More automation for business operations
Custom software for order management
How the Wise engineers shipped an order management system designed specifically for a drainage manufacturer and helped the company process complex purchases faster.Industry
Metal Fabrication & RetailLocation
UkraineTime frame
5 monthsMetalpark
Metal Fabrication & Retail
Project scope
Metalpark, a water drainage systems manufacturer, aimed to optimize how complex orders with multiple requirements were handled by the company departments. Custom software for order management built by the WE team allowed the business to automate the order management process and helped sales, design, tech, and accounting teams access up-to-date information on orders instantly.
The Wise Engineering team took care of the solution wireframing, prototyping, building all the complex functionality, and ensured the solution has efficient architecture and infrastructure.
Background
Metalpark, one of the largest manufacturers of water drainage systems in Ukraine, provides water drainage for private and sports buildings, pedestrian zones, parking lots, and factories. With over 40 trade offices around the world, the company aspired to further expand its geographical presence.
To process the custom requirements of global customers with less manual work and provide valid offers faster, the company’s management started to look for the order management system. All the ready solutions existing on the market didn’t match the specific requirement processing and order creation flows. So, on the recommendation of our previous client, Metalpark approached our team with the request for custom software development services.
Business & tech challenges
01
Long time for order processing
Order management in the construction industry had a specific flow. Multiple criteria could influence the price and specification for the drainage systems. Lack of automation made the process of bringing an offer in front of a potential customer very time-consuming.
02
Multiple departments involved
Several departments took part in the creation and processing of orders. Design, tech, and accounting teams needed the initial project requirements to prepare their parts. The requirements and order descriptions then circulated between the departments.
03
Dynamic form with numerous components
To speed up the overall custom offers creation process we needed to develop a dynamic form with numerous attributes, nested components, and relationships to other attributes. The order processing flow had multiple dependencies.
04
Custom reporting & analytics
The client requested the creation of custom forms (documents) and custom reports that would be saved in the system. To generate custom analytics, a variety of formulas had to be implemented and applied to the data added to the system.
Research & project assessment
To ensure that software functionality would satisfy our client’s business needs, we dived deeply into the order creation process and discussed with the Metalpark team how the orders were created, what information was gathered at each step, and how the received data influenced the future order processing.
We also received a list of problems our client needed to solve. Some of the requested features were mutually exclusive and we managed to shorten the functionality list, yet to address each of the problems mentioned.
- Analyzed existing order creation process
- Optimized initial requirements from the client
- Provided tech audit of the existing codebase
- Composed a list of new technologies and services
- Prepare a concept of system design and architecture
- Prioritized custom software features
- Created project roadmap and agreed on deadlines
Development in progress
The system was designed for the following types of users with specific access rules:
- Customers/sales representatives
- Production departments: Design, Technological & Accounting
- Company’s management
With the custom solution, a person no longer needed tech expertise to create a commercial offer and the predefined system of roles ensured everyone had the necessary data immediately. The restricted access to specific features minimized any risks of a data breach or unauthorized changes to the system.
Improved order processing flow
With the new software for order management, sales representatives added the initial parameters, and the order was created and automatically calculated. Then, the design and tech departments could check its specifications, and return to the sales representatives with suggestions or questions that should be discussed before the order was further processed.
The key system features included:
- Custom product calculations (custom formulas, reports with variables from orders)
- Generation of the order-related documents
- Creation of a new commercial offer
- Monitoring and managing all orders in the system
- Checking on order statuses
Dynamic forms & clear UI
To create dynamic forms within the order management software, we used React JS. It helped us to build complex forms with a vast number of interactive elements. Each of the elements had unique validation and relationship rules. Additionally, React JS gave us the possibility to work effectively with products, which had different structures.
We created a user-friendly interface for the order creation forms, and the overall system, to make sure the system saved the company's employees time performing their daily tasks.
The system could be used in two systems of measurement (imperial and metric), as well as two languages (Ukrainian and English).
Iterative development approach
With every new feature, we started with a prototype that was tested by the representative from the necessary team and after it was accepted, its full implementation started.
Apart from our inner daily meetings and sprint reviews, we had regular meetings with the client that allowed us to deliver an efficient solution. We also sent weekly reports on product updates and tasks that were completed.
Results
Tech aspect
Business part
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