CASE STUDIES IT Solutions for business

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. New e-Commerce for Poczta Kwiatowa®

03

2. Dedicated mobile application for TIM S.A.

11

3. New B2B/B2C platform for ELMARK Automatyka

18

4. Comprehensive implementation of CABAS.pl start-up

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5. Full sales and warehouse service, as well as integration with internal systems of DecoKing 6. Implementation of B2\B system for Netpack

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35 44

1.

new e-Commerce for Poczta Kwiatowa®

About the company Poczta Kwiatowa® was the pioneer of selling flowers through the e-Commerce channel. Now, they are absolute leaders of such service in Poland. The Poczta Kwiatowa® brand is widely recognized amongst polish customers. It’s not really a big surprise – when it comes to sending flowers, time matters. And Poczta Kwiatowa® delivers their product in even less than 4 hours. Besides local delivery, company also offers international shipping to over 150 countries. Today, Poczta Kwiatowa® determines new floristic trends in Poland. The company was awarded for their services many times. Not only by the customers for their quality, but also by professional e-Commerce organizations.

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The cooperation between Poczta Kwiatowa® and X-Coding began as a result of the decision to change company’s e-Commerce platform. There were few key factors regarding the old platform, that lead to such move: ›› ineffective cost/results factor, ›› significant efficiency problems, ›› problems with challenging the rapid change of trends.

Efficiency of the platform is a common problem for many popular nowadays on-line businesses. It is mainly caused by lack of rigorous approach to software optimization and results in lowering the revenue. Page loading time is one of the most important project results and it should be monitored throughout each project phase, including post-production maintenance. The minimum requirements are: ›› home page – 1-2 seconds, ›› every other page on the checkout proces – 2-3 seconds.

Websites, that don’t match those requirements, aren’t usable for their customers and after a while of interaction customers tend to leave.

1.2. Project implementation Our main goal was to deliver the new e-Commerce system, that would provide undisturbed access and meet all the requirements of Poczta Kwiatowa® customers. We decided to choose Magento as an application engine. It was our answer to the advanced system functionalities required by our customers. Also the possibility of 5

Poczta Kwiatowa

1.1. e-Commerce requirements

Magento. Our experience in software optimiziation was crucial and lead to delivering a solution that meet all the expectations regarding loading time

Agile The implementation phase was divided by two-week sprints. Each sprint task was planned and described on a regular basis by the team (consisting of members from both companies). We are sure, that such approach to project activities is necessary, when aiming for optimal project results value. Regular, hard work coming from both parties lead to: ›› improving the project details awareness, ›› ability to react to changes (that occur on the daily basis in

e-Commerce environment), ›› lowering the overal costs of software production,

In a summary, the development took 10 sprints of 8-member team. The important thing here is that the team wasn’t changed in the process, which is important for good communication.

Dedicated functionalities Poczta Kwiatowa® is, for the most, innovative selling platform. It’s what make them leaders amongst their competitors. That’s why many of provided functionalities are unique and require individual approach.

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Poczta Kwiatowa

further improvement and aforementioned stability of the application spoke for choosing

Few examples of functionalities are: ›› cross-platform integration, ›› advanced product configuration, ›› complex delivery date algorithms, ›› offer management.

Especially the project configuration is worth mentioning, because of its complexity and individual character amongst other e-Commerce solutions. Besides functionalities, integrations were also important parts. The website is connected to many external and internal services, such as: ›› internal modular resource planning software, ›› dedicated internal logistic planning software, ›› on-line payment (i.e. PayPal, Skrill, Sofort, Polcard).

today Wedding

23.07.2016 17:00 + €4,00

Dodaj do koszyka

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Poczta Kwiatowa

In this project we delivered 23 dedicated modules, each serving different purpose.

Again, one of the most important success factors was the loading speed and application scalability. In order to ensure minimum response and load time, we implemented a number of software and hardware mechanisms. Some of them: ›› load balancer, ›› decicated database server and caching server, ›› dedicated computing unit, ›› multi-level cache mechanisms, ›› request number reducing mechanisms ›› code optimization and minification tools (for HTML / CSS / JS), ›› user session storage optimization, ›› dedicated CDN server.

