Creation Of a Universal Operator Portal Dashboard, Ledger and Inventory Management System for A Traditional Legacy Publishing Company
Services
- DevOps
- Dashboard Design
- Database Development & Management
- API Integration
About
Orange Publishers is a legacy book publishing company in India and they have been in the traditional book publishing industry for more than three decades with extensive experience in custom publishing and printing. They are the primary choice when it comes to authors from every popular genre and especially new authors because of their dynamic outlook and process of publication which is very newcomer-friendly. They the basically the A to Z of publishing as they do everything in-house. They provide their own in-house illustrators and they have their own book cover designers and formatting experts as well as print experts. They are also quite well known for their editing services as well as proofreading services. They are among the few publishing companies in the world that also handle the copyright, promotion and marketing along with the creation of marketing material for the author.
They are the only company to believe in –
- The reliability of traditional publishing
- The ease-of-entry of self-publishing
Background
We share a deep-rooted bond with Orange Publishers. As Think To Share IT Solutions, we have managed and developed as well as re-designed the primary Orange Publishers website and we continue to provide developmental and digital support to all their endeavours. We also provide them with every kind of IT assistance and technical support when it comes to the smooth operations of the publisher’s online portals and services as well as social media handles. From digital marketing to content needs, we fulfil a lot and accomplish a lot with Orange. We have been working with Orange Publishers for the last 6 years and this relationship has also helped us gain a lot and grow a lot.
The Challenge
The primary challenge with Orange Publishers was that they were doing things traditionally and that meant they were lagging behind when it came to efficiency and the full implementation of a portal system. They had to juggle between online and offline sales and operations and offline ledgers and accounts as well as sales documentation.
- The biggest challenge with their operations was that there was no unified digital portal system or operator dashboard. This meant they had to go back and forth between their online operations and their manual notes. This resulted in errors and a lack of efficiency.
- Orange lacked a synchronised and automated portal system with no operations management dashboard that could keep track of sales numbers as well as no clear categorisation of agents and distributors and sales by individual parties.
- The other problem that really plagued their operations was the lack of a digital accounting and ledger system. This was actually a hindrance to their growth. Since they do a lot of their selling online and keep their accounting offline, you can understand how that would lead to a problem. They had to go back and forth between their online sales and then track it offline.
- Things became even more challenging when it came to book returns because a book return could mean going back multiple times to offline inventory systems and accounts and making sure every data is updated. This was actually becoming an issue that caused problems in their primary business balance sheets
They needed a unified and universal solution that kept track of everything from a universal dashboard to stocks and distributor details. This solution needed to account for POS lists and order details as well as accounts like payment in(credit) and payment out(debit) with additional sections for author royalty calculations and book return details all in the same place, integrated and automatic.
The Solution
To solve this complex challenge, we came up with a solution of creating a universal operator portal with a primary dashboard that is unified throughout all the variables and elements. We brought together every variable and data regarding the operations of this celebrated publishing company so that they could have a look at each and every data in a single place.
This operator portal has a primary dashboard along with an all-inclusive hamburger menu that will let the publishers access different areas. The operator can simply have a glance at an overall status directly from the dashboard and if they need additional details then they can click on individual sections like Clients and Stocks and it will lead them to that subsection. Additionally, the dashboard is followed by this hamburger menu that contains everything from the stocks to the accounting information and much more. Check out all these individual areas.
The Areas Are
01
Stocks
The Stocks menu primarily has three subsections starting with the Stocks List which simply contains the availability information. This is followed by the books list and it contains a general overview of all the books currently on sale at Orange Publishers. This is followed by the section for the Authors List. This provides an overview of all the authors at Orange Publishers and helps the admins take a look at author details at a glance. The Stock section is tied together with all the other sections of the operator portal and real-time change takes place in the stock section whenever there is any change in any other section.
02
Distributor
The distributor section contains four subsections which include a section for the Client List as well as the Sales Person List as well as the Agent List, which is not to be confused with the fourth section called the Agency List.
03
POS List
Then we come to the section for the POS list and this is one of the most important sections in this entire operator portal. This POS list contains the Point Of Sale for every book and the numbers corresponding to that sale. Additionally, there is a subsection dedicated towards Royalty Percentage because it varies depending on where a book is sold. This section is tied to the Author Royalty section along with other sections in this portal.
04
Order
Since Orange is not your ordinary publishing company and has been one of the premier names in publishing for the last three decades, we decided on two subsections for the section on orders. The first section is about Institutional Orders and contains orders from institutions like schools and other organisations. The second section of the orders menu contains the list of Individual Orders which means if you decide to individually buy a book from Orange Publishers then your order information will be in this section.
05
Report
Now we come to the reports section which is one of the most revolutionary aspects of this entire portal and universal dashboard. The report section primarily has subsections for the Gross Amount as well as the Discount and Net Amounts. You then have the TOD Discount Amount as well as the CD Discount Amount and the Book Out Report. We would like to draw your attention to the Book Out Report subsection of the orders. This subsection allows the operator to simply input the dates as well as the ISBN information and filter out only the orders they want to check. There are additional filters so that they can pinpoint the sale within a few seconds.
06
Payment In
The Payment In section is basically the credit column of this Operator Portal and simply contains a list of payments received or yet to be received.
07
Payment Out
Likewise, the Payment Out section would be the debit column in a traditional ledger. The portal operator can look at its subsections to find out the different areas where money is debited.
08
Author Royalty
Likewise, the Author Royalty section contains the amounts that have been credited to the authors as royalty and this section is directly tied to the POS section.
09
Book-Out Category
This is followed by the Book Out Category which contains a list of just the number of books that are out and the purpose of the books being out. Book out simply means that a book has left the warehouse to its destination along with details of the purpose.
10
Book-Out
The book out section also serves a similar purpose and helps the operator take a look at the books that have been sent out.
11
Book Return
Now we arrive at the Book Returns section this was one of the most fun and challenging sections to do because a book return is a complex process. This is because a book return entry simply needs to work with every other section which includes the Orders section as well as the Payment In and Out section and also the Accounting and every other section. That is exactly what we did with this digital operator portal.
The
Result
34%
Operational Error Reduction
85%
Improved Operations Speed
0%
Bookkeeping Errors and Anomalies
- A significant increase in efficiency and a reduction in time wastage when it comes to accessing vital information.
- A significant drop in errors when it comes to data entry synergy regarding online sales and offline sales.
- The complete eradication of any offline manual accounting and information lists.
- A renewed trust in the Think To Share promise of excellence.