Vendor Portal
A web application to optimise the buying process
at DMart by replacing email with a custom
delivery scheduling and messaging system.
Vendor Portal
A web application to optimise the buying process
at DMart by replacing email with a custom
delivery scheduling and messaging system.
Vendor Portal
A web application to optimise the buying process
at DMart by replacing email with a custom
delivery scheduling and messaging system.
Vendor Portal
A web application to optimise the buying process
at DMart by replacing email with a custom
delivery scheduling and messaging system.
Project Overview
Dmart, a major retailer with over 366 stores in India, faced inefficiencies in supply chain operations due to rapid revenue growth. Communication and coordination with vendors during the buying process were particularly affected, impacting the bottom line. This project aimed to resolve these issues by digitizing and standardizing the buying process, improving vendor interactions and operational efficiency.
Project Overview
Dmart, a major retailer with over 366 stores in India, faced inefficiencies in supply chain operations due to rapid revenue growth. Communication and coordination with vendors during the buying process were particularly affected, impacting the bottom line. This project aimed to resolve these issues by digitizing and standardizing the buying process, improving vendor interactions and operational efficiency.
Project Overview
Dmart, a major retailer with over 366 stores in India, faced inefficiencies in supply chain operations due to rapid revenue growth. Communication and coordination with vendors during the buying process were particularly affected, impacting the bottom line. This project aimed to resolve these issues by digitizing and standardizing the buying process, improving vendor interactions and operational efficiency.
Project Overview
Dmart, a major retailer with over 366 stores in India, faced inefficiencies in supply chain operations due to rapid revenue growth. Communication and coordination with vendors during the buying process were particularly affected, impacting the bottom line. This project aimed to resolve these issues by digitizing and standardizing the buying process, improving vendor interactions and operational efficiency.
What was the problem ?
Wait Times: Longer truck wait times at warehouses increased transportation costs.
Manpower Issues: Surplus or shortage of warehouse manpower caused extra costs or delays.
Information Silos: Information was siloed, with only one of the six internal teams having the full picture, creating bottlenecks.
What was causing the problem
We interviewed vendors and internal buying teams at D'mart to understand the current purchasing process and its bottlenecks.
Limited Bays: Each warehouse had a limited number of bays/docks for deliveries.
Variable Load: Daily load at warehouses varied, making manpower prediction challenging for managers.
Communication Issues: All communication, both internal and external, was done via email or WhatsApp without a standard format, leading to tracking difficulties and information silos.
What was the problem ?
Wait Times: Longer truck wait times at warehouses increased transportation costs.
Manpower Issues: Surplus or shortage of warehouse manpower caused extra costs or delays.
Information Silos: Information was siloed, with only one of the six internal teams having the full picture, creating bottlenecks.
What was causing the problem
We interviewed vendors and internal buying teams at D'mart to understand the current purchasing process and its bottlenecks.
Limited Bays: Each warehouse had a limited number of bays/docks for deliveries.
Variable Load: Daily load at warehouses varied, making manpower prediction challenging for managers.
Communication Issues: All communication, both internal and external, was done via email or WhatsApp without a standard format, leading to tracking difficulties and information silos.
What was the problem ?
Wait Times: Longer truck wait times at warehouses increased transportation costs.
Manpower Issues: Surplus or shortage of warehouse manpower caused extra costs or delays.
Information Silos: Information was siloed, with only one of the six internal teams having the full picture, creating bottlenecks.
What was causing the problem
We interviewed vendors and internal buying teams at D'mart to understand the current purchasing process and its bottlenecks.
Limited Bays: Each warehouse had a limited number of bays/docks for deliveries.
Variable Load: Daily load at warehouses varied, making manpower prediction challenging for managers.
Communication Issues: All communication, both internal and external, was done via email or WhatsApp without a standard format, leading to tracking difficulties and information silos.
What was the problem ?
Wait Times: Longer truck wait times at warehouses increased transportation costs.
Manpower Issues: Surplus or shortage of warehouse manpower caused extra costs or delays.
Information Silos: Information was siloed, with only one of the six internal teams having the full picture, creating bottlenecks.
What was causing the problem
We interviewed vendors and internal buying teams at D'mart to understand the current purchasing process and its bottlenecks.
Limited Bays: Each warehouse had a limited number of bays/docks for deliveries.
Variable Load: Daily load at warehouses varied, making manpower prediction challenging for managers.
