Bilingual Customer Portal to Manage Air Cargo Operations

About Our Client

Our Client is a prominent provider of logistics and supply chain services in Saudi Arabia.

The Client planned to organize the process of booking cargo pickup and payment for cargo storage at several airports in major cities in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, the company wanted to launch a customer portal, primarily as a self-service booking tool for its customers but also as a help desk for on-demand customer support.

Customer Portal Development

The Client preferred to use Microsoft tools to build its customer portal as it already used Dynamics 365 as the foundation of its CRM system. A long-term Microsoft partner, ScienceSoft offered to use Microsoft Power Pages (former Power Apps Portals) as a convenient enterprise-grade tool for low-code app development.

ScienceSoft’s project team consisted of nine experts: a project manager, two business analysts, two Dynamics 365 developers, and four mobile (iOS and Android) developers. In the course of the project, we also engaged other specialists (e.g., a database administrator) for short-term tasks.

At the start of the project, the Client was still finalizing its requirements and polishing the concept of the portal, so ScienceSoft offered to follow the Agile development approach, which provides high tolerance towards scope changes. We had weekly meetups with project stakeholders to review the progress and plan ahead.

To create a cost-effective portal that fully met all the Client’s needs, ScienceSoft customized the available templates of Microsoft Power Pages. About 50% of the portal functionality is custom-built.

How the portal functions

The portal is intended for two types of users: consignees and cargo brokers. Consignees select brokers in the desired city and assign the shipment to them. Brokers book the time of cargo pickup and pay for the cargo storage online.

Booking

ScienceSoft integrated the portal with the Client’s cargo management system. When users book time slots for cargo pickup on the portal, the system calculates the cost and returns a payment invoice to the user’s profile.

If the booking time is overdue, the system receives an updated invoice from the cargo management system.

When users are ready to collect the cargo, they can use the portal to book the exact pick-up time, thus making the process more predictable and controllable for the Client.

Cargo broker management

The portal supports cargo brokers working in the cities where the company is present. When a user assigns the cargo to a broker, the latter assumes full responsibility for the cargo management: they can book and pay for the cargo on behalf of the customer.

Online payments

ScienceSoft integrated the portal with two payment processors:

• ROSOM by BrightWare to enable SADAD payments (SADAD is a national payment system in Saudi Arabia).
• PayLink to enable secure payments via Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, MADA, and STC Pay Wallet.

Event notification

The portal sends automated notifications to keep clients updated on important events, such as a payment status, cargo shipment status, or overdue booking.

We implemented two notification channels that users can choose in their profile settings:

• Email notifications.
• SMS notifications.

Customer service

The portal allows users to create customer support tickers for the Client’s customer care team and receive replies via email.

Interfaces in English and Arabic

To cater to the Client’s international customer base, ScienceSoft implemented English and Arabic versions of the portal. We adapted the interfaces to accommodate the right-to-left and left-to-right directions of the two different writing systems. Users can easily switch between languages in one click.

Mobile experience

As requested by the Client, ScienceSoft developed two native apps for iOS and Android. The apps replicate all the portal functionality but have redesigned interfaces to facilitate smooth navigation and interaction for mobile users.

When the portal was ready, ScienceSoft organized user acceptance testing (UAT). We prepared the final portal demo and UAT test scenarios. The Client’s stakeholders acted as portal users – they tested each workflow to verify that it worked as intended. We used the UAT report to finalize the portal development.

To ensure seamless user adoption, we prepared informative and easy-to-understand user guides for all types of portal users.

The Customer Portal Is Ready in One Year

The launch of the customer portal will mean a significant step forward in customer experience management for the Client:

• The company’s customers will have a self-service tool to book cargo pickup and pay for cargo storage, which will save time on human interactions.
• Customers will conveniently work with cargo brokers directly via the portal.
• With the increased control over cargo pickup, the Client will better regulate the workload in airports’ gates.

ScienceSoft will continue evolving the portal in line with newly revealed requirements.

Technologies and Tools

Microsoft Power Pages, .NET, Azure SDK for .NET, C#, iOS, Android.