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Poczta Kwiatowa

Application efficiency

Poczta Kwiatowa

WWW HTPS

LOAD BALANCER HTTS

1

1 APP

redis session

2

2 APP

DATABASE SERVER

MySql

9

3

3 APP

redis cashe

application servers

comp

COMPUTING SERVER

1.3. Effects and further development The final effect of over 3500 hours spent on development is one of the largest dedicated Magento implementation in Poland. The team managed to achieve the most important project goals: ›› delivering efficient platform that handles over 1000 simultaneous user sessions, ›› tailoring Magento functionalities to unique customer needs, ›› integrating the platform with company’s internal IT environment. Currently the project is in the maintenance and further improvement phase, which is an answer to its customers needs.

2.

DEDICATED MOBILE APPLICATION FOR TIM S.A.

ABOUT TIM

TIM S.A. is one of the largest distributors of electrotechnical goods in Poland. 25 years in the industry, including 17 years on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, is sufficient amount of time to gain priceless experience on the market. This company is also the winner of many prestigious awards, it received among others: Gazele Biznesu, Diament Forbes, etc. Technologies, innovation, mobility – these three words currently constitute the key to development of TIM S.A. This company was first on the market in this sector to provide its offer via Internet to business customers, as well as individual customers, without the need of prior registering or logging in. Investments in the on-line channel have resulted in opening, in summer 2013, high-end online store, fully adapted to the needs of recipients from the electrical power industry.

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2.1.BEGINNING OF COOPERATION After unquestionable success of e-Commerce platform, TIM decides to present its commercial offer also in the m-Commerce channel. Cooperation with X-Coding IT application

for the Android operating system.

A specific group of recipients and market requirements caused that our specialists were faced with the challenge to build an application, which primarily will be useful and ergonomic. It should be remembered that main customers of TIM S.A. company are B2B customers (wholesale and retail stores) for which the purchasing process must be as simplified and clear as possible, and the product searching must be done in the most intuitive manner.

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TIM

Studio has been established in order to design and implement dedicated mobile

Therefore, all interactions with the user were designed based on functional models. Thanks to that, it was much easier to reflect the processes occurring in the store on mobile devices, as well as to make necessary changes without unnecessary costs. Based on workshops with the customer, we were able to develop optimal path of customer service and order implementation, while maintaining all industry-specific TIM

functions, which were contained in the internet store.

2.2. IMPLEMENTATION AT THE BACKEND OF THE ONLINE STORE The thing that distinguished this project from the others was primarily the environmental context. TIM S.A. company at the moment of project implementation not only already had online store implemented on Magento engine, but also had the entire IT backend, supporting main business process that was carried out in the company. Functional analysis showed that the best solution was to integrate mobile application directly with the online store, in order to ensure identical commercial terms, without the need of duplicating data, implementation of functionality or communication with external systems.

Android iOS

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CORE MAGENTO API

TIM.PL

COMPANY'S IT ENVIRONMENT

2.3. Magento Core API Magento Core API was used to implement the functionalities predicted in mobile application. It’s a set of methods that enable communication between the platform and the most important objects of the system, such as: ›› products, ›› categories, ›› customers, ›› orders, ›› etc.

Thanks to API, Magento opens up to external systems. Given the scale of changes in the platform itself, as well as functional requirements of the mobile application, it turned out that the implementation of supplemented logic for the needs of communication with mobile application was necessary.

Maciej Harbuz \ Technology Director X-Coding IT Studio

With Magento Core API we’ve used implemented safeguards, roles and access restrictions, as well as communication protocol SOAP. All messages must have been implemented taking into account changes made in e-Commerce TIM S.A., such as advanced tool for cutting cables and modified logic of the purchasing process. Taking into account the entire functionality of the modified store from the level of API messages was the biggest challenge we’ve encountered during implementation of this project. At the same time, during all implementation stages, we’ve attached great importance to make sure that the store’s development required as little change in mobile functionalities as possible. 15

TIM

the external systems. API was programmed in such manner so as to enable access to

2.4. PROJECT OBJECTIVES ACHIEVED IN AGILE MANNER

methodology. Such approach was necessary due to development works conducted in parallel and it brought the following positive effects: ›› we managed to synchronize the work with development of the online store

and thanks to that we were able to implement changes at the same moment, minimizing the risk of occurrence of differences in functionalities ›› scope of the project was flexible and adapted to the current needs and

development of the store ›› from the moment of implementation of the coherent minimum functionalities,

the effect of each sprint was eligible mobile application, ready for publication in Google Play. Thanks to that, the market could start using the tool quicker and TIM could faster gather feedback The project team worked in two-week cycles. In each sprint the following elements were implemented: ›› planning of the current scope of works ›› implementation of the scope ›› automatic and acceptance tests ›› commissioning and publication of the partial product

Effects of more than 11 months of work showed that once again the agile methodology was the best possible choice.

