Implementation Of A Workflow Mechanism With UI And UX Upgrade Of Internal Web Application
CLIENT
Renowned large scale pharmaceutical firm based out of Connecticut
INDUSTRY
Healthcare, Pharmaceutical
DELIVERY
Workflow Mechanism with UI and UX Upgrade of Internal Web Application
TECHNOLOGY
AngularJS, Node.js, MySQL, Azure, Docker
Background
The said internal application was being used by the client for Procurement purpose for more than five years. Due to a massive growth in their business, they had to split the department in three. With this split, Purchase Orders were to be approved by their respective departmental heads because each department now had its own projects and budgets.
They reached out to Mpire Solutions with an inquiry about upgrading their internal application with the objective to add new features as well as fixing some existing issues to continue using the application.
Challenge
The first and main challenge was the structural modification of the internal application as per new departmental structures. The entire workflow had to be completely overhauled in terms of departmental hierarchies.
The application was built a few years ago without any consideration of user experience (UX). Hence, the secondary challenge was to improve and maximize the user experience throughout the application, which could also ease the training process so that employees could conveniently adapt to the change in technicalities.
Requirements
- Structural Modification – To accommodate multi-department PO processing and approving authorities by respective department heads in an existing internal application
- Stability – To ensure that the upgraded system is stable enough to process several orders at a time.
- Monitoring – To provide the users the ability to track each order with respect to its processing department, approving authority and its placement or alert the operation personnel about any errors.
- Improve the UI and UX: To improve the user experience and user interface, making the system user friendly and efficient.
Solution
Our team had to conduct a deep audit of the internal application. Our initial task was to take the code into our custody and understand the database structure, code, and front-end issues.
After a thorough examination and several brainstorming sessions, we came to a conclusion that the database structure and backend coding were excellent and should be left untouched, but the frontend code should be rebuilt.
We were able to successfully implement a new workflow mechanism in the form of an upgraded PO process for the client. This was achieved by extending their existing architecture so it can support multi-department PO approval process.
In the second phase, a new UI was designed and adopted using AngularJS. We also provided back-end API services, which were accomplished using Node.js and Database best practices.
Some additional customized functionality modifications were also made as per the client’s requirements.
Results
- A proper Purchase Workflow Mechanism was implemented.
- The client’s main issue was resolved because they were able to track each Purchase Order that was despatched from their system.
- Departments were able to process their own Purchase Orders now and departmental heads were now able to approve them.
- The client was 100% satisfied because we met the project’s deadlines and delivered above and beyond expectations.
Benefits
- Over a period of the next five years, this upgraded Purchase Workflow Mechanism became the reason of a massive multi-fold expansion in their procurement process.
- This expansion led to an enormous growth in PO approvals from USD 2.8 million to USD 3.7 million.
- The backend APIs further improved the overall connectivity and collaboration throughout their business.
