Rossmann - Case Study

PROJECT ROSSMANN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro

Business needs and goals UX Design

Tests

OutcomeTeam

Timeline

Technologies

Innovation

Challenges and solutions

Model of collaboration

Functionality

INTRO

Rossmann is the second largest German drugstore chain with nearly 4,000 brick and mortar stores all over Europe.

It offers high quality products including cosmetic novelties and

innovations, providing its customers with the most marketable prices.

Its modern, hi-tech application enables joining the Rossmann Club

and displays personalized and client-adjusted promotions. It

facilitates the shopping process and lets customers buy and

collect ordered products in a nearby, most convenient drugstore.

The goal of collaboration between iteo and Rossmann was to build

a B2B sales support system to automate the process of generating

offers for business clients.

Rossmann’s sales representatives had to prepare everyday

sales offers for their business clients manually which consumed

a lot of time being highly inefficient and inconvenient.

The company needed help automating the whole process,

making it simpler, quicker, and more productive. The best

solution was building a dedicated B2B sales support system.

BUSINESS NEEDS AND GOALS

Completed UX Phase:

The platform is ready

for the UI Part

AUGUST

2019

The Beginning of

collaboration and

work process

The End of the work:

the platform is ready to be used

by the sales representatives

JUNE

2019

JANUARY

2020

TIMELINE

TEAMWe worked internally with 100% of iteo team’s engagement,

without any staff support on the client’s side.

1 UX designer

2 UI designers

3 backend developers

4 frontend developers

3 testers

1 PM

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DASHBOARD

393048223/19 Oznacz jako przeczytane09.04.2019 Kowalscy Spółka z o.o.Konieczność kontaktu z klientem

393048223/19 Oznacz jako przeczytane09.04.2019 Kowalscy Spółka z o.o.Konieczność kontaktu z klientem

Data OfertaKlientTyp

2938900030-19 20 Wysłana10.07.201909.04.2019Kowalscy Spółka z o.o. 10 000 zł

2938900030-19 20 Wysłana10.07.201909.04.2019Kowalscy Spółka z o.o. 10 000 zł

2938900030-19 20 Wysłana10.07.201909.04.2019Kowalscy Spółka z o.o. 10 000 zł

2938900030-19 20 Robocza09.04.2019Kowalscy Spółka z o.o. 10 000 zł 10.07.2019

Numer ProduktyData utworzeniaKlient StatusOstatni kontaktWartość oferty

1 2 3

PRZYPOMNIENIA

TWOJE OSTATNIE OFERTYTECHNOLOGIES

Backend solution was created in C#

(!SP.NET Core).

We enhanced the development process using varied

set of libraries and tools:

Entity Framework Core (object relational mapper)

FluentValidation (data validation)

Autofac (inversion of Control container)

Under the hood, the application integrates with MS SQL

Server T and Nuget Server. Deployment is backed with

TeamCity and Docker with Docker Compose.

Swagger / Swashbuckle (Web !PI documentation)

Serilog (logging)

OpenXml (Word and Excel documents generation)

… and much more

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UTWÓRZ NOWĄ OFERTĘ

FILTRUJWyszukiwana fraza

Klient: Kowalscy Spó

Prokudent SensitivePasta do z

Prokudent SensitivePasta do z

Twarz

3M (22)

Tylko w Rossmann

Promocja Rossnę!

1+1 na wybrane produ…

Marka

Kategorie

Status

Makijaż

4Active Men (4)

Włosy

Enfamil (7)

Ciało

Fenistil (1)

Mamy najlepsze ceny!

WYBIERZ PRODUKTY

Wyszukiwana fraza

Wyszukiwana fraza

ZASTOSUJ

Usuń filtry

MODEL OF COLLABORATION

We worked according to the fixed price model. We had a

few meetings with the client to determine the level of our

assignments. All the operations were supposed to take 2-3

months but the project stretched over a longer period of

time due to priorities alterations on the client’s side.

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B2B Sales platform enables creating a quick offer including a list

of products available in Rossmann. Thanks to the inbuilt search

engine, they can be easily located and added to the offer.

The generator facilitates:

FUNCTIONALITY

Marking the trading discounts,

Defining various collection points,

Exporting an offer to an Excel or a Word document,

Sending an offer to a client directly from the app.

Each microservice is scalable and uses the same database, but with

a different database schema (data is separated, so we could also

separate it quickly). It simplifies both development and deployment.

Services communicate by using REST, however internally

they use in-memory data bus.

Due to efficiency requirements, we created database read models which store

prepared data without need of computation or querying another microservice.

When data from another service is needed, we don’t have to make an HTTP call,

but simply download them directly from application database context. If the

required resource is modified in source service, it has to propagate this

information to keep everything up to date.

We based the application on microservice

architecture with three microservices in the

system.

INNOVATION

Clients microservice

Offers microservice

Storage management

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

One of the challenges was Word and Excel file generation

on the Linux operating system. Originally these files are

associated with Microso" products which generally

support Windows OS. Most of the tools designed for

creating this kind of documents depend on MS Office

so"ware and therefore we weren’t able to use them.

CHALLENGE

In this case, OpenXml library came to the rescue. This powerful tool

provides us with the possibility of manipulating Word and Excel

documents (and much more!). What’s most important, it supports .NET

Core and therefore works also on the Linux operating system.

Using this tool, we encountered various problems. A"er spending

a large amount of time on documentation analysis and generating

test documents, we were able to achieve a satisfactory effect which

was approved by the client.

SOLUTION

During the development, we already knew that

the deployment of the product won’t be our job.

Nevertheless, provided so!ware had to meet the

client’s expectations and requirements. To be

sure that our application behaves properly in the

client’s environment, we had to recreate it on our

side.

CHALLENGE

It was obvious that we are not able to recreate the environment as it is, but

we were sure that we could use attributes which would reflect it closely enough.

We had to recreate MS SQL Server, Nuget Server, and Docker image registry.

We were able to alter MS SQL Server database with Azure SQL. Nuget Server and

the CI/CD process was replaced with the help of TeamCity. Finally, we created

a Linux based virtual machine with Docker and provided it with an appropriate

configuration which connected all components together. These replacements

allowed us to thoroughly test the whole solution and deliver it with proper care and

quality. It also let us feel safe and sure that it will work in the client’s environment.

SOLUTION

UX DESIGNThe actual UX process was launched a!er preparing a functional diagram.

It allowed us to approach the client and discuss all the essential elements

of the platform including navigation, structure, and more.

The next step was to create a UX prototype based on wireframes. We had

an opportunity to deepen our knowledge during the iteration of first materials -

we gained additional information about the company’s approach to work and

its specific needs which helped us adjust the solution even more accurately.

There was no need to employ any product workshops, because

the client provided us with sufficient documentation.

TESTSHigh quality assurance is a must when developing any so!ware

product, especially one that needs to be a practical, simple,

and flawless solution.

In this project we’ve decided to perform manual tests.

Functional testing was based on the client’s guidelines acquired

during a team interview. We’ve performed exploratory testing,

resets, and regression testing on various internet browsers, too.

The acceptance tests were covered by the client.

OUTCOME

We’ve delivered an online tool for generating a complete offer for

wholesales buyers which reduced the time spent on manual and

repetitive tasks. The process of creating a price list, adding photos,

and organizing discounts was maximally simplified and allowed

smooth and seamless operations.

THANKYOU