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TIM

The entire implementation process was implemented in accordance with SCRUM

2.5. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT TIM S.A. is currently conducting a large expansion on the online sales market. Therefore, the dynamic development of e-Commerce platform results in a need of ongoing maintenance and development of the mobile version, as well as opening up to other operating systems. Thus, the companies decided to further extend the cooperation.

3.

New B2B/B2C platform for ELMARK Automatyka

About the company

ELMARK Automatyka is one of the leading distributors of the industrial automatic equipment in Poland. Thanks to over 30 years of experience, their customers may count not only on the professional customer service, but also certified experts advisory - during and after the purchase. Focusing on the quality of company’s services

and innovative approach is what

makes ELMARK Automatyka so special among other companies.

Today, with over 19 000 delivered orders in 2015 and €15 000 000 revenue, the company constantly grows within the industrial automatic market, extending their offer to meet nowadays challenges.

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3.1. New B2B/B2C system

$ lower

operational costs

e-Commerce

ELMARK

better buying experience

customers expect it

more customer engagement

better brand awareness

Better buying experience for the customers, automation of the sales process and enabling access for B2C customers were the main needs that lead to implementing a new selling platform. This is the direction consistent with the trend occurring in the industry. Our main task was to implement a complex e-Commerce platform, that meets both B2B and B2C customer needs. The important part of the project was integration with company’s internal systems (WF-MAG, for example) and also with the previous e-Commerce platform (in both directions).

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3.2. Technology In case of new e-Commerce platform for ELMARK Automatyka, we recommended Magento Community edition. In the Open Source sector it’s the best solution, when it comes to omnichannel strategy implementation. The ability of extending its functionality to the individual customer needs as well as built-in advanced integration tools were the main keys to the successful project implementation and further

3.3. Development UX against market specificity The industry automatic market is specific, when it comes to the UX design, as most of selling boosters just doesn’t seem to work here. The most important part of the website is navigation. Incorrect assumptions and problems with navigating lead mostly to abandonment. It was the main reason we put extraordinary effort to design the navigation structure and UX mockups of whole system. In the process, we took into account a store target, market specificity and buyer experience gathered in the previous platform. Preliminary analysis resulted in 14 precisely described functional mockups, which simplified the design phase of the project.

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ELMARK

development.

ELMARK

Dedicated functionalities The main advantage of the platform, amongst the competition, was the number of dedicated funcionalities, crafted to face the sophisticated needs of the company’s customers

(who already got used to the quality of service). For the most, we

implemented innovative improvements for the B2C sector. Our work resulted in 21 custom modules. Moreover, 17 commercial modules were bought, which lowered the project costs. Availability of the latter is one of the key arguments of choosing Magento. The modules worth mentioning are: ›› Subaccounts - enabling cooperation between ELMARK’s customers

departments. The module also improved order completion process, preventing it from the unnecessary interference

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›› Extended warehouse - we implemented advanced product information

architecture, gathered from 20 different locations, along with multi-level access rights. Thanks to that, for example, customers were able to choose the pickup location basing on the knowledge of its live stock availability, ›› Credit limit - business partners of ELMARK Automatyka are able to receive

a credit limit for their orders. Implementation this functionality in new e-Commerce significantly improved order processing.

It was the first time for us, when the new e-Commerce’s purpose was not to replace the old one, but just to serve a better alternative. The decision about switching was moved to the customers. It was necessary, considering the conservative nature of the described buyer persona. We can call the project „evolution” of sales, not exactly a „revolution”. The simultaneous maintenance of two platforms reflected on the integration – it had to exchange the information between the platforms in both directions. It was the only acceptable way of keeping customers up to date and providing them consistent data. We faced the challenge of live and efficient information exchange. The final communication in the IT architecture was following:

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ELMARK

“Until the last customer leaves”

customers orders price lists stock information

WF-MAG

product information

ELMARK product data

OLD STORE

product data

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Considering the amount of data, we made a good use of asynchronic queues. The chosen approach reduced the risk of losing crucial data.

