The brief
Our client came to us with a complex and unique set of software requirements. They had an eCommerce website partly populated by a back end management system and a huge database including products, images, orders and warranties among huge volumes of vital information. But neither the website or the back end application were performing efficiently and were holding back business operations. The management system also lacked the flexibility the client needed to allow their full competitive advantage with their dealer relationships.
The CMS for the website had become unmanageable so we were asked to design and build a new website using the Umbraco platform (see case study here). In conjunction with the website, our client needed a brand new back end management system to replace their existing software.
The solution
Achorda’s first step was to understand exactly how our client’s business works. As a distribution centre with multiple dealers handling multiple brands, the eCommerce Management System needed to handle an array of unique requirements.
Achorda then planned out the architecture for the new system using wireframes and flow charts to agree on the functionality and the relationships between the various data. Some key examples of the functionality we built into the Management System to streamline our client’s business processes are:
- Dynamic content publishing to a new Umbraco website
- Discount management both to dealers and end-users
- Dealer management including dealer page, discounts, promotions, specials and integration with the website's Where to Buy tool
- Complex product hierarchy with specifications and dealer tier assignments
- Spare part management linked to website
- Product registration and warranty management linked to website
- Orders and RMA management
- Sophisticated product search
- Product reviews management linked to website
- Product comparison management linked to website
- Product-specific FAQs linked to website
- Integrated with Mailchimp CRM
- Integrated with Opayo (Sage Pay) for order processing
- Stock availability management linked to website
- Shipping management linked to website
- Product and imagery import allowing easy maintenance of the product database and web page display
- Business intelligence – sales dashboard
- Business intelligence – RMA dashboard
Achorda created this eCommerce management web application using Microsoft .Net technology. The AspNetBoilerPlate / ABP.IO framework was used along with SQL Server database and Angular for front-end JavaScript.