the timeline, Laura raises the flag and starts the conversation. Is the deadline essential? Will a delay affect any customer timeline? What needs to be kept in mind? One person never makes these decisions. They are made together, with the customer impact at the centre.
Each release starts with a backlog built together by the technical teams, the product department and the customer representatives. Items are then prioritised in three ways.
“Strategy, product, the customer perspective and the technical side each have a seat at the table. Together, the aim is a cohesive release.”
That cohesion matters more than ever, because ABS no longer delivers a single product. It delivers an ecosystem. Laura leads five teams across Infinity, Java and Mobile, and every part has to work together to form a complete solution.
ABSSolute server
ABSSolute Infinity
Mobile applications
API gateway
Behind the scenes
Maintenance team
Even with thorough development and testing, a rare corner case can still slip through. ABS understands how disruptive a blocking issue can be for daily operations, and that is why every release is handed over to a dedicated maintenance team.
This team is aware of every upcoming customer go live. It takes ownership of the supported release branch, keeps a close eye on issues reported right after a go live and reserves capacity for those customers in advance. The result is fast, focused support at the moment it matters most.
Laura is also responsible for new applications. When the business introduces a new idea, the first step is understanding who will use it and where.
“If a user reports a problem, there has to be enough information to investigate it, give them the support they need and fix it. Without an error message, it is often very hard to find the root of the problem.”
Security follows the same logic. The level of protection depends on who uses the application and what data it handles. Sensitive data should only be visible to the users who need it, and every application has to withstand malicious intent.
A finished product is defined together with the product owner. Some requirements are non negotiable from the very first release. Beyond those, the requirements depend on the risk. A small application with limited access needs different rules than one that handles sensitive data and is exposed to the internet.
“A risk analysis is run for every application, and anything above a low risk is mitigated before release.”
According to Laura, the most challenging part of the role is also its core. As the bridge between business, operations and technology, she makes sure each side understands the other.
“The business needs to understand the technical challenges, and the technical side needs to understand what matters to the business. My job is to keep a balance between the two. For customers, that balance means updates that solve real business needs, built on technology they can rely on.”
Application delivery at ABS keeps evolving. The shift from one application to a full ecosystem continues, and more applications are on the way. Artificial intelligence already plays a role in the software development process and has made it significantly faster. The teams are now exploring how AI can generate more tests, streamline the release process and detect patterns during release creation and testing.
What should a laundry manager remember about how ABS delivers software? For Laura, the answer lies in the people. Many team members have worked at ABS for 10 or even 15 years and longer. They know the software, and they know the laundry business. That depth of knowledge allows the teams to build complex solutions while keeping the business side in mind.
Improvement never stops either. After every release, technical and business colleagues hold a retrospective to discuss what went well and what can be done better.
“The processes are always evolving. The aim is to keep improving the quality with every release.”
For industrial laundries, that means software that arrives on time, works as agreed and gets better with every release. That is the standard ABS Laundry Business Solutions delivers, one release at a time.
Software updates without surprises
Curious how ABSSolute keeps daily laundry operations running with every release? The ABS team is happy to share its experience.
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