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ELMARK

NEW STORE

3.4. ELMARK in summary The implementation of new e-Commerce platform for ELMARK Automatyka can be described by following key points: ›› over 1600 hours spent on development, ›› half of year with 4-people team, ›› keeping all platforms intact thanks to the advanced integration mechanisms, ›› innovative sales solutions for the industry. Currently, after going live with the store, we switched to maintenance and improvement phase, in order to face the upcoming sector needs.

4.

COMPREHENSIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF CABAS.PL START-UP

ABOUT CABAS.PL CABAS.pl calls itself “big online market square”. It’s a place that connects local vendors offering their products from all over the country, as well as customers searching for regional culinary specialties. The project is a response to continuously growing market demand for regional food, produced by smaller producers in accordance with traditional recipes and using ingredients of the best quality, which is supposed to be an alternative to mass produced food products. This trend is strongly noticeable in the traditional sales – market stalls are currently experiencing their second youth, while more and more people also choose to shop in the local small stores, instead of supermarkets. CABAS.pl is the first website that brings local market stall sales to a larger scale, reaching out to customers from all over Poland, using e-Commerce and m-Commerce multi-channel sales. On the one hand, sellers may offer their products all over the country, and on the other hand, connoisseurs get a tool through which, they are able to satisfy their needs without leaving home. 27

4.1. BEGINNING OF COOPERATION

INNOVATION

TECHNOLOGY

MOBILITY

Cabas

ADDED VALUE OF THE PROJECT

Cooperation with CABAS.pl began as a result of the planned investment regarding comprehensive designing and implementation of the system. X-Coding IT Studio has been selected as a reliable partner with rich experience in the industry the platform targets

to operate in.

The first stage in a project is primarily the analysis of design requirements in terms of additional functionalities that increase competitive advantage. Often requirements developed in the documentation do not reflect the actual potential of the platform, thus based on the market standards and expectations of the customers, we’re looking for opportunities to increase added value provided by the website. As a result, even before starting the work, we were able to increase website’s attractiveness, and thereby increase its flexibility on continuously growing FMCG 28

4.2. TECHNOLOGY Given the functional requirements, as well as the business needs, Magento engine in Community version has been selected for implementation of the platform. The use of Magento allowed for implementation of desired functionalities not only at optimum cost, but also with full scalability, which upon reaching the critical mass will be crucial in maintaining user experience at the highest level. Magento is currently the most popular and fastest growing e-Commerce platform in the world. Producer’s support, development plans and large community gathered around this tool, can significantly reduce the cost of further development, as well as greatly facilitate maintaining of failure-free operation of the system.

built-in API within the system, through which we’ve minimized the cost of implementing communication with external applications.

4.3. MOBILITY Currently, it’s impossible to think about launching sales in the e-Commerce channel without appropriate support for mobile devices. In this case, it was even more crucial as we were dealing with FMCG sector, where purchasing need is

issue,

more likely based on an impulse, rather than long-term searches. Cabas.pl has been prepared in RWD technology in three different views:

Mobile first

›› regular screen, ›› tablet, ›› mobile, 29

Cabas

Additional advantage of the store is the native support for mobile devices thanks to

and thanks to that, it allows for convenient shopping not only at home, but also during various everyday activities. For customers who prefer native applications, CABAS.pl offers application for Android system available in Google Play store. The application allows users to get even more efficient navigation throughout the rich offer of regional seller. In the case of many projects, often there’s a need to choose between implementation of RWD version or implementation of native applications. CABAS.pl offers both solutions coming across the expectations of customers preferring RWD, as well as the supporters of mobile applications.

Cabas

4.4. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM

GRAPHIC DESIGN

IMPLEMENTATION

TESTS/ STABILIZATION

GRAPHIC DESIGN First task was the graphic design of the system based on functional models, which constitute input to the project. At the stage of designing functionalities, we provided substantive support, often verifying assumptions with the market expectations and good practices of UX. 30

In regard to every project, we put great emphasis on the graphic elements. From an on-line store perspective, look&feel is one of the most important factors, which is often decisive in whether the customer stays or leaves the website.

