Supplinx

We utilize Google Maps for global supply chain visualization. A place where you find business partners, sign a contract, ensure financing and secure money transfers between businesses.

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Inspiration

Supplinx idea arose from our daily struggles. We are running a dynamically growing software company. It means we constantly present our portfolio, and encounter new customers or business partners. Most of the time it is a blessing but sometimes it turns sour. Projects dropped in the middle of development or delayed payments from Customers are two of many "things gone wrong" examples. There are currently two methods for gathering intel about the business partner (Customer or Supplier) before cooperation: use social media (it requires a lot of time and the probability of success is low) or use a specialized agency (it is expensive). We think we can do it better.

What it does

MVP is built around three functionalities:

  1. Visualize the global supply chain (connections between business partners)
  2. Visualize the company portfolio in easy to understand and standardized way
  3. Gather information: allowing companies to connect with other companies who has experience with Customer (or Supplier) and get a quality insight into what to expect. ## How we built it By creating Google Maps Key via Google Cloud Console, we created Google Maps API-powered tool written in react.js on the frontend, and strapi.io with MySQL database in the backend. Google Maps API was mostly used to show custom markers, and custom polylines in order to show connections between companies, and some more complex Maps API to acquire places details to fill company data. ## Challenges we ran into The backend's main challenge was optimizing the supply chain and making it future-proof. When it comes to the frontend - the main challenge was to show the connection between companies in a clean and user-friendly way and do custom, animated markers. ## Accomplishments that we're proud of Might sound trivial, but the best thing that happened during delivering the demo (and submission), was the teamwork. Each of us had his role and by cooperating with other team members, managed to do his work the best way possible in the time given (around a week) ## What we learned First time in our career we utilized Google Maps Cloud Styling and did fully custom map markers, and custom Bezier Curve function-based curves that will probably be used in the future to show connections between markers. We also improved our UX skills, by analyzing and understanding how Google Maps UX work. ## What's next for Supplinx We plan to grow Supplinx into the marketplace with B2B services (ie. legal, and insurance). From a technical standpoint, we plan to utilize ML for observing how goods and services are moved across the supply chain globally.
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