Tender Management Platform for Retail Procurement

Client
Challenge
Main Goals
Project
Technology Stack
Results
Core Team

Overview of Our Client

Our client, a retail business operating in Europe, needed a structured way to manage procurement tenders and supplier offers. The goal was to bring core procurement activities into a single application, making supplier proposals easier to collect, review, and compare.

SCAND was engaged to create a working pilot that supported the core tender workflow while providing a foundation for further development.

Region: Europe
Industry: Retail / Procurement
Timeline: 1 month

Challenge

The main challenge was to digitize the core procurement tender workflow within a short delivery window and support the commercial requirements involved in evaluating supplier offers. Specific challenges included:

Organizing tenders, suppliers, procurement categories, and responsible procurement managers in a structured workflow
Enabling suppliers to submit offers and procurement users to evaluate competing proposals
Comparing prices and commercial terms, including offers in different currencies
Supporting Excel-based data exchange for relevant procurement information
Implementing authentication and deploying the application in the customer's environment
Keeping the pilot extensible for the next phase

Main Goals

The project focused on delivering the essential capabilities needed to evaluate and manage procurement tenders:

Implementing the core tender lifecycle, from tender creation to offer evaluation
Simplifying supplier participation and bid submission
Supporting the comparison of prices and commercial conditions
Enabling Excel-based data exchange and multi-currency offer handling
Deploying a working pilot for customer evaluation
Establishing a reusable foundation for the next development phase

Project Overview

SCAND delivered a tender management pilot by combining AI-assisted engineering with reusable BM4A application modules and a Tender Domain Template.

Instead of building the application from scratch, the team used BM4A, SCAND’s set of reusable business application modules, to establish common application functionality, such as user authentication, data management, and access control, while supporting tender creation, supplier participation, bid submission, and commercial offer comparison.

The team also implemented multi-currency handling, Excel-based data exchange, and Keycloak authentication, then deployed the application in the customer’s environment.

Core Application Capabilities

Tender Management: Creating and managing procurement tenders within a structured application workflow.
Category-Based Organization: Organizing tenders by product category and associating them with responsible procurement managers.
Supplier Participation: Supporting supplier involvement in tenders and the submission of commercial offers.
Offer Comparison: Reviewing competing bids by price and relevant commercial conditions, including delivery terms.
Multi-Currency Support: Handling supplier offers denominated in different currencies using exchange rates.
Excel-Based Data Exchange: Supporting spreadsheet-based exchange of relevant procurement information.
Access Management: Integrating Keycloak authentication.
Customer-Environment Deployment: Deploying the pilot in the customer's environment, with a foundation for further development.

User Workflow

Creating a Tender: A procurement manager creates a tender and configures it for a specific product category.
Managing Participation: The responsible manager coordinates supplier participation in the tender.
Submitting Offers: Suppliers submit their commercial proposals for evaluation.
Reviewing Bids: The procurement manager reviews submitted offers and compares prices, currencies, and commercial conditions.
Evaluating Suppliers: The procurement team evaluates the available proposals and records its selection through the tender workflow.

Technology Stack

The application used the following technologies and engineering practices:

Application Platform

BM4A

Backend

Java
Spring Boot

Frontend

React

Database

PostgreSQL

Deployment and Infrastructure

Docker
Kubernetes

Delivery Automation

CI/CD pipelines

Authentication

Keycloak

Development Approach

AI-assisted engineering, reusable application modules, and domain templates

Results

By combining reusable BM4A application modules, domain templates, and AI-assisted engineering, SCAND delivered the working tender management pilot in one month, providing a structured digital workflow for procurement tenders and supplier offers. The main results included:

Approximately 80 person-hours: Development effort for the pilot, delivered within one calendar month.
Centralized tender workflow: Digital management of tenders, supplier participation, bid submission, and offer comparison.
Commercial offer evaluation: Support for comparing prices and relevant terms, including multi-currency offers.
Deployment completed: The application was made available in the customer's environment.
Reusable Tender Domain Template: A reusable foundation for accelerating similar procurement application projects.
Defined next step: A basis for the customer to prepare requirements for the second phase.

Deployment and Roadmap

Phase 1 — Delivered: Core tender management, supplier offer submission, commercial offer comparison, and deployment in the customer's environment.
Phase 2 — Planned: Further development based on the next set of requirements, to be defined with the customer.

Delivery Approach

The project shows how AI-assisted engineering combined with reusable BM4A modules and domain templates speeds up delivery of a focused business application.

Since standard functional components do not need to be developed from scratch, engineers can focus their efforts directly on implementing procurement processes.

The pilot project, which took one month (around 80 person-hours) to complete, serves as a clear example; the scope of work and time required for other projects will vary based on their specific requirements and integration needs. You can explore a demo of the tender platform.

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Core Team

Full-Stack Developer: Implemented the tender management application and its core procurement workflow.
Product and Engineering Guidance: Supported scope definition, procurement domain requirements, and the adoption of reusable application modules and templates.