Date of Award

2018

Document Type

MA Project - Restricted Access (SIA Only)

Project Type

MA Project - Business Plan

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art Business

First Advisor

Roxanna Zarnegar

Abstract

As it exists today, the consignment process is extremely inefficient, with no system in place to track consignments as they move through the auction process. This problem persists for both the auction house internally and more significantly for the consignor. As it stands, consignors pass possession of their merchandise to the auction house by either shipping it in or having it picked up, and from that point onward there is virtually no communication between the consignor and the auction house as to the status of the consignment. Furthermore, auction houses have a hard time efficiently tracking consignments internally, and are forced to constantly communicate between departments to move the consignments along the process. The internal tools to keep track of consignments do not focus on automation and notifications and as such even if they can help keep track of consignments, they are overly dependent on communication and status checking.

TRAK is the first auction specific system that allows auction house employees to efficiently track the progress of consignments, update their progress and in real time send push notifications to other departments using automation. Furthermore, TRAK allows auction houses to share this consignment tracking data with the merchandises consignor. TRAK is designed to be a user friendly web based platform that can integrate with the auction houses’ internal system and thereby allow for maximum utility and ease in deployment.

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