The Challenge

Code Pros was called into action for a school food catering company that assembles, delivers and sometimes serves lunches to over 100 schools in and around the Twin Cities. That’s over 12,000 lunches per day! They manage lunch orders through an online ordering system. To improve their processes, they needed additional features to upgrade quality of service and secured information access as well as additional overall system security.

The Strategy

After Code Pros conducted a thorough evaluation of their system and operations, it was evident that the system was not overly secure, which needed a fix. We recognized the need to improve the level of data security and devised a plan to boost that functionality. We also developed a plan to provide additional inventory management capabilities for greater efficiencies and permissions-based authorization for greater control over information accessibility.

The Solution

Code Pros increased the system’s level of security and improved the quality of the system by enforcing stricter data standards. We overhauled the roles/permissions system for their network. It started as a user-based approach when we took over the project. The administrators wanted greater control over who had access to which parts of the system. For instance, they wanted someone in billing not to have access to update the website content, while someone who could update the website wouldn’t have billing access. We implemented a role-based access control system so that users could be assigned roles, and those roles were assigned permissions. Each person could have different levels of access to the different parts of the system.

Another cool project we completed was to expand their inventory management system so that it would work well on mobile phones. We added an “offline” mode because often the inventory needed to be changed by phone in a section of the warehouses that Wi-Fi didn’t reach. We allowed changes to be made on the user’s phone, and then when they got back to Wi-Fi, the changes were synchronized with the system’s server.

The Outcome

By tightening up the system’s security for the company, Code Pros was able to provide greater peace of mind for the management team. After we took over maintenance of the website, the site was hacked due to pre-existing security holes, but we were able to very quickly bring it back online—not something that every developer can do! As hackers continually sharpen their skills and find surprising ways to gain access, Code Pros stays on top of it with our ability to bring the site back—and find the hacker’s gateway and close it permanently.

The new feature design for inventory management in areas without Wi-Fi has been an appreciated efficiency booster and time saver. And, our solution for ensuring that each person has the correct permissions for system access has created efficiencies and saved them from unintentional errors made by someone accessing the wrong screen. Additionally, it ensures confidentiality of private or proprietary information.

We appreciate the opportunity to help our clients continually raise the bar for security, best practices and efficient customer service.