company project · completed
Aara Consultancy CRM
Django-based education consultancy CRM — leads, students, customers, sales, invoicing, real-time chat, tasks, SWOT tests, notifications, and counselor leave management.
Super Admin — Applications dashboard
Student — CV upload portal
Problem
Education consultancies needed a unified CRM for lead tracking, student management, sales/invoicing, and counselor operations with real-time communication.
Solution
Built Aara Consultancy platform with Django REST API, Celery async tasks, Channels/WebSocket chat, and React frontend — covering the full consultancy sales and operations lifecycle.
Architecture
Django 5.1 + DRF + JWT backend with Celery, Channels/Daphne, Redis, MySQL, and React CRA frontend. Modular Django apps for leads, sales, chat, tasks, leave, and notifications.
Business Impact
Unified consultancy operations from lead capture through invoicing with real-time counselor collaboration.
Technical Decisions
- MySQL for relational CRM data with Django ORM
- Channels for WebSocket chat instead of polling
- Celery for PDF generation and notification dispatch
Feature Breakdown
Responsibilities
- Developed lead and student management modules with sales pipeline tracking
- Built real-time chat with Channels/WebSocket and Twilio integration
- Implemented sales/invoicing with PDF generation (WeasyPrint) and Excel export
- Created counselor leave/WFH module and SWOT testing features
Challenges
- Integrating real-time chat alongside traditional CRM sales workflows
- Managing complex lead-to-student conversion pipelines with multiple statuses
Performance Considerations
- Redis for Channels layer backing
- Celery for async PDF and notification jobs
Lessons Learned
- Django's app modularity maps well to CRM domain boundaries
- Celery + Channels combination handles both async tasks and real-time features effectively