Shared Shopping Cart With Role-Based Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing e-commerce systems do not allow for shared shopping carts with varying user permissions, where different users can add and purchase products without direct access to billing information, and lack features to limit visibility of products and costs, making it difficult for organizations to manage purchases efficiently across departments.
Innovation Solution
A shared digital shopping cart system that allows users to add products without individual accounts, with customizable permissions for access, visibility, and purchasing authority, enabling hierarchical management and secure financial separation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single purchasing manager coordinates all purchases, then financial control is maintained, but productivity decreases due to bottlenecked purchase processing
Solution Approach 1:
The purchasing system is segmented into multiple roles: purchasing managers maintain financial control and approve purchases, while employees can independently add items to departmental shopping carts. This segmentation allows purchase processing to be distributed across multiple users rather than bottlenecked at a single manager, improving productivity while preserving financial oversight through the manager's approval authority.
2Productivity
If employees can independently make purchases, then productivity increases, but financial security deteriorates due to exposure of billing information
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary layer - the shopping cart system with permission-based access control. Employees can interact with the purchasing system through this intermediary by adding items to carts, but the actual financial transactions and billing information remain protected behind the manager's approval gate. This intermediary enables employee independence for product selection while maintaining financial security through the manager's mandatory approval step.
3Ease of operation
If detailed product visibility is provided to all users, then ease of operation improves, but loss of information increases due to exposure of costs and pricing
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by providing different levels of product information visibility based on user roles and permissions. Employees can view product details and add items to carts, but financial information such as billing amounts and pricing details are selectively hidden or restricted. This allows employees to operate effectively for product selection while preventing unnecessary financial information exposure, balancing ease of operation with information security.
Data Source
AI summary
This document describes techniques, apparatuses, and systems for secured access management of shared storage resources. A first user issues a command to create a shared storage resource that is capable of saving an indication of products available for acquisition on a platform for later acquisition using a billing account with which the first user is authorized to acquire products. The first user issues a command to provide a second user a set of permissions that enables the second user to issue commands to add an indication of one or more products to the storage resource. Using the permission, the second user issues commands to add the indication of the one or more products to the storage resource. The one or more products can be acquired using the billing account based on the indication of the one or more products in the storage resource.