PROJECT ORGANIZATION Works since the beginning of the project until the completion of its full functionality have lasted 15 months. During this time, interaction designers, graphic designers, testers, project manager and, of course, the team of programmers were involved in the project. Since the beginning, the works on CABAS.pl were supported by a number of systems: ›› code repository (svn), ›› continuous integration management (jenkins), ›› automation of load tests (siege), ›› project management (podio),

and programs allowing for effective communication between Wrocław (head office of X-Coding IT Studio) - Gdańsk office of CABAS.pl) - Warszawa (workplace of the sponsor): Skype, Hangouts, Team Viewer. Such organization of work, has ensured the smooth running of the project, and it also tidied up the cooperation between the team and the client.

INTEGRATIONS At the stage of implementation, it was necessary to integrate with the systems, which facilitate the work of sellers, as well as encourage customers to make more frequent purchases, such as:

31

Cabas

›› request management system (redmine),

›› Integration with databases of products:

»» Brand24, produktywsieci.pl, opisy produktow.pl ›› Integration with money sharing service for individual sellers:

»» Transferuj.pl MassPayment, ›› Integration with Google Calendar in the scope of customer orders, as well as

supplies of the sellers, ›› plug-in written in JavaScript allowing for management of purchase lists from

the level of third-party websites, From a technical point of view, implementation of mobile application for Android system, with the use of Magento API, also constituted integration. An important objective was to implement communication in such manner that it would operate as a data rail, to which

SPEED OF THE WEBSITE Due to the characteristics of the website, most of the subpages consists almost entirely of the dynamic contents, which are modified by many sellers, and not, as in most cases with such websites, by the store’s administration. Thus, during works on this website, one of challenges was to ensure short loading times of the subpages. We managed to solve this problem by using advanced mechanisms, such as: Mod_Pagespeed and RedIs in combination with multi-level cache. In addition, it was necessary to configure the database in a manner fully utilizing server’s resources and also to use mechanisms of delayed loading (Lazy Loading). As a result, we managed to shorten the loading time of home page from 10 seconds to 1 second, without the need to increase performance parameters of the hardware. Website’s performance level required by the client included maintenance of traffic at the level of 1 view per second (at the peak 3 views per second). After optimization works, the website is able to withstand traffic at the level of 6 continuous views per second using 2 out of 3 available 32

Cabas

it will be easy to connect applications designed for other systems, for example Apple

TESTS / STABILIZATION During conducting projects, we attached great importance not only to the correctness of the project in terms of meeting basic assumptions, but also to reliability of the supplied solution. In order to ensure appropriate level of quality, internally the project was implemented in stages, and thanks to that, it was easier for us to control the provision of individual functionalities. At each stage, independent testers were involved in the development with different intensity. This way we were able to perform full production cycle “deployment  tests  stabilization  acceptance” on partial products smaller in terms of volume, thereby providing coherent and stable complete product. Client and sponsor were also involved in the acceptance tests of individual stages and

Cabas

thanks to that, we could maintain business compliance on an ongoing basis.

CABAS in numbers

724 Cases of application and i 340 functional requirements, more than 700 of Jenkins builds. Almost 5000 of svn revisions. 2 483 529 427 B of daily data backup (and still growing).

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33

89

1365

4.5. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT Before the completion of works on CABAS.pl website, the project’s sponsor noticed a niche that was forming on the market for cyclic delivery of regional products in surprise boxes (cudmiodbox.pl, sielskibox.pl), and has decided to implement mechanisms in the website necessary to promote this form of products offering among the sellers. Thanks to the flexibility of Magento, our team could start implementation works of new functionality without neglecting the original design assumptions. In addition to development of functionality, X-Coding IT Studio team will be also responsible for correct and efficient operation of CABAS.pl website.

5.

