Reference Mobile App

Organization: Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), ThoughtWorks (TW)

Date: 29 Feb 2015

Project Description:

Based on multiple requests from countries for a facility-level stock management system, with largely overlapping requirements, a reusable “white label” LMIS Android Application for facility stock management on OpenLMIS is being proposed. The application will carry core functionality of field stock management, and provide flexibility to configure and customize features for different country implementations with relatively lower cost. 

OpenLMIS currently facilitates a full replenishment cycle - including requisitions, forecasting, approvals, stock allocations, and delivery receipts; basic stock management and record-keeping at store rooms; and system-wide reporting and dashboards on all available logistics data.  In order to make the system more accessible at health facilities with low connectivity, CHAI and ThoughtWorks propose developing a facility-based Android extension of the system, drawing from our experiences in Nigeria and Mozambique.

The LMIS Android application would follow OpenLMIS’s core model of “shared investment, shared benefit” by:

• Providing a common domain model for stock management processes that are shared between health facilities within a national or regional supply chain.

• Generalizing core feature development into a common and shared product core, in order to optimize the architecture of the application and provide an extensible environment for customization and evolvement of the application per implementation.

• Sharing infrastructure development between implementations to cultivate a mature foundational starting point for application behavior, security, and technical capacity.

• Utilizing a reference user interface to better disseminate shared and tested design principles between implementations and reduce time required to have an application ready for deployment.

The Mozambique codebase will be extensively used for the development of the white label app, with an initial requirements gathering process across countries who have expressed interest – including Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria – to ensure applicability across contexts. 

What Country or Customer is Requesting this Project/Feature Set? What is the Market Demand?

Countries that have expressed interest in this feature set include Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.

What is the benefit of this project/feature to the OpenLMIS product?

A significant proportion of health facilities in a majority of countries can be categorized as low infrastructure low connectivity. The proposed mobile app will provide a range of functionality, all of which will be available offline, and the ability to utilize weak and inconsistent connectivity to sync with the back end. Such an extension will allow Open LMIS to cover last mile facilities more effectively. This in turn will make Open LMIS more attractive to Governments and other stakeholders to adopt and will promote faster deployments of across countries.

What date must this project/feature set be available?

There is no specific date this functionality is needed, however the longer this is delayed the more likely it will be that a country-specific project will arise, resulting in another one-off implementation.

Has a high-level requirements document been created?

Yes, in Uganda with the MOH and NMS (National Medical Store). However, development will be preceded by a more in-depth requirements gathering process across multiple countries to ensure relevance across contexts.

Who will perform the software development?

Proposed to be ThoughtWorks.

Will the code that is created be contributed back to the OpenLMIS Community via the GPL Aphero 3.0 license? Are there any IP barriers to making the code available under this license?

Yes. No IP barriers.

Are there any other materials, such as a concept note or requirements, that can be shared with the product committee to support their review of this project?

Concept note and requirements being drafted right now and can be shared once finalised.

Estimated project budget:

$1,000,000 including multi-country scoping, software development, and two-phase pilot deployment costs.

Does the project/feature set have committed funding? If yes, who? If no, who are the target funders?

No committed funding yet.

Does this project feature have dependencies on any other product backlog items or projects?

The project is dependent on OpenLMIS re-architecture. The white label app can be built on OpenLMIS 2.0 but that making it compatible with 3.0 will require a level of time and effort that is yet to be determined.

Are there related projects that are proposed or in-progress that could be coordinated with this project to provide maximal benefit? If yes, what is your plan for coordinating with these projects?

None that we know of.

Is the form complete?

Is the project/feature set within the domain space of LMIS?

Will the proposed feature add value to the OpenLMIS global product?

What are the risks to this project contributing to OpenLMIS global product?