About the project
Goal
Worldwide photography clubs and associations join the federation, pay a yearly membership fee and are authorized to run national contests. The main goal was to redesign the operating model and digital transformation roadmap by way of developing an integrated platform to streamline operational processes and manage complex workflows ranging from members registration to contests management and awards delivery.
Solution
Employing design and systems thinking, our team opted for the Drupal Commerce distribution platform. Though mainly used for online shops, it was chosen due to its flexibility when combined with the latest business management technologies. Many of the features detected in the business analysis phase indicated that using this platform would cover most of the required operational functionalities as well. Thus, we designed and created an additional layer for business process management (a workflow for filling out new contest forms and a step-by-step process for contests approval) and integrated it with the standard e-commerce modules: shopping cart, order processing, invoicing, payment and delivery processing.
The entire workflow has been completely transformed and is now managed in one unique system where all contests are gathered into a common database that can be easily accessed and managed, with different roles having a different degree of access. Another unique feature is the communication between members: they can communicate both with each other and with groups of people (roles) involved in a certain process.
Workflow Management System
Online Payments Gateways Integration
Delivery Systems Integration
API Entities with complex data structures
Results & Benefits
The customer is a large, global organization that carries out many complex processes involving many internal and external departments and stakeholders. Our team succeeded in providing value-added services and the customer was able to streamline its processes and integrate additional vital functions. They transformed and redefined their work involving complex interactions between people, member organizations, content, transactions and workflows across multiple systems of record.
Entity API for complex data structures: the contests were recorded using unintuitive large forms. In cases when one contest took place simultaneously in several places, the organizer had to submit multiple forms. Using the Entity API our team created different content types for salons and contests and this enabled them to interconnect. The output was a form that can be easily modified.
Streamlined an intricate system of permissions, roles and processes for contests organization, approval, validation, invoicing, payment and awards delivery.
Audit system: to ensure absolute transparency and a better conflict resolution in cases of system misuses, our team implemented an audit system that records all user steps and actions. The system administrator can easily track the users’ activity and react immediately.
PayPal payments: Drupal Commerce allows integration with many payment systems and our team integrated PayPal through a module that uses web services.
Why Drupal was chosen
Delivery algorithm: a unique feature of this system was a specially designed algorithm created by our team for individual delivery. The delivery process must take into account the area and the number of the delivered awards. The algorithm was based on a chart generated by the Austrian Post and calculates the package size and weight. Thus, the new module determines the size of the package (regardless of the number of items in it), the weight and also calculates the area delivery fee. Due to Drupal's API, this challenge was easily overcome.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
