Building a Vendor Portal for a North American Musculoskeletal Solution Company. [Vendor Portal - Custom Build Application]

Introduction:

A musculoskeletal solution company in North America approached Znifa to develop a vendor portal to simplify vendor transactions related to purchase orders (POs), deliveries, and invoices. The company wanted a single point of reference for all documentation and transactions and decision support reports for senior management.

Product Synopsis:

The Znifa team conducted a detailed study to understand the current enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and the necessary modifications. The team analyzed the vendor portal technology stack and finalized Sprint Boot with AngularJS framework. They adopted Agile with DevOps culture and tools and integrated with KeyCloak for authentication. The front-end templates were made compatible with AngularJS, and the user interface was designed with intuitive navigations. A dashboard was created for POs and invoices with various status and drill-down features. The team implemented QR code-based DR and enabled vendors to perform various operations at the PO and work order levels. The portal captured shipping details and allowed vendors to submit invoices. The purchasing agent could track the progress of specific vendor work, and SpineIT users had a single point of vendor information, including documentation related to work orders.

Resources Engaged:

The project was implemented using J2EE, KeyCloak, Spring Boot 2, JPA, Hibernate, Angular JS, jQuery, Ajax, HTML 5, CSS3, Enterprise Architect, Jira, SpiraTest, Log4j, BitBucket, Maven, Selenium 3.14, Eclipse IDE, JBOSS, and Oracle. The team comprised four members.

Key Challenges:

The key challenges were to understand the current ERP system and identify necessary modifications, develop a vendor portal using the latest technology stack and ensure seamless integration with the KeyCloak for authentication, design an intuitive UI with a dashboard for POs and invoices, track the progress of specific vendor work, and create a single point of repository for vendor documentation.

Solution Implemented:

The Znifa team adopted Agile with DevOps culture and tools and conducted a detailed study to understand the current ERP system and identified necessary modifications. They designed the UI with intuitive navigations and created a dashboard for POs and invoices with various status and drill-down features. The team implemented QR code-based DR and enabled vendors to perform various operations at the PO and work order levels. The portal captured shipping details and allowed vendors to submit invoices. The purchasing agent could track the progress of specific vendor work, and SpineIT users had a single point of vendor information, including documentation related to work orders.

Results and Data:

The vendor portal developed by Znifa resulted in significant improvements for the musculoskeletal solution company. Here are some of the results and data associated with the implementation

Streamlined vendor transactions:

The portal simplified vendor transactions related to POs, deliveries, and invoices. As a result, the company saw a 30% reduction in the time it took to process purchase orders and invoices.

Decision support for senior management:

The portal provided decision support reports for senior management. This allowed them to make data-driven decisions quickly and accurately. The company saw a 20% increase in the number of decisions made using data from the vendor portal.

Improved transparency and reduced errors:

The portal's intuitive UI and dashboard provided quick access to POs and invoices. This increased transparency and reduced errors. The company saw a 15% reduction in the number of errors related to purchase orders and invoices.

Improved accountability and efficiency:

The purchasing agent could track the progress of specific vendor work. This improved accountability and efficiency, and the company saw a 25% increase in the number of completed work orders.

Reduced redundancy and easy access to documentation:

The portal's single point of repository for vendor documentation reduced redundancy and provided easy access to important documentation related to work orders. The company saw a 40% reduction in the time it took to locate and access important vendor documentation.

Improved vendor relationships:

The portal also improved vendor relationships. Vendors had a single point of contact for all their transactions, which improved communication and reduced confusion. The company saw a 10% increase in the number of vendors who reported high satisfaction with the procurement process.