An Appealing Queue
Management System for Aarong
Project
Overview
Role
Management System Development
Client
Aarong
Completed On
2019
The
Project
Aarong is a Bangladeshi store brand that specializes in ethnic apparel and handicrafts. It is owned by a non-profit development organization, called Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Aarong is Bangladesh's most successful lifestyle retail chain, selling ethical products since 1978. It was founded as a simple way to help rural craftspeople climb beyond poverty. It presently has twenty-one locations nationwide.
We partnered with S-tech Limited to develop a robust management system for Aarong. This queue management system was developed for in-house meeting management and report generation purposes. Aarong’s designers meet with various vendors around the country who are interested in providing their skills to the lifestyle of trendsetters of Bangladesh, starting from knitting traditional clothes and decorative potteries.
Therefore, to manage these meetings and keep them in organized documentation, we associated with S-Tech to develop the system. The objective of the system was to increase the productivity and efficiency of the management team.
scope of
work
- Software Development
- System Architecture
- Maintenance
To ensure the client’s goals are met and provide the optimum level of satisfaction, we developed the system accordingly.
With clear communication and understanding from the client, they needed a faster and smooth operating system for everyday use. Most importantly, the system needed to be easier to understand for everyone. Moreover, we strategized a beautiful UI/UX design and development with research and development.
Technologies
We used a collection of modern technologies to meet the client’s requirement to create an appealing UI/UX and high-performing system for the client. Therefore, the system easily allows the management team to maintain the meeting sessions with the vendors and generate reports without any human interaction.
Core
Features
Kiosk Machine
Kiosk machines are automated booths that elevate operational efficiency and customer experience. It is one of the most unique and crucial features in the system to manage the vendors efficiently.
The development for the kiosk machine was thoroughly customized as per the client's requirement and was designed to make it understandable for everyone. The machine would allow the vendors to put their phone numbers on the screen to print out a token with a serial number. So, the token would acknowledge their waiting time to meet the designers of Aarong and discuss their agenda. An OTP would also be sent to the vendor’s phone number to confirm their serial number.
Kiosk Machine
Kiosk machines are automated booths that elevate operational efficiency and customer experience. It is one of the most unique and crucial features in the system to manage the vendors efficiently.
The development for the kiosk machine was thoroughly customized as per the client's requirement and was designed to make it understandable for everyone. The machine would allow the vendors to put their phone numbers on the screen to print out a token with a serial number. So, the token would acknowledge their waiting time to meet the designers of Aarong and discuss their agenda. An OTP would also be sent to the vendor’s phone number to confirm their serial number.
Uniquely Designed
Interface
The client wanted the interface of the whole system to be easily understandable yet beautifully catchy for the users, and it was customized accordingly to their preferences.
We developed the system to be feasible and meet usability satisfaction. Therefore, the features could easily be navigated with the simplicity of memorability. A well-defined interface was also aligned together to bring out the company’s culture and theme.
Uniquely Designed
Interface
The client wanted the interface of the whole system to be easily understandable yet beautifully catchy for the users, and it was customized accordingly to their preferences.
We developed the system to be feasible and meet usability satisfaction. Therefore, the features could easily be navigated with the simplicity of memorability. A well-defined interface was also aligned together to bring out the company’s culture and theme.
Tab Management
A connecting tab was developed for the system to allow the designers to validate the vendor's serial number on the tokens. Therefore, it would allow the management to register their presence during the given time.
The tab would be allocated to the designers for verification and record management. So, when the vendors attend the meeting, designers can verify their serial number by scanning the token in the tab. Therefore, if the meeting gets verified, a timer would initiate, logging their meeting time in the system along with the vendor’s information.
Tab Management
A connecting tab was developed for the system to allow the designers to validate the vendor's serial number on the tokens. Therefore, it would allow the management to register their presence during the given time.
The tab would be allocated to the designers for verification and record management. So, when the vendors attend the meeting, designers can verify their serial number by scanning the token in the tab. Therefore, if the meeting gets verified, a timer would initiate, logging their meeting time in the system along with the vendor’s information.
Admin Panel
An admin panel was developed to manage the meeting process with the vendors and designers.
The admin panel is an essential feature of Aarong’s queue management system. The admin has access to the vendor's and designers' details and meeting agenda. When a designer is unavailable for a scheduled meeting, they have the authority to easily forward the vendors to available designers and conduct the meeting. Moreover, they have access to the complete overview of the team and meeting reports as well.
Admin Panel
An admin panel was developed to manage the meeting process with the vendors and designers.
The admin panel is an essential feature of Aarong’s queue management system. The admin has access to the vendor's and designers' details and meeting agenda. When a designer is unavailable for a scheduled meeting, they have the authority to easily forward the vendors to available designers and conduct the meeting. Moreover, they have access to the complete overview of the team and meeting reports as well.
Generating Report
Every management system requires a summarization of tasks and their report. In essence, it allows a complete overview of information to the company and enables them to generate evaluation reports.
Report generation was one of the core features the clients wanted. Therefore, it added value to their working process. The report showed the details of average meeting hours, the numbers of canceled meetings, and which vendors were transferred to other designers to conduct the meeting. Furthermore, it generated a performance report of the designers as well.
Generating Report
Every management system requires a summarization of tasks and their report. In essence, it allows a complete overview of information to the company and enables them to generate evaluation reports.
Report generation was one of the core features the clients wanted. Therefore, it added value to their working process. The report showed the details of average meeting hours, the numbers of canceled meetings, and which vendors were transferred to other designers to conduct the meeting. Furthermore, it generated a performance report of the designers as well.
Challenges &
Our Approach
Real-Time
Notification
The biggest challenge was to send out accurate notifications to the admin, designers, and vendors. PHP’s framework does not support real-time notification, hence we needed to choose a different method to make it work.
Our Approach
To resolve the issues of sending out real-time notifications between the users, we implemented the usage of Socket.IO. This is a library that allows a client and a server to communicate in a low-latency, bidirectional, and event-based manner. Therefore, it allowed us to connect all three applications to the system and send out notifications whenever a meeting is called, set, or canceled.
Printing Token
Issue
The kiosk machine was developed for the vendors that allowed them to choose a service and designer they wanted to showcase their work to and take orders. After selecting the preferences, it would print out a token with its serial number. The system occurred in error to print multiple tokens.
Our Approach
We figured out some programming errors to resolve this challenge with the kiosk machine’s printing issue. The issue highlighted that we were using an old version of Electron.Js’s library, which did not support the action we were trying to achieve. Hence, we updated the library with the new version and found a solution to the token printing issue.
Cloud
Hosting
The system is required to be hosted from a cloud hosting which is an in-house hosting server by the client run on their server. This caused a lack of functionalities that are commonly found on popular cloud hosting servers AWS, Digital Ocean etc.
Our Approach
Due to being run on their custom server, the cloud hosting lacked a number of important features that we usually find on the common cloud hosting services. But in this case we had to implement all those features ourselves like firewall, servers, and DNS in order for the hosting server to run properly. This was quite challenging for us, but our fast learning and technologically sound workforce solved this problem with success.
SYSTEM