PL Management System

Overview

It's a web application designed to assist the Purchasing and Marketing Department of All Florida Paper manage private label products efficiently. It guides users through each process step, from item creation to getting all the assets they need to send to the production part and updating their database.

What's happened?

Initially, the problem was only in the area of the marketing department because I received all the information a little messy from different departments, which delayed the process. I realized that in trying to figure out the problem, we needed a better process from the external departments. Employees in different departments struggle to create new items under private labels. They often face challenges in navigating the entire process, from creating new items to gathering all the assets and their approvals. There is no digital product to support that process, which would help a lot in getting a fast process and rapid approvals. Also, there would be no delay once the buyer completes the order.

What do I want to accomplish?

• Simplify the complete process of creating private label products and gathering the assets and approvals needed.
• Make the process faster than usual.
• Provide a user-friendly interface according to the internal structure and not already divorced from the existing process.
• Get streamlined communication between employees from different departments, disciplines, and roles.
• ABuilt it with the All Florida Paper design system for digital products.

What did I learn?

I gathered all insights from interviews with the employees of the different departments, Cost & Pricing and Purchasing, and the principal stakeholder and person in charge to approve the whole process before sending it to the fabricant.
After interviewing around ten employees about the existing process, the necessity of automatic processes, and their concerns…
Users think the process could be more straightforward because the items they have to create go through different departments, and sometimes the process gets stuck on priority decisions. As a result, the last department runs late for final delivery.
Users say they need help getting approval from the person in charge because he is busy most of the time in the company.
Users have struggled with a paper process because they need to capture some steps, and in the end, they have to scan the forms and approvals to digitalize the process.
Users think the digital process should be simple and align with the company's branding.
Users believe having a digital process improves the time to get all the products faster and increases sales in time and, as a result, get happy final clients.
Users say there are three different ways to manage the private label inside the company:

• Create a new item.
• Reorder an existing item but to another vendor.
• Custom-print private label items.

The purchasing Department's users need a repository with all assets involved in each private label product. They also need to log the entire process of custom-printing private labels, from the stocking agreement signed by the client to approvals, etc.

Process Lifetime

Big Picture shown by user flows.

Making a vital decision

The crucial decision was to build the product in-house and not use a third-party company or choose an existing CRM to manage private labels. That direction was taken because the company could have a product perfectly adjusted to its needs and have complete control over future steps if something changed. For example, it could change the project scope or the product development time. Also, it has the assets to start the project and turn it into a reality.

What has changed?

Due to the time and effort I put into getting the principal approval from the company's CEO to continue developing this digital product, I adjusted the project scope. I will only work on the "Standard private label item creation," which is the most important.

Laying Foundations

Let's take the first steps into the structure and wireframes. Doing the principal navigation of the item creation process, a "Wizard Process," shows the user a "lineal streamline," which helps them get into a simple process and always know in what step of the process they are.

Project in process...