PrognoStore

Magora, an enterprise software company, has completed a new bespoke program project for monitoring and managing a small business. To preserve client confidentiality, we are not yet naming the software, but we are proud to be able to share its story nonetheless. This software was conceived to help owners of stores to sell, track inventory and to remain aware of all aspects of running their businesses. Not too long ago, a Nigerian businessman from the UK came to us, having learned about past successful projects undertaken by Magora developers, and told us all about the difficult problems businesspeople in his African country faces. Every small business struggled with the very sad reality of a scarcity of necessary sales equipment and software. He wanted to help merchants by making the standard processes of store management automated and available to everyone. This bespoke software solution had to have the powerful functionality that would free owners of small businesses from spending so much time on manual, managerial tasks (accounts and inventory). It had to have the capacity to complete online and offline payments, create analytic reports and track stock levels, all while allowing users to keep an eye on their business, even when that meant running multiple stores in multiple locations.

The Magora developer team identified the creation of the program which would serve as a point of sale and as a personal assistant for merchants was the biggest challenge; however, it could then become the starting point for their project, a single, unique tool Prognostor, containing everything that is necessary for business owners. 

Our business architects and analytics started to work on developing this bespoke business software with the support of a whole team of experts from the client’s side. It was a great experience of international cooperation between the UK business owner and managers from Nigeria. Representatives of Magora met with customers in New York and were struck by their many smiles and optimism, contrasting with the grim picture of running a business we had heard before. They didn’t interfere in the technical process, but gave a lot of advice and ideas about the specific nature of Nigerian business culture to help us shape the project. At Magora, we carefully reviewed each of these ideas and thought about their implementation. It was difficult to satisfy every request, but, nevertheless, we did it with the aim of rescuing Nigerian small businesses.

Our team consisted of six professionals (developers, software designer, tester, analyst). They spent 4938 working hours (and drank 8321 cups of coffee) during negotiations and discussions with our partners to get a deeper understanding of their needs.

The base platform for deploying and running the system is Amazon Web Services. One of the interesting features of the system is OLAP storage, which reduces the load on the OLTP database. The process of transforming and loading data to OLAP storage performs in near real-time. The client and server communicate by JSON API. The client is a single page Angular Application which possesses another interesting feature: the application allows for the processing of purchases in offline mode (without internet) in most popular browsers. For that reason, we have used internal browser storages such as WebSQL and IndexedDB.

At last, the end-product was presented. Magora programmers took pride in this achievement, having created a complicated, but user friendly system with a lot of functionality, fully adapted to the Nigerian market.

Bespoke business software keeps hand on stores

The Magora developer team is ready to work with tasks of any complexity, like iOS development, specialised software and web and mobile apps. For this project, they produced small business management software, and it is a 3-in-1 cloud program where the basic functionality is

• point of sale
• Inventory
• analytics.

The program streamlines the sale process automates it, making it a great solution for retail stores.

With this program, you can manage cash and online payments via a traditional till, and the program works regardless of the Internet connection. All commercial information and transactions are saved and synchronized automatically back to the cloud whenever connectivity is restored. You always know about your stock levels and can correlate them with sales reports, which means there is no mess in your store and business. Every operation is available to view by several different kind of users on several platforms, so the program can continue making an impact even if the head of the office is not in the office. One of the most exciting aspects of it is the program can be installed on any PC, so you can monitor the situation on active dashboard in real time. Additionally, the owner of the business has the opportunity to set notifications, get analytic sales reports and check stocks directly on their gadget. For owners with several locations, they can always compare multiple stores and understand how well each of them is performing.

Everything is automated

Inventory was a problem in Nigerian stores, because staff typically had to do it all manually. Our bespoke software is the best solution in this case, as it makes the process automatic. The program counts stocks and also considers income and expenses as a bookkeeping tool.

With this tool, you can collect client data and manage discount and loyalty programs for regular customers. This small business management software is available for owners of business and all employees, because of its user friendliness and simplicity. Our developers followed the logic that, “simpler = more professional”, and they were right. Managers, shop attendants and other assistants have their own profiles with various features and access in the program.

It has been integrated with accounts in Xero, as well as with payment gateway PayPal, Authorize.net, Magento and some Nigerian banks. Owners of small businesses don’t have to worry about safety. This software provides security for their stores and bills.

This case is a great example how Magora’s team develops bespoke software, creating one unique program, where all the necessary tools for running and monitoring a small business are compiled. Nigerian merchants can rest assured that their livelihoods are well monitored, because the program is keeping tabs on their businesses, running processes automatically and generating revenue for business owners. According to the client’s business plan, this software will increase inventory efficiency by 30% and will lead to a profit of $1,050,000 for the first year of usage.