Orchards Cookery

The brief was for the Orchards Cookery CRM was to essentially develop a system that could revolutionise the booking and management process of students signing up to a course. Previously, Orchards were using a paper based system to take bookings over the phone. However, management was a difficult task as one could imagine.

The system needed to be quick and efficient in handling the booking process as well as any further amendments and management of their students.

AWD designed and developed the entire process from the initial booking right through to the management of students. Orchards had left it up to us to design it in a way that could work efficiently for them.

When the students applies online, their details are stored in a record where Orchards can then manage their booking. Using a simple click of a button the process is started. Orchards assign the student to the course and date they have chosen (subject to availability). If the course is unavailable, they can assign them to a range of other dates. If those dates aren’t suitable for the student, they can be added to the waiting list should somebody change course or cancel their booking.

The waiting list feature is a feature that allows people to put their interest in joining that course. If a space becomes, students can be moved from the waiting list to the full booking on a simple seamless process.

During a course, Orchards arrange students into accommodation and kitchens. We developed a completely bespoke HTML5 drag and drop system which allows management at a glance in an intuitive manner.

Due the nature of Orchards, often friends will join courses together. Sometimes those courses are full. The unique friend system means that friends can be arranged into groups. The process of then managing those friends means they can be arranged in the right courses, kitchens and even accommodation with ease.

We are currently working on a recruitment system for Orchards that will revolutionise how they find jobs for students following completion of a course. This can be straight after and may even be years later.

The system will offer a dynamic spreadsheet style interface with fluidity in mind. The site works with a custom built extension for Chrome that works in sync to offer speed and flexibility.