Web- Application for the Post Office (Post mate)

63 WebApplication for the Post Office (Post mate) R.D.N.H.Rajapaksha1, L.D.C.S.Subhashini 2 Department of Information Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, 1nawoda[email protected]m, 2subh[email protected] Background There are 4,692 post offices in Sri Lanka, out of which 3,410 are sub-post offices. One of the sub-post offices is located in Handapanagala, with its address being Andawelayaya, Sri Lanka. The postal code of the Handapanagala post office is 91206. The control unit of the Handapanagala sub-post office is connected to the Wellawaya main post office. All work is done manually, and there are three employees on duty. Correspondence and exchange of goods are carried out in five domains through the Handapanagala sub-post office. Overview of the Existing System How the existing system functions: According to its employees, all the activities of the Handapanagala sub-post office are done manually. The organization does not have or use any kind of software or system. Although there are several web applications related to the post office, their problem has not been solved by the existing web applications. Existing solutions in the market 1. Sri Lanka Post - https://www.slpost.gov.lk/ This is the official website of Sri Lanka Post, the national postal service provider in Sri Lanka. The website provides various services such as tracking foreign postal items, online postal rates, and zip code lookup. 2. EMS Sri Lanka - https://www.ems.post/en/globalnetwork/country/sri-lanka 64 EMS (Express Mail Service) Sri Lanka is a global postal express delivery service provider that is part of the Sri Lanka Post. The website provides information on EMS services, rates, and tracking options. It also offers online payment and shipment booking facilities. System Analysis Problem Analysis After observing the existing solutions in the market, I have found many gaps between user requirements and deliverables of these applications. These gaps are also the reasons for the new solution. The proposed web application is a new solution that aims to address various issues related to the Handapanagala Post Office. It offers a range of features to improve customer experiences and streamline postal services. The main problems identified in Handapanagala Post Office are: 1. No door-to-door delivery of letters to certain villages in the five domains covered by the Post Office. Therefore, the villagers are inconvenienced, and the letters are also likely to be lost. In some cases, local residents do not even know that they have received letters. 2. Resident's resort to using a grocery store's address as a delivery address instead of their private home address, compromising the security and privacy of letters. 3. Inadequate transparency regarding postal charges, causing potential difficulties for customers and post office staff, as charges are known only after arrival at the post office. 3. Manual operations without the use of any software or system may lead to inefficiency and loss of efficiency. 65 Requirement Analysis The following functional requirements were identified based on the main modules of the system. 1. Customer management module • Registration • Login to the web application • Checking whether the user has the mail or not • Send a request to the administration profile to find out whether the received mail • Checking details about stamps • Postal code lookup • Postal cost calculation • Change the user account details • Give customer feedback • Send a message to make an inquiry • Receive an SMS or real-time email if the user has received mail 2. Administration management module • Login into a web application • Postal rates updates • Update details about stamps • Send notifications to customer profiles if customers have mail • Check customer requests and accept a request • Send notifications to a user profile • Check customer feedback • Check inquiries and reply to them • Register customer if customer want • Customers registration • Send an SMS or real-time email if the user has received mail 66 System Development Development Methodology used: As the development methodology, the Waterfall Method was used, and the team followed the stages of the Software Development Life Cycle. Technologies used: Visual Studio Code was used as the development environment, the system was developed using the above IDE as a web application using MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, and Node.js (MERN stack). Proposed System: Architecture for a proposed system, Figure 9 : Architecture for a proposed system 67 Conclusion I was able to develop a specialized, effective web application as a PostMate success for the Handapanagala sub-post office. In comparison to a manual method, the new system was more effective since it could cut down on operational process inefficiency. There are some limitations of the developed application. This application has only one admin because of time constraints. Not yet complete send notification to customer real-time email or SMS and the function of sending notifications to customer email/SMS is not yet complete. Once the system has been fully developed and implemented successfully, the next phase is to identify the areas for future development. In the future, I hope to develop a mobile application called "PostMate". And also want to enhance the PostMate web application with the below functions, • Admin can create another admin • Allows customers to send requests messages from mobile phones (SMS) that haven't an internet connection. In the future, I hope to add the Courier Service function as a new main function to this post office web application. From that module, customers can perform parcel cost calculation, and parcel booking, send a request to find out whether the received parcel, and receive notifications via email or SMS if a customer has received the parcel. References 1. Lankapropertyweb (2022) Sri Lanka Postal Codes: How Well Do You Know Them? Available at: https://www.lankapropertyweb.com/property-news/sri-lankapostal-codes-how-well-do-you-know-them/ (Accessed: 20 August 2023).