Challenge: many separate processes across a large network
A large organization with a retail location network simultaneously manages settlements, surveys, inspections, customer claims, waste, incident reports, operator recruitment, and many other matters. Each process has different users, rules, and data, but all of them need to work with SAP and group systems.
Buying separate software for every process would mean multiple logins, inconsistent data, and difficult integration. One monolithic system, in turn, would be too slow to develop.
Solution: a family of applications on a shared platform
Astrafox builds and develops applications around shared principles: one login, common roles, standardized integrations, and one support service. Each application owns one process and changes independently.
The main areas include:
- Platform for a retail location network: surveys, settlements, energy, competitor prices, commission invoices, meters, location directories, tasks, insurance policies, and operator recruitment.
- Customer complaints, claims, and feedback: forms, Call Center handling, statuses, substitutions, notifications, and reporting, including claims concerning e-commerce and electromobility invoices.
- Waste management: container records, collection schedules, waste transfer notes imported from Excel, fill-level monitoring, contract limits from SAP, and integration with Poland’s BDO waste register.
- Safety incidents and closures: forms, statuses, approvals, history, and reports.
- Electronic invoices: adaptation to KSeF (Poland’s National e-Invoicing System) with SAP Retail and SAP PI, offline mode, QR codes, statuses, retry handling, and a report of reversed invoices.
- Central tasks: one place to view and approve tasks from multiple applications.
- Service monitoring in Tableau: wall-mounted dashboards, trends, alerts, and drill-down analysis.
Outcome: one environment developed without monolithic projects
Users at retail locations and headquarters work in tools tailored to their processes, while data flows into SAP without manual retyping. New requirements such as KSeF are introduced as additional stages without rebuilding the entire environment.
The engagement has continued for many years. The Astrafox team is responsible for development, fixes, integrations, and maintenance of all applications.
Technical details
The applications run in a .NET environment with Microsoft SQL Server databases and domain login through Active Directory. SAP integrations cover HR, MM, and Retail. Deployments pass internal, integration, and client testing. Maintenance covers error diagnosis, fixes, documentation, the code repository, and SLA-based support.
Frequently asked questions
Why use multiple smaller applications instead of one system?
Each process has different rules and a different pace of change. Smaller applications are developed independently, while shared login, roles, and integrations preserve consistency.
Can this environment be built alongside SAP?
Yes. The applications retrieve data from SAP and return approved results without replacing the central system.