SALES AND WAREHOUSE SERVICE OF DECOKING

ABOUT Decoking Main area of DecoKing operation is trade of textiles on the Internet. At the initial stage of development, the company built its sales only on the Polish market, intensifying sales activities via Allegro channel. Experiences gathered this way on the domestic e-Commerce market has allowed for dynamic development and working out of better methods concerning the maximization of on-line sales. Currently, DecoKing company is one of the industry’s leaders with many years of experience on e-Commerce market. It sells its products not only in Poland, but also conducts intensive expansion to western markets, primarily Germany. The acquired experience has allowed for quick implementation of the optimal sales model. Along with the company’s development, it quickly turned out that volume of orders, as well as expectations of our western customers in relation to quality of service, required the improvement of order handling process in the company.

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5.1. BEGINNING OF COOPERATION IN REGARD TO FALCON DecoKing company has decided to engage in cooperation with X-Coding IT Studio in order to solve problems in servicing of increasing number of the handled orders. Given the company’s development, as well as incurred investments, we faced the challenge

of designing a tool that will not only fulfil the current needs, but that

will also be prepared for maintaining the scale over the next few years. The mains tasks of X-Coding IT Studio included: ›› identification and proposition concerning automation of business processes

in the company ›› providing software that will perform these processes ›› mbedding the application in IT environment already existing in the company

(among others, Subiekt GT)

FV

Decoking

InsERT GT WZ warehouse

Ebay Allegro

FALCON ACCEPTANCE

Amazon Offline

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COMPLETION

VERIFICATION

SHIPMENT

AUTOMATION OF THE BUSINESS PROCESS In order to increase the warehouse’s performance, we have redesigned the main business process, which along with the supporting processes, has been based on a centralized order management system. The main process has been designed as STAGES 1.

Customer submits (and pays for) order in one of the external systems

2.

Order is automatically downloaded to the Falcon system

3.

Falcon system generates stock issue confirmation (CI) document in Subiekt GT system and updates inventory of the given product in all external systems Order with CI document goes to a junior warehouseman who with the use

4.

of data collector opens this order’s completion, collects the products and closes the order’s completion Order completed by a junior warehouseman goes to a senior warehouseman who, to assure the lowest possible error rate, performs verification process of completeness and correctness of the package Confirmed order goes to automatic assignment of the tracking number

6.

in integration with DPD (courier), and after assignment of the tracking number, a label for the package is automatically printed on thermal printers After sticking the label on the package, the parcel is ready and waits for the

7.

courier, who was informed about the pick-up the second the tracking number was issued.

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Decoking

5.

At each stage, the key aspects were: ›› consistency - data exchange can’t cause inconsistencies or lacks in the

external systems ›› reliability - system must ensure that data is error-free ›› stability - system must operate continuously (not including planned

maintenance breaks), and in case of failure – must collect data in differential manner without duplicates ›› scalability - given company’s development, there was a need for easy

increase of platform’s performance in the case of load increase ›› modularity - attachment of new external system should not require

reconstruction of the whole.

5.2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM

We decided to implement dedicated software in the following configuration: ›› Database - MySQL ›› Engine application - Symfony 2 Framework ›› Frontend - Dojo Framework

Thanks to such selected configuration, it is much easier to maintain high performance of the application, as well s transparency of the code, without losing the possibility to expand the system in the future. An important matter for us is also the fact that Symfony 2 Framework has a large number of opened extensions, and thanks to that we managed to reduce the costs of 39

Decoking

TECHNOLOGY

incurred investment in functionalities, which are not directly associated with needs of our customer. The entire communication with backend has been solved in asynchronous manner in JSON format. In combination with Dojo Framework, we’ve obtained the most optimal, in terms of data exchange, web application that is friendly to the user operating on large

M

v

DB

SF2

DOJO

IMPLEMENTATION AND PRODUCTION LAUNCHING Functional size of the application was large enough so that we’ve decided to implement the system in ages, in order to systematically relieve load from works performed cyclically in the company by the Falcon system. Thanks to that division, we’ve also been able to effectively manage scope of the project, adapting it to the current needs of the customer. Naturally, the first and only unchanged stage of the works was to prepare database structure and basic functionalities, which in the future were supposed to implement business processes in the company. It was also the most important stage, on the result 40

Decoking

v

of which, we’ve been basing our subsequent works. Each production cycle was related to providing the customer with full set of functionalities implementing business step or supporting process. Thanks to that,

INTEGRATIONS As mentioned before, the application constituted a middleware, to which all external applications were connected. Therefore, integration included all key systems used in the company: ›› Allegro

»» kanał eCommerce »» eBay ›› Amazon ›› InsERT GT ›› system obsługi kurierskiej DPD

Since the project’s beginning, one of the main requirements from the customer was reliability of the system. It was necessary to implement advanced events logs in the system, based on levels of importance and escalations. Archiving of events and comprehensive data validation at each stage have enabled to identify errors quickly, address them properly and in result take repair actions. This way, we reduced response time to failure to tens of minutes, while having complete information about the error, before the customer reports it.

