BengalFox

Challenge

BengalFox needed a solution to optimize their shipping operations by cutting down monotonous and repetitive tasks of warehouse employees. Their initial workflow consisted of using phone cameras to take pictures of order barcodes and invoices, and manual renaming and uploading of those files to the corporate cloud storage. When multiplied by the number of orders that had to be processed daily, these simple steps turned out to be not that simple because of the amount of manual labor and high risk of human error.

BengalFox had a clear vision of the product, and they wanted to keep the mobile app as simple as possible. Our major tasks were as follows:

• Build an iOS app for warehouse employees with a minimal number of user actions
• Assure the app’s maximum speed and stable performance
• Integrate the app with cloud storage of their choice (box.com)
• Distribute the app via the Apple Developer Enterprise account and configure all the needed settings

Although the app’s functionality is rather simple and we faced no significant technical challenges while working on it, the project required careful consideration of the app’s business logic and bringing real value to users as well as tangible financial gains to our client.

Solution

Our team took BengalFox’s concept of the app and built on it to make sure all possible user scenarios were covered. We wanted the user, in this case, a warehouse employee, to be properly guided under any circumstances, be it a user mistake or a technical glitch. For that, we extended the initial business logic by adding error messages for non-standard cases, such as duplicate photos, missing storage folder, user permissions, connection issues, and other technical or user errors.

Our major challenge was reducing the time needed to process one order to an absolute minimum; otherwise, the app would defeat its purpose. As the app’s key functionality revolves around taking and saving pictures, we started with that. The standard iPhone photo takes up about 4-12 MB, whereas the photos taken by our app consume no more than 300 KB and keep barcode and invoice details fully legible. We managed to significantly reduce the photo file size, which speeded up the app’s operation to a great extent: from initial 10-15 seconds, we went to 3 seconds needed to complete one order processing cycle (provided the user flow is standard).

As far as the integration with box.com is concerned, there were mild technical challenges related to the difference in programming languages (box.com is written in Objective-C, whereas our app – in Swift 3.1); however, they were quickly resolved.

Since the app was designed exclusively for BengalFox warehouse employees, it was distributed via the Apple Developer Enterprise account. Our team developed detailed guidelines on using the account, updating the license, and handling user permissions. We also provide on-demand services in case BengalFox needs any assistance with managing the account.