Building OptiFlow: Our Journey Creating a SaaS for Opticians
The Spark: Why build for opticians?
Every local business has its own rhythm, but optical shops are unique. They are half medical clinic, managing complex eye prescriptions, and half retail store, managing fashionable frames, lenses, and accessories. When we looked at how local opticians in Morocco and neighboring countries managed their day-to-day work, we noticed a lot of paper folders, manual calculations, and phone calls to track orders.
That is why we started building optiflow.ma, a dedicated digital assistant for optical shops. Our goal was simple: take the paperwork away and give opticians more time to focus on their clients.
Step 1: Starting small and learning fast
When we wrote the first line of code, we focused on the absolute basics: keeping client records and storing eye prescriptions. But as we showed the prototype to real shop owners, we quickly learned that they needed much more. Opticians do not just need to know a client's eye measurements, they need to know if the frames are in stock, which supplier they ordered the lenses from, how much the client paid, and what the remaining balance is.
We realized that tracking the unpaid balance (the "reste à payer") is crucial for local shops. So, we built features to manage payments, print receipts, and format official invoices ready for health insurance (mutuelle) reimbursement. This initial phase taught us to listen closely to our users' actual daily workflow rather than guessing what they wanted.
The Mobile Hurdle: Fitting a store on a screen
Opticians do not spend their days sitting behind a computer. They walk around the showroom, show frames to clients, and check drawers. A software that only works on a desktop computer is not very helpful when you are standing in front of a display shelf.
We took on the challenge of making the entire platform mobile-friendly. We redesigned every page: transforming large database tables into clean, touch-friendly cards and replacing complex forms with simple, step-by-step fields. This allowed shop owners to look up a prescription, check an invoice, or view their dashboard directly from their phone or tablet while helping a customer.
Conquering the inventory chaos
Managing inventory in an optical store is surprisingly complex. A single frame model can come in multiple colors and sizes. Lenses are even more complicated, with spherical and cylindrical power values creating thousands of possible variations. Doing this manually is an inventory nightmare.
To solve this, we built a comprehensive stock movement system. Shop owners can now import their product catalogs in bulk using simple Excel sheets. We also integrated camera-based barcode scanning directly into the app. Making a barcode scanner work smoothly using a phone's built-in web camera presented several challenges, like dealing with slow video feeds and poor lighting. We solved this by adding autofocus guards and a toggle to turn on the device's flashlight directly from the screen, making stock lookups fast and reliable.
Going local (and then international)
Software is rarely one-size-fits-all, especially when it comes to business rules. In Morocco, businesses use specific identifiers like ICE, IF, and Patente on invoices. When we expanded OptiFlow to countries like Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, and Senegal, we had to adapt. Each country has different tax structures, currency formats, and health insurance layouts (like the INPE field for medical identification).
We updated our core architecture to detect the user's country and automatically adjust the currency, number formatting, and tax labels. Additionally, we added full translation support (including Arabic layout with Right-to-Left styling) so that every optician could work in their preferred language comfortably.
Staying connected with WhatsApp
Prescriptions expire, and orders take time to arrive. Keeping clients informed is key to running a successful shop. To make this easy, we integrated automated WhatsApp reminders. Instead of manually copying phone numbers and typing messages, opticians can now send custom pickup notifications and appointment reminders with a single click, using pre-formatted messages tailored for local numbers.
The Journey Continues
OptiFlow has grown from a simple client database into a complete, modern platform that helps local optical shops run smoothly. Every git commit in our history represents a real challenge solved for a real optician, whether it was fixing a barcode scanner issue, translating stock adjustments, or simplifying mobile navigation.
If you are interested in how we help optical shops digitize their business, feel free to visit optiflow.ma to learn more or request a demo!