Project - Custom ERP for an Australian Book Publisher

Background: This project is for building an enterprise wide application covering primarily the order fulfillment activities of KBS (publishing entity in Australia), NETWORK-ED which is the online shop and supplier related interaction. CLIENT has a book publishing and selling business where products such as books, stationery, computer accessories and related office supplies are sold. There is a physical store, office and warehouse in one single integrated premise. Customers can walk-in and buy items in the point of sale (POS) location. The POS application is connected to an EFTPOS device which allows swiping the credit and debit cards with online approval and integration to the bank account / payment processor. Orders can be received from website or through the 3-5 sales representatives (employees / partners) or from new / existing overseas customers. The purchase orders are released to the specific suppliers and they supply the items for fulfilling the customer orders. Items are dispatched to customers and the loop is closed when the customer acknowledges receipt of items. Items can be bundled as packs and packs can be put up for sale with or without the flexibility for customization. Discounts and promotional coupons can be managed in this application. Analysis of inventory, summary dashboard view, standard and custom reports, integration of existing document management system and activity log for ISO 9001 compliance are required in the new integration application. Financial accounting will happen outside this application and when a bank wire transfer has to be done to a supplier, a simple text file will be exported for accounting use to process the transaction. The application will run only in English (no multi-lingual support) and will support only one currency which is AUS $ (no multi-currency support). New Application will expand geographic reach of business and bring in more customer orders, improve internal efficiency and provide an integrated information system for the CLIENT business. The design of public user pages will be SEO friendly but search engine optimization is not included in current phase as it must be attempted only after the application is live.

One of the key objectives of this application is to bring in business process automation and improve staff productivity. Automated processing of customer orders and tracking of purchase orders released to suppliers are the key components. Traffic Lights will be shown graphically on order fulfillment screen as a status to indicate whether the order is ready to be shipped or availability level in percent for part order. Similarly supplier orders / invoices get flagged as ready to pay. Auto-build kits is a key part of the process automation and these are based on variable bill of materials for matching criteria like reading level and constraints such as target cost with specified number of items / titles. Such kits can be special packs made for schools with or without the permission to customize or can be created on the fly based on available stock. Event log by user and date will aid in record keeping for ISO 9001 compliance.

We are aware that our application replaced the BIBLIOFILE software which is DOS based and runs on a single computer on the LAN with screens served to users in terminal windows. There are 22 PC workstations in the office and most likely these have Windows XP operation system with 1024 x 768 resolution screens.

We implemented web based architecture with a PHP 5 application running within Apache web server on a Linux (any popular variant) server. The database will be MYSQL 5 and there will be a one way SSL certificate on the server for security of credit card transactions. Since a bar code scanner and EFTPOS have to be integrated with quick response time there will have to be a small POS application created for store sales desks and this application will be written in .Net technology to run on (Windows XP or higher) operating systems. The desktop application for POS had its local database and was synchronized directly from the remote web database.

In this document we have provided the feature list and technology architecture overview for this enterprise portal.

Feature List
The feature list defines the scope of work and in this section we have first identified the types of users who will have access to this application and then written a list of actions that each user type can perform in the application. The screen interface as well as basic logic / process has been described for each feature. The following user types have been identified for listing the scope of work:

• Public Website Visitors
• Retail Customers
• Wholesale Customers
• Suppliers
• Sales Representatives
• Store Employees � Web Interface
• Front Desk Employees � POS Interface
• Administration

Features coded with �A� suffix such as RC12A are offered without any extra cost and are not a part of estimation sheet but are definitely covered in scope of work. 20 standard reports and 12 types of custom reports are offered with query filter / save feature.

Public Website Visitors
These are first time or repeat visitors on the public website and have not created any login account on the site yet. Such users can read about the business or browse the categorized listing of books / office supplies and place orders. They will get a tracking number to come back later and monitor their order status. The user can login on the site with user name as email and the tracking number as password (which can be changed after login). They can also fill a contact form to send an enquiry. The features are listed below and we have used the code PUB for this user type.

Retail Customers
These are the customers who have obtained a valid login account on the public site either through explicit registration or through first purchase via checkout form. The features available to public website visitors are obviously available to them. They can login and browse the status of their previous orders. They can do a live chat with a customer representative. They get a private message board to exchange to and fro messages with the store staff. We assumed that orders once placed cannot be modified or exchanged or refunded or cancelled. The specific features are listed below and we have used the code RC for this user type.

Wholesale Customers
These are B2B customers for whom the admin creates an account and sends login credentials by email. The features available to public website visitors are obviously available to them. They can submit a request for quotation and view the submitted quote. There is a private message board to deliberate and converse about any issues. They get an order form and can track order delivery status as well as confirm delivery of packages. Order history can be browsed. They can also view the list of pending invoices and pay off by either credit card or check or wire transfer subject to confirmation. The specific features are listed below and we have used the code WC for this user type.

Suppliers
These are vendors who provide books as per purchase orders placed by client. Supplier can maintain the master list of items with prices and discount offers. CLIENT can submit a request for quotation to supplier and get a response with discount levels. Supplier can browse the online purchase orders placed by CLIENT as per approved quotations. Supplier can send items and fill / track a delivery note. Supplier can submit invoices to client and track payment status. Suppliers can upload soft copy files in PDF format for some e-books. There is a private message board for to and from messages. The specific features are listed below and we have used the code SUP for this user type.

