Response to an open source system requirement

On 26 August 2008, Wareprise.com received a comment on one of its post – Open Source PHP Content Management

I have moved the comment here and it goes like this:

Hi All,

I am looking for an open source system (the preferable combination is Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), to suit (as close as possible) to my requirement below.

Our company name: MAC
Our client name: Alpha
Project duration: 5 years
Project descriptions: The client (i.e., Alpha) will be sending inputs to design 80 to 120 advertisements for every day (display ads for yellow pages), and we (i.e., MAC) require to deliver the designed/completed ads (as PDF document) back to the customer within 2 days (24 hrs). If any rejection in the ads then client will notify us the correction details and we need to re-send the corrected ads in the same day (12 hrs).

Internal Teams (MAC): Team leader (2 members), Login (2 members), Graphic Designer (6 members), Quality Control (6 members), Quality Assurance (2 members)

External Team (Alpha): Project Coordinators (2 members)

Workflow:
Login

• The login person will enter the each ad details on the system, and attach some graphic files for design
• If any query on the ads he will raise the clarification to Team Lead
• When the Team Lead able to resolve the query then the team lead will respond back to the Login person, IF NOT
• Team lead will send/forward the query to the project co-coordinator at the client end for resolution, then the resolution notification will reach login and team lead teams

Designing

• A Designer will pick any ads randomly
• He will start construct the ads using some adobe application
• Finally he will attach the designed ads (as PDF) and complete the task
• If any query on the ads he will raise the clarification to Team Lead
• When the Team Lead able to resolve the query then the team lead will respond back to the designer, IF NOT
• Team lead will send/forward the query to the project co-coordinator at the client end for resolution, then the resolution notification will reach design and team lead teams

Quality Control

• A Quality controller will pick any completed ads randomly
• S/He will process the QC against some specification
• S/He will reject the ads and send back to the designer OR
• S/He will approve the ads and send to the Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance

• A Quality Assurance person will pick any QC approved ads randomly
• S/He will process the QA against some specification
• S/He will reject the ads and send back to the designer (again design, QC cycle will be in place) OR
• S/He will approve the ads and send to the Team lead for dispatch

Dispatch

• The team lead will dispatch the completed ads over FTP
• If any error in the ads the Project Coordinator can reject the ads
• Again login, design, QC, QA, dispatch cycle will repeat

Features required

• Web based system
• Time Tracking for each tasks
• Version control for each ads
• Email, Attachment modules
• Custom fields
• Reports
• Project Management, Collaboration, workflow, administration, security, versioning, scheduling, tem plating, syndication, personalization/localization, and session management,

I look forward to receive your views

Best regards,
Arul Kumar

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Wareprise.com responds to the requirements as follow:

Dear Arul,

Firstly thanks for your enquiry. This is the first time I’m getting enquiries for my opinion and views. I will try my best to provide you with an answer based on my experiences and thoughts.

I believe the biggest challenge to your requirement would the the time tracking for each tasks since you mentioned that there is a need to deliver ads within 2 days or so.

My thinking is there are two options you can consider.

1. To build a system from scratch using php, mysql, windows. The benefit to this is you can get exactly what you need right to the detail. The downside, it can take quite some time and cost to implement depending on how specific there requirement needs to be.

2. To find the closes available open source solution which matches your requirements and customize it from there. The good thing about most open source solution is that the core functionalities are already there, such as user manager, document management, task management, etc. Downside is that these solutions are usually very focused. Meaning, if you need a solution for document management, then it purely does that very well without the other features like project management or customer relationship management. So if you are to go with these solutions, chances are you will need to integrate some of these solutions together to make it fit your requirement.

Think about the possibilities of these 2 options and evaluate the feasibility to implement based on time, cost and resources.

If you plan to go option 2, which is to source for closes match open source solutions, I would recommend the following solutions:

Epiware

Epiware is mainly document management oriented as it has versioning and check in check out capabilities. This feature is good when you have more than 1 designer working on ads at the same time. The check in check out feature will allow a designer to lock the file that he is working on to ensure no two person works on it simultaneously. Epiware oso has simple task management and calendering features.

Achievo

Achievo is a project management solution which allows your designers to clock in the number of hours they have work on. Although not specified in your requirement, I thought it would be great for you to be able to see which particular project / work has taken up the most time and resources to accomplish. It’s got reports to show the stats of each project which has been worked on.

A Non Open Source Solution

Another solution which I can recommend but is not open source would be Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services. With this solution you can create your work areas as well as implement workflows such as allowing a QA person to accept of reject ads before going to the dispatch team. To achieve this, Sharepoint webparts can be developed. For cost wise, it conforms to the Windows Server 2003 licensing model.

Hopefully some of these suggestions can help. For others who could contribute as well, do comment below.

Again, thanks for your enquiry.

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