Communication Issues: All communication, both internal and external, was done via email or WhatsApp without a standard format, leading to tracking difficulties and information silos.
The solution allows for a mechanism to exchange purchase order information with the PO as the main context, not just within a conversation. It also enables scheduling warehouse deliveries, improving manpower management.
The solution allowed for a mechanism to exchange purchase order information with the PO as the main context, not just within a conversation. It also enabled scheduling warehouse deliveries, improving manpower management.
The solution allows for a mechanism to exchange purchase order information with the PO as the main context, not just within a conversation. It also enables scheduling warehouse deliveries, improving manpower management.
Product Highlights
Purchase order view
Shows the purchase and delivery details like items, date, time and address of delivery in a organised manner. This view also allows to chat and schedule warehouse appointments
Selecting items included in the delivery
Shows the purchase and delivery details like items, date, time and address of delivery in a organised manner. This view also allows to chat and schedule warehouse appointments.
Delivery slot selection at the warehouse
Based on the total tonnage and volume selected previously, the system shows available delivery slots at the warehouse from which the vendor can choose the preferred date and time
Contextual messaging and file sharing to replace email
The in context messaging made sure that all conversations were mapped to a PO. The messaging history also doubled up as an activity stream
Automated reporting of stocks and sales
Automated reports to display data related to stock and sales which would give futher insight into trends. Which would more optimized restocking of goods
Sidebar to further drill down on data
Drill down views allowed for a more granular look at the data. The drilldown view also was augemented with filters to sort to large amounts of data
Filtered View
Custom filters and sorting headers were added for each view as the app was extremely dense on data.
Mobile view to access reports on the go
Certain features were augmented with mobile support for an on the go access, for example - reports shown here show the mobile view for reports along with the filtered view
App Screenshots
Product Highlights
Product Highlights
Filtered View
Custom filters and sorting headers were added for each view as the app was extremely dense on data.
Custom filters and sorting headers were added for each view as the app was extremely dense on data.
Purchase order view
Shows the purchase and delivery details like items, date, time and address of delivery in a organised manner. This view also allows to chat and schedule warehouse appointments
Selecting items included in the delivery
Shows the purchase and delivery details like items, date, time and address of delivery in a organised manner. This view also allows to chat and schedule warehouse appointments.
Shows the purchase and delivery details like items, date, time and address of delivery in a organised manner. This view also allows to chat and schedule warehouse appointments.
Delivery slot selection at the warehouse
Based on the total tonnage and volume selected previously, the system shows available delivery slots at the warehouse from which the vendor can choose the preferred date and time
Based on the total tonnage and volume selected previously, the system shows available delivery slots at the warehouse from which the vendor can choose the preferred date and time
Contextual messaging and file sharing to replace email
The in context messaging made sure that all conversations were mapped to a PO. The messaging history also doubled up as an activity stream
The in context messaging made sure that all conversations were mapped to a PO. The messaging history also doubled up as an activity stream
Automated reporting of stocks and sales
Automated reports to display data related to stock and sales which would give futher insight into trensds. Which would more optimized restocking of goods
Automated reports to display data related to stock and sales which would give futher insight into trensds. Which would more optimized restocking of goods
Sidebar to further drill down on data
Drill down views allowed for a more granular look at the data. The drilldown view also was augemented with filters to sort to large amounts of data
Drill down views allowed for a more granular look at the data. The drilldown view also was augemented with filters to sort to large amounts of data
Mobile view to access reports on the go
Mobile view for reports
Certain features were augmented with mobile support for an on the go access, for example - reports shown here show the mobile view for reports along with the filtered view
Certain features were augmented with mobile support for an on the go access, for example - reports shown here show the mobile view for reports along with the filtered view
My Role and Learnings
My Team & Role
UX Lead - team of and 1 product manager, 3 designers and 12 developers
My role included leading and facilitating discussion and workshops with cross function teams such as warehouse staff, managers and executive leadership.
The role also included regular presentations to the CEO and the executive leadership team on the design decisions and findings from our user research.
As part of the role I led the design from concept to final execution. This included low-fidelity wireframes, competitor research, user interviews and high fidelity mocks along with usability testing.
Challenges And Learnings
Some challenges and learnings unique to this project
The information in the project was especially sensitive due to it being pricing related, hence we needed to convince the stakeholders how role based access would ensure not exposing sensitive information as part of the design phase.
