Procurement Process Web System Development in Ruby on Rails

TecHome web development team (Ruby on Rails) designed and developed a procurement process online system for a medium sized enterprise in manufactory industry. The client said that their current procurement process needed to be enhanced due to the manpower, time, and cost. They wanted to reduce the manpower to handle the procurement process and save time and costs in order to fit the development of the enterprise.

Why Ruby on Rails

The enterprise application is unlike normal web application, enterprises are more interested in the workflow and the report than UI and multi-functionalities, the enterprise need the functionalities that just meet their requirements. Due to the client’s requirements, the web development team gave the client 3 effective reasons for choosing Ruby on Rails as the main programming language:

Reason 1: There are many web programming languages available, such as PHP, Java, Python, etc. but Ruby on Rails leads these web programming languages. With Ruby on Rails, web developers can have real productivity boost for developing web applications and Ruby offers domain specific languages.

Reason 2: Ruby on Rails makes programming work easier, it is directly reported to the developer in order to make adequate changes instantly if there are any errors occurred on the program.

Reason 3: Ruby on Rails allows developers to re-code on the program easily if they want to add new functionalities. So with Ruby on Rails, developers have opportunity to create code much better.

Solution

1. Designed a procurement process according to the client’s requirements and set up different authorization for each process port. And then saved it as XML file and uploaded to the system.

2. Designed properties for each report, for example, read only report, can be modified report, and then saved it as XML and uploaded to the system. When users publish the report, the system will released XML format automatically and then set up a database table.

3. Designed template of search function and wrote SQL code, saved it as XML file and uploaded to the system.

The client was satisfied with their web based procurement process system, they don’t have to deal the process manually and spend lots of time on the complex workflow. Simply, users create a new procurement application form in html and fill in the procurement details and submit it to the system. The procurement application form will have a unique tracking number and has been sent to the next department that should handle it. Users can search and check the status or the results in the system at any time. The web development team used Ruby on Rails successfully in this project to make the system completely meet the client’s requirements and operated smoothly. This web based procurement process system can be a good reference that showed to other clients in the future.

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