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Decoking

MAINTENANCE OF QUALITY

CUSTOMER’S OPINION Cooperation with X-Coding IT Studio began at important time for my company. In order to grow further, I had to take firm steps aimed at building an IT system, which would automate the largest number of customer service elements and sales processes. As a result of works carried out by X-Coding IT Studio team, it was possible to create system that has allowed for increase of sales volume, process. Today I know that fast and efficient development of my company would be impossible without the specialists from X-Coding IT Studio. Our cooperation has resulted in a system that is easy in handling for me and my employees, operates quickly and intuitively, as well as enables the further development of the company.

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Decoking

while maintaining permanent employment and increasing reliability of the service

5.3. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT DecoKing is currently at the stage of very dynamic development. In the near future, there will be implemented new mechanisms improving the work of warehousemen at the first stage of completing the package and simultaneously the number of sales channels will be expanded with British market. After this stage, there’s a plan to implement extended integration with eBay, covering full handling of payments and returns, as well as the customers’ complaints.

6.

IMPLEMENTATION OF B2B SYSTEM FOR NETPACK

ABOUT THE COMPANY Printing house netPACK has over 12 years of experience and belongs to the group of leaders in the printing industry. The company has an outstanding portfolio of works performed for customers from Poland and Western Europe, and special attention is due to the interest regarding their services exhibited by major players on the market. The quality of products, scope of services and dynamic development of the company have been many times awarded with prestigious titles (among others: Gazele Biznesu, Diamenty Forbes). Competitive advantage of the company consists of advanced machine facilities (devices of such brands as Canon or Heidelberg), which translate not only to quality of the print, but also to quickness of the order implementation. In combination with experienced production team, netPACK efficiently fulfils high requirements

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of the customers.

6.1 B2B Channel Cooperation between netPACK and X-Coding IT Studio began in result of the planned investment for launching online sales in B2B channel. The main objective assumed by the company was to increase sales volume with the largest possible automation of order implementation process (which translates directly to maintaining the size of the team, and thus fixed costs). From the viewpoint of online sales, B2B channel is a road chosen by more and more companies. This is mainly due to the different characteristics of the sales. Depending on the industry, it may be a source of additional revenue at the level from 20% to even

Moreover, this revenue is achieved at lower costs spent on marketing. It should be also noted here that from the viewpoint of order implementation, particularly in product-oriented industry, usually there’s no need to reorganize the functioning of the company. Often, due to size of a single order, the production process

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Netpack

80% in relation to the value coming from B2C channel.

6.2. ADDED VALUE OF THE OPTIMAL PLAN In the case of this type of projects, we always recommend performing full business analysis. It’s impossible not to appreciate conclusions coming from well conducted analytics. Using the standards developed by International Institute of Business Analysis, the document provides reliable knowledge in the following areas: ›› business processes occurring in the enterprise, ›› stakeholders in the project, ›› work characteristics of the individual work stations, ›› opportunities and risk arising from potential changes,

in the context of designed software. Combining all available techniques (among others: community interview, expert opinion, good practices), we were able to easily plan the functional scope of the software and also to assess its impact on harmony of the company’s work. Business analysis conducted in three months by X-Coding IT Studio has resulted in the following effects: ›› we clearly identified purpose and business needs of the investment, ›› we understood characteristics of the work and current problems, which need

to be solved, ›› the company received objective picture of the condition of individual work ›› stations and suggestions concerning the optimization of quality of performed work, ›› technical department received clearly defined functional and business requirements

concerning the created software. Therefore, it can be seen that the benefit was bilateral and the risk of mutual misunderstanding was minimized.

