Direct To Customer Ordering

Project Background

Skillcape Software LLC was contracted to build a private access portal for a national parts supplier; replacing their current paper ordering system. Previously, the client had used a team of sales representatives, carbon copy order forms, and direct communication with customers to manage orders of various products.

The Challenge

The client's existing paper based ordering system bottlenecked their ability to increase order volume. By moving to a digital portal, this restriction could be alleviated with some changes to internal processes and training. The client's internal purchase ordering and approval flow needed to be adjusted to fit the new digital format alongside additional documentation and training for onboarding their customers to the portal.

The new web portal needed to deliver the following benefits & features:

• 24/7 access to the client's catalog of products available for ordering.
• Administrative management features to upload future product information, media, and miminum order size.
• Domain restricted authentication to whitelist incoming account creation to only approved customers.
• Cart tracking to allow a customer to add multiple products to a single cart prior to creating their purchase order.
• Purchase order submission and approval flow with email notifications and receipts.

The Solution

Skillcape Software LLC completed this project as the primary subcontractor for Cloud Code Systems, a partner SaaS provider. We architected a Blazor Web Application with dual hosting architecture to ensure any users on legacy browsers would be able to access and navigate the site. Alongside the application development, we offered consulting services and training resources to onboard sales representatives and customers to the new platform upon completion.

Utilizing a home brewed authentication flow, we placed restrictions on whitelisted domains for account creation and login requests. Expanding on our base authentication scheme, we also added additional, configurable permissions to allow our client to promote user accounts to supervisor status: allowing them to recieve additional PO notifications and alerts.

Finally, the internal web application was graphicaly designed to resemble a standard ecommerce platform, complete with search, related products, and filter options by product category. These additional features established a user friendly interface for customers of all technical expertise to locate and place orders for products.

As a result of this project, our client stays competitive in their industry by streamlining their ordering tools and process.