Case Study

Back-end low-code implementation for "Virtual Try On" contact lenses

Supporting a big player in the eyewear industry to manage a catalogue using a low-code approach.

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#low-code
#eyewear
#retail
#omnichannel

SCENARIO

An obsolete back-end application ecosystem

A big retailer in the eyewear industry wanted to test the benefits of low-code for modernizing its back-end ecosystem. The ecosystem was made up of several applications with obsolete technologies. Our suggestion was a testing exercise with Mendix Low-code Development Platform to achieve the following goals:

  • Build applications faster with less resources;

  • Allow users with no programming skills to make changes on their own;

  • Build multi-experience applications within the same platform, using a single skillset.

    The test was run as part of the major initiative “Virtual Try On for contact lenses”.

THE CHALLENGE

How to innovatively support the "Virtual Try On" of contact lenses

The company identified the back-end application responsible for managing the contact lens catalogue as the test bench to see if it could decrease the time to market of its back-office application ecosystem. The main challenge was to better support the entire process behind the "Virtual Try On" of contact lenses, managed by a central catalogue. The strategic choice was to use a low-code approach allowing our customer to make changes autonomously and quickly to the entire back-end application, without the need for continuous IT support.

THE SOLUTION

A low-code solution for "Virtual Try On" of contact lenses

The ability of the low-code platform to provide multiple building blocks that easily integrate data from multiple sources guaranteed an effective implementation of the back-end for the "Virtual Try On" of contact lenses. The main benefits are highlighted in the following boxes.

A smooth authentication mechanism

The user has access to the back-end application through customer’s SSO authentication and to the profiles identified during the analysis, which are defined according to their privileges. To achieve this, Mendix LCNC platform provides several pre-assembled components that assist with the implementation of the authentication mechanism. These components are based on major industry-standard protocols.

An effective catalogue visualisation

The Mendix platform views the entire catalogue of contact lenses already in the customer systems, executing CRUD operations using the RESTful APIs, saving contact lens assets on AWS, plus managing the contact lens assets status and its related approval process.

A complete set of information

Finally, the data displayed in the lenses’ detail include all its relevant information, allowing users to manage all the settings to correctly display them when using the Virtual Try On initiative.

The results

Autonomy and reusability of components

The main results obtained through the low-code approach for this project were the following:

  • Independent use of the platform by the customer in making any necessary changes;

  • Reuse of preconfigured components;

  • Centralisation of the contact lens catalogue management through its integration with existing business systems and processes;

  • A user friendly UX/UI to better support the entire process.

KI Reply

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Ki Reply is a new company within the Reply Group that was born with the ambition to change the world of software development and challenge the status quo regarding the development model used to date to build digital products and services for our customers.
We were born with this goal in mind, in order to help our clients to meet the now outsized demand for new digital processes and services, from B2C applications for prospect engagement to onboarding processes for new services, from self-service portals to sales support applications for the agent network. To achieve this ambitious goal, we have defined the lifecycle of next-generation software development that allows the developer to focus on real value-added tasks, optimize all phases of software development, improve IT/Business communication with the creation of the Citizen Developer figure, and ultimately lead to the reduction of project time/costs.