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›› the customer was assured that he spends money on exactly what he needs,

6.3. IMPLEMENTATION We decided to implement project in accordance with agile methodology, with the use of SCRUM. What determined this approach is primarily the fact that thanks to this, netPACK company could start as soon as possible to use the modules provided by the team, which constitute the composition of the entire system. Agile methodology and appropriately planned stages have also allowed for soft transition to new system, thus eliminating the potential threat associated with downtime in production. The employees who first gained access to the new system have helped to create positive atmosphere of waiting for new functionalities, which were necessary for the development of netPACK company. Thus, we’ve minimized the effect of employees with negative attitude towards changes in the company.

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ITERATION

PRODUCT

Netpack

task

The system has been divided into the following modules: ›› EDI module ›› design module ›› invoice generating and sending module ›› report generating module ›› order status verification module ›› error detection module ›› logistics module

The entire system has been based on framework Symfony 2.3, which is very good for supporting module architecture of the system and provides many basic functionalities, such as mechanism of user authentication and authorization, pdf generation, handling of cache. The whole communication and information exchange between the partners and netPACK company have been designed in EDI module. The system provides API, which supports REST protocol, as well as SOAP protocol, and this facilitates the integration for individual partners. Automatic electronic signature attached to generated PDF document has been implemented in the invoice module. Thanks to this mechanism, the netPack partners have assurance that the invoice comes from the netPack company and that it wasn’t

Netpack

modified during information exchange between the companies.

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6.4. SCRUM in netPACK SMALL STEPS Implementation of the project has been divided into two two-week sprints. On one hand, the shortest period required for implementation of functionally coherent elements of the system, and on the other hand, in the case of longer time, the risk of quality reduction

of the partial products increases.

The exception from the above adopted rule was the first sprint, which lasted 5 weeks, and during which we’ve stabilized the test environments and devcorners, as well as supplied basic application for future development.

Tests, tests, tests A fixed element of each sprint is the continuous support of application testers. With project of such size, it was one of the key roles, thanks to which we’ve maintained the quality

of subsequent partial products.

Types of tests that we performed iteratively: ›› functional tests – primarily in terms of fulfilling user story, and also

application usability in accordance with business predictions ›› security tests – susceptibility of application to typical attacks with the use of ›› automatic tools (susceptibility to SQL InjectIon, XSS, CSRF),

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›› performance tests – aimed at ensuring the maintenance of high level of traffic,

ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER Since the very beginning of the works, we tried to involve the customer in daily routine of the programming team. Therefore, the customer’s interests were represented during daily standup meetings, both scrum master, as well as the programmers had good communication with individual departments, in which we’ve implemented the system. As a result of such activities, we reacted much faster to changes, the customer was always well informed, and above all, the individual stages were received practically in continuous mode.

AGILE PAYS OFF Agile methodology in the case of this project was the best possible choice. Good communication, effective work of the team and results are always consistent with expectations and those are the main arguments “for”. Additional, but also worth mentioning results were the partial products, which in stages suppressed the old solutions and have gradually stabilized in the company’s

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environment.

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EFFECTS

Main effect of the works is a system that fulfils the company’s business needs in the scope of order implementation in B2B channel. However, the other positive consequences of project implementation are also worth mentioning: ››

We optimized the key business processes, which in turn allowed to maintain employment with three times greater workload,

››

Individual work stations participating in the order implementation were improved and received dedicated solutions, which provided for greater work ergonomics,

››

Implemented analytical tools allow for better cost estimation,

››

Production cost of a single order was reduced,

››

Mechanisms of monitoring and escalation allowed to seal the quality control.

In addition, we were able to centralize the management of projects from all

Netpack

channels available to the company.

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6.5. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT Given that the prediction assumes the achievement of revenue from channel B2B at the level of 60%, and also the customer’s satisfaction from implemented solutions, the companies decided to engage in long-term cooperation in the scope of software maintenance and development, as well as optimization of e-commerce channel, in which the B2C sales is conducted. The purpose of long-term cooperation is mainly to improve conversion in both channels, with the use of, among others: inbound marketing and dropshipping.

X-Coding IT Studio Ul. Czysta 4 50-013 Wrocław Poland Marek Kich

Executive Director

[email protected] (+48) 665 442 665 www.x-coding.eu