Logistics platform for high-density housing environments

This post is a short overview of an Abto Software cloud project.

In the scope of our project, primarily focused around modernizing a solution that drives logistics management, our company has cooperated with a US-based enterprise that serves delivery vendors notably facilitating package and delivery management in high-density housing environments.

Our engineers successfully modernized the already ready-to-use solution lacking some essential functionality. With extensive tech knowledge and experience, our team has covered CRM and SCM design, cloud migration, and automation through implementing computer vision.

CV-based platform for logistics: The project described step-by-step

Our goals

The product is designed to benefit every participant of the supply chain – retail providers, carriers, residents. The platform is being actively improved in order to provide additional functionality and serve more customers.

The project’s main goals can be reduced to:

• Extending the existing product with a CRM system to accelerate customer support and loyalty
• Extending the legacy platform with a SCM system to streamline logistics management and overview
• Improving flexibility and scalability by utilizing cloud computing
• Enhancing functionality through implementing computer vision

Our solution

The product is comprised of four main modules:

• Driver software – the solution is programmed to authenticate driver identity
• Storage software – the solution is configured to organize package storage, which eliminates inappropriate misuse
• Client software – the system allows residents to receive & return packages delivered without leaving residential areas
• Customer modules – the system enhances interaction between residents and the service assistants

The layers of security built in:

• Security cameras
• Sensing shelves
• Package check-in
• Access control

Cloud-based platform for logistics: The project described step-by-step

Foremost prioritizing business objectives and requirements, our engineers:

• Integrated a CRM solution that empowers customer support and loyalty
• Integrated a SCM solution that simplifies logistics management across the supply chain
• Improved flexibility and scalability by performing cloud migration
• Extended functionality with on-demand, value-added features by using computer vision

To bring even more business benefit, our team:

• Enabled the tracking of email-related issues by creating a custom monitoring system
• Simplified the verification of email addresses by providing a robust REST API
• Enabled the tracking of SMS-related issues by creating a custom monitoring system
• Handled configurations to facilitate history management

Teck stack: .NET 6, ASP.NET Web API

Used tools: xUnit, Jenkins

Cloud technology: AWS S3, AWS RDS, AWS CDK, AWS SDK, AWS Lambda, AWS Aurora, AWS SNS, AWS SQS, AWS SES, AWS IAM, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CloudWatch, API Gateway, AWS Secrets

DevOps stack: Azure CI/CD, Azure Boards, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevOps Wiki

Final words

The modernized logistics platform for high-density housing environments provides for:

- Reduced time and cost
By automating day-to-day activities, from administration to analytics, the client can boost resource planning. The product is updated to simplify order processing, item transportation, delivery scheduling, route planning, and other essential processes within the supply chain.

- Increased security
By overseeing repeated operations, from transportation to delivery, the client can minimize eventual damage. The solution also includes security cameras, sensing shelves, and convenient package check-in empowered by computer vision.

- Customer satisfaction and retention
The platform allows residents to receive and return packages delivered from their residential complex.

- Higher competitiveness on the logistics market
This platform is an all-encompassing product that includes unique features to empower logistics management, which differentiates the organization from competitors on the challenging market.