A big chunk of the users of the product were vendors who were not employees of the organisation - hence when designing the UX had to take into account the motivations and the tools the vendors were already using to communicate with other retailers.
My Role & Learnings
My Team & Role
UX Lead - team of and 1 product manager, 3 designers and 12 developers
My role included leading and facilitating discussion and workshops with cross function teams such as warehouse staff, managers and executive leadership.
The role also included regular presentations to the CEO and the executive leadership team on the design decisions and findings from our user research.
As part of the role I led the design from concept to final execution. This included low-fidelity wireframes, competitor research, user interviews and high fidelity mocks along with usability testing.
Challenges And Learnings
Some challenges and learnings unique to this project
The information in the project was especially sensitive due to it being pricing related, hence we needed to convince the stakeholders how role based access would ensure not exposing sensitive information as part of the design phase.
A big chunk of the users of the product were vendors who were not employees of the organisation - hence when designing the UX had to take into account the motivations and the tools the vendors were already using to communicate with other retailers.
My Role and Learnings
My Team & Role
UX Lead - team of and 1 product manager, 3 designers and 12 developers
My role included leading and facilitating discussion and workshops with cross function teams such as warehouse staff, managers and executive leadership.
The role also included regular presentations to the CEO and the executive leadership team on the design decisions and findings from our user research.
As part of the role I led the design from concept to final execution. This included low-fidelity wireframes, competitor research, user interviews and high fidelity mocks along with usability testing.
Challenges And Learnings
Some challenges and learnings unique to this project
The information in the project was especially sensitive due to it being pricing related, hence we needed to convince the stakeholders how role based access would ensure not exposing sensitive information as part of the design phase.
A big chunk of the users of the product were vendors who were not employees of the organisation - hence when designing the UX had to take into account the motivations and the tools the vendors were already using to communicate with other retailers.
My Role and Learnings
My Team & Role
UX Lead - team of and 1 product manager, 3 designers and 12 developers
My role included leading and facilitating discussion and workshops with cross function teams such as warehouse staff, managers and executive leadership.
The role also included regular presentations to the CEO and the executive leadership team on the design decisions and findings from our user research.
As part of the role I led the design from concept to final execution. This included low-fidelity wireframes, competitor research, user interviews and high fidelity mocks along with usability testing.
Challenges And Learnings
Some challenges and learnings unique to this project
The information in the project was especially sensitive due to it being pricing related, hence we needed to convince the stakeholders how role based access would ensure not exposing sensitive information as part of the design phase.
A big chunk of the users of the product were vendors who were not employees of the organisation - hence when designing the UX had to take into account the motivations and the tools the vendors were already using to communicate with other retailers.
Results
What Worked Well
User testing revealed that using the vendor portal led to faster deliveries and quicker payouts for vendors. We believe this will encourage vendors to use the platform proactively.
What did not work
However, in production, the portal saw slow adoption rates because email had a lower learning curve and was widely used within the organization, especially by new vendors unfamiliar with the purchasing process.
As a rollout strategy, we agreed to use the warehouse appointment scheduling module as a segue to gradually transition users away from email and other communication methods.
What Worked Well
User testing revealed that using the vendor portal led to faster deliveries and quicker payouts for vendors. We believe this will encourage vendors to use the platform proactively.
What did not work
However, in production, the portal saw slow adoption rates because email had a lower learning curve and was widely used within the organization, especially by new vendors unfamiliar with the purchasing process.
As a rollout strategy, we agreed to use the warehouse appointment scheduling module as a segue to gradually transition users away from email and other communication methods.
What Worked Well
User testing revealed that using the vendor portal led to faster deliveries and quicker payouts for vendors. We believe this will encourage vendors to use the platform proactively.
What did not work
However, in production, the portal saw slow adoption rates because email had a lower learning curve and was widely used within the organization, especially by new vendors unfamiliar with the purchasing process.
As a rollout strategy, we agreed to use the warehouse appointment scheduling module as a segue to gradually transition users away from email and other communication methods.
What Worked Well
User testing revealed that using the vendor portal led to faster deliveries and quicker payouts for vendors. We believe this will encourage vendors to use the platform proactively.
What did not work
However, in production, the portal saw slow adoption rates because email had a lower learning curve and was widely used within the organization, especially by new vendors unfamiliar with the purchasing process.
As a rollout strategy, we agreed to use the warehouse appointment scheduling module as a segue to gradually transition users away from email and other communication methods.