Euro Packaging is a UK based multi-national enterprise delivering goods and services to the Retail, Leisure, Food Service and Hospitality markets.

Building upon the previously developed, ‘Goods Not For Resale’ retail support app the high-street retailer Marks and Spencers asked Euro Packaging to source a web app and associated management dashboard toenable it to track adherence to store cleaning and COVID-19 protocols. We were pleased to once again be contracted by Euro Packaging in delivering this requirement.

M&S’s requirements included the ability to configure the roster of checks based on specific store configuration, provide a role based app user experience, configure audits and cleaning specifications. As such management staff are presented with a broader range of functions and abilities than general cleaning staff. The app also provides a mechanism for all staff, irrespective of role, to report incidences of COVID-19 policy non-compliance.

The App Management Dashboard is a web-based portal accessed by administrators. Dashboard users are able to perform functions including management of app users, composing and sending text and image based in-app alerts, configuring the app’s content and tailoring questions to specific stores. These configurations are then accessed by the in-store web app user who can review alerts, carry out supervisory inspections or be guided through cleaning requirements. The dashboard allows administrators to upload details of required procedures in the form of images, audio and links to YouTube videos which results in apps user having convenient access to the company’s guide to cleaning best practices. The Dashboard generates a rich set of graphics describing the cleaning standards over time along with highlighting locations where COVID-19 policy compliance needs to be improved.

The project was initially envisaged as consisting of two independent application code-bases, however it was eventually decided to build the system as a ReactJS system internally split between the Administrative Dashboard and the Web App component. The backend is a typical LAMP stack, complemented by a set of custom APIs.

The system was commissioned in late 2020 and went live in early 2021. The system has enabled Euro Packaging to consolidate its position as a key supplier of technologically sophisticated solutions to Marks and Spencers, and helped M&S address key operational requirements in an extremely challenging scenario.