The Problem

The client had an internal application designed to allocate inventory based on sales data. However, as the volume of data grew, the app became increasingly unresponsive, with the allocation process taking up to an hour to complete. This issue also began affecting other parts of the application, resulting in a degraded user experience and overall instability across the system.

Proposed Solution

We recommended a complete rewrite of the application to eliminate legacy constraints and incorporate modern best practices in both implementation and user interface design. This approach aimed to significantly improve performance and provide a much smoother, more reliable experience for the end users.

Key Implementation Details

Here are the key improvements we implemented to enhance the overall user experience:

• Optimized Data Handling: To ensure the application could manage large datasets efficiently, we introduced data chunking and added pagination where necessary, allowing for faster and smoother data processing.
• Enhanced Allocation Process: The allocation process was broken down into distinct steps, separating read and write operations. We implemented caching at the read level for faster data retrieval and added parallel processing during computations to improve speed and efficiency.
• User-Friendly Progress Display: In the user interface, we introduced a timeline view to display the allocation steps, complete with clear loading messages and an estimated time of completion. This kept users informed about the progress and reduced uncertainty during the allocation process.
• Service-Based Allocation: We decoupled the allocation process from the main app by moving it to a separate service. This ensured that heavy computations wouldn't impact the rest of the application. A queue system was also introduced, allowing multiple users to access the app simultaneously without delays or conflicts.
• Modern UI with React: We rebuilt the user interface as a single-page application (SPA) using React and a robust UI library. This made the app not only cleaner and more responsive but also provided a smoother and more seamless user experience.

The end result was highly satisfactory for the customer. The improvements not only enhanced the overall user experience but also significantly reduced the time required to complete tasks, leading to greater efficiency and productivity.