Case Studies
B2B Collaboration Platform For a Retail Service Provider
One of the prominent Retail Management System provider for baby items in Belgium was looking to have a collaboration platform for its retail customers and suppliers. Without such a platform, the services were fragmented as well inefficient.
Solution Description
Developed a B2B platform using Microservices architecture and acts as a global data store and mediator between suppliers and the retail stores
The intuitive UI enabled suppliers, shops and administrators to collaborate quickly and efficiently
Microservices architecture enabled scalability, flexibility, and agility in providing different services to different users
Integration with their ERP system enabled functionalities such as centralized inventory & order management, customer and supplier administration, financial management, and store operations, etc.
Outcome and Benefits Delivered
B2B Platform enabled the information being available to all stakeholders in near real-time
The integration helped to get daily insights into the stock and sales of individual stores, and thus providing a better forecast
The Business Context and Challenges of the Customer
Our client is a retail ERP solution provider for baby products within retail stores.
As the business at stores grew, workload to communicate with the suppliers also grew exponentially. The ERP system has e-collaboration mechanism with the suppliers, such as using email and sharing spreadsheets etc. However, the system was unable to share information in “real time” and several manual steps were involved, making the operations time consuming, error prone as well inefficient.
Client was looking to provide a complete solution to its customers (retail shops) that will enable near real-time collaboration with their suppliers. The solution should eliminate manual operations, automate the order management, and provide real time visibility to the supplier’s inventory.
The customer was looking for a very short time-to-market so that they can deploy the solution on or before the festival and holiday seasons ahead.
Overall System Architecture
The System Description
B2B Platform
B2B Platform acting as a global data store and mediator between suppliers and the retail stores
It provides multiple interfaces for the customer
- The Web UI
- API interfaces
- FTP Interface
Retail Store ERP System
Integrate all the functionalities like Centralized inventory and order management, Customer and supplier administration, Financial management, Store operations, etc. for a retail store
- Third Party API integration support
- Electron.js based desktop application for physical stores
- Webshops
FTP Server
Centralized FTP server for the Retail stores and Suppliers for the interacting to the B2B platform
Technology Stacks
Microservice Architecture
BitBucket
Maven
Eclipse/Intellij
Jenkins
Java 1.8
Spring Boot
Spring Data JPA
Hibernate
NGINX
MySQL
REST
JWT
ANGULAR
Ember.js
Electron.js
Sample Dashboard