Sales Representatives
These are either employees of CLIENT or external individuals assigned to sales role. They can list out their prospects and update the status of each relationship in the sales funnel. The confirmed customers can be added (password is auto-generated) and the customer account details will be notified over email. The specific features are listed below and we have used the code SR for this user type.

Store Employees (Web Interface)
These are internal staff of the CLIENT organization and have a login account with respective access privileges. They can manage the quotation process with both suppliers and wholesale customers. They can update order fulfillment for all types of customers. They manage invoicing with both suppliers and wholesale customers. Finally inventory log and criteria based analysis reports are available to store employees. There will be standard reports and a query based report tool. Alerts and dashboard based summary statistics are provided. The specific features are listed below and we have used the code SE for this user type.

Front Desk Employees (POS Interface)
These are front desk staff of the CLIENT organization and have a login account on the POS interface. They can use the bar code reader, integrated electronic cash drawer and EFTPOS. They can search and select items to prepare / print the sale invoice. Invoice history can be viewed and queried by date / time range. Daily cash reconciliation can be done for each drawer. The specific features are listed below and we have used the code POS for this user type.

Administration
This is the super admin user who can create user accounts, define rights and monitor site activity. The features are listed below and we have used the code AD for this user type.

Site Map
In this section we have attempted to define the indicative / rough site map for this application. The site map details are written below:

Public website

1. Home
2. Books
3. Stationary
4. Office equipment
5. About Us
6. Help
7. Contact Us
8. Terms & conditions
9. Privacy policy
10. Disclaimer

Retail Customer

1. Home
2. Books
3. Stationery
4. Office equipment
5. Message Board
6. Favorite List
7. Live Chat Messenger
8. Summary dashboard
9. Help
10. Edit profile
11. Change password

Wholesale Customer

1. Home
2. Books
3. Stationary
4. Office equipment
5. Message Board
6. Live Chat Messenger
7. Manage Quotations
1. Submit quotations
2. Review quotations
3. Approve quotations & place orders
8. Cancel orders
9. Recurring orders
10. Invoice Log
11. Summary dashboard
12. Help
13. Edit profile
14. Change password

Suppliers

1. Master List
2. Manage items/packs
3. Manage price/discounts
4. Submit quotations
5. Stationary
6. Office equipment
7. Message Board
8. Live Chat Messenger
9. Manage Quotations
10. Manage Orders
11. Submit Invoices
12. Track Payments
13. Summary dashboard
14. Edit profile
15. Change password
16. Sales Log
17. Help

Sales Representative

1. Add new customer
2. Sales funnel
3. Daily sales reports
4. Commission Log
5. Summary dashboard
6. Edit profile
7. Change password
8. Help

Store Employees (Web Interface)

1. Edit profile
2. Change password
3. Manage Categories
4. Manage items/packs
5. Manage Locations
6. Manage quotations
7. Manage Invoices
8. Message Board
9. Bank transfer details
10. Payment Log
11. Browse Orders
12. Manage Inventory
13. Standard Reports
14. Custom Reports
15. Edit profile
16. Default settings
17. Live chat
18. Lookup options
19. File manager
20. Manage Logo
21. Enquiries
22. Coupon codes
23. Summary dashboard
24. Help

Front desk Employees (POS)

1. Search Categories
2. Sales invoices
3. Cash drawer reconciliation
4. Invoice History
5. Withdrawal Log
6. Change password
7. Edit profile

Site Administrator

1. Manage retail customers
2. Manage wholesale customers
3. Manage suppliers
4. Manage web store employees
5. Manage front desk employees
6. Event Log
7. Change password

Technology Architecture

The proposed application will be programmed in web architecture using PHP 5 and MY SQL 5 as RDBMS (LAMP architecture). Application architecture will be centralized for easy manageability. Application will be optimized for Internet Explorer 6+ but HTML 4 compliance will be preserved to ensure cross browser compatibility with other common browsers like Firefox, Safari and Netscape Navigator.

Cross browser compatibility is largely ensured through use of XHTML 1.0 and HTML 4 compliance. All application testing will be done in Firefox which has a more restrictive implementation of HTML / JavaScript and this ensures that it runs well in IE browsers too. Any cross browser issues will be debugged if they arise during module testing. Optimistic locking will be used in database operations to improve concurrent user performance. Extensive use of stored procedures will ease network traffic and database performance. The project developed in the LAMP environment. The acronym LAMP refers to a solution stack of software programs, commonly open source programs, used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers. The original expansion is as follows: Linux, referring to the operating system; Apache, the Web server; MySQL, the database management system (or database server); PHP, the programming language. Linux utilizes the latest stable kernel version. The underlying ext3 file system is a well-proven technology for both rapid recovery and protecting the integrity of the data on the server. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation.

MySQL database, another robust open source tool that has revolutionized the way web pages, graphics, tables, and data sets of all sorts are served up on the web. Web-based databases in general, and MySQL in particular, have made it possible to build and present fully dynamic websites, capable of presenting content in real time. They have also helped to further the goal of separating content from formatting, speeding the load time of sites while making them far more manageable than in the past. PHP has, in just a few short years, become one of the predominant scripting languages on the web. With a relatively easy syntax and open source licensing, webmasters and developers around the world have migrated to PHP from the more difficult and syntactically challenging scripting languages like Perl.

PEAR coding standards were used throughout the application.