Resume

Anytime, Anywhere Approvals

How I saved the business valuable time during the approvals process, so they can approve purchases instantly.

Project Overview

The business needed the purchase approvals function in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to be improved. The project was assigned to me to perform the necessary UX Analysis, assemble a team and deliver a solution.

My Role: Product Designer

Projects: Enterprise Resource Planning Purchase Approvals App

Client: AltaGas

Tools used: InVision

Business Impact

With the Mobile Approvals application in place, the business was able to:

Enable users to log in securely from any device, anywhere without need to be on VPN or using specially imaged hardware.
Enable users to more easily see why an approval is not progressing, and to choose an alternative route, thus rescuing the process.
Reduce the time taken to action an approval, especially timely approvals at the end of a work week or across a weekend. (The company often would give employees Friday off in conjunction with a holiday Monday, which would mean at least four elapsed days without approval.
Bonus: Users mentioned that because it was a better interface than the ERP, they would rather use the Approvals application for certain tasks than the legacy system.

Approach

I needed resources and recommended a UX Design approach. Since we were light on UX resources, I pulled in a team from an external supplier who were well versed in UX methods.

As UX Architect I determined that Lean UX would be an appropriate method to use.

Lean UX encourages use of the scientific method to form hypotheses based on assumptions, and then validate or adjust as facts are discovered through research.

Problem Definition

As UX Architect I orchestrated and directed the UX Discovery to define the Problem Statement.

We conducted user interviews and created high-level personas.

With the knowledge we had gained, we held a problem definition workshop.

We defined the goals of the system and pondered why we were not meeting those goals and how we could measure success to overcome those challenges.

Problem Statement

Purchase approvals were originally designed to be done as part of the ERP process flow to provide appropriate and timely approvals for purchases, based on the magnitude of the expense.

We have observed that the product isn’t meeting our expectations for the following reasons:

it requires a VPN connection on a corporate laptop when outside to office
it cannot be done on a mobile device
it is cumbersome to use
which is causing delays in approvals for our business.

How might we enable our users to access the system and do all pending approvals quickly so that our customers are more successful based on being able to access their approvals securely from any device, anywhere and make all pending approvals within 24 hours of receiving them?

Purchase approvals were originally designed to be done as part of the ERP process flow to provide appropriate and timely approvals for purchases, based on the magnitude of the expense.

We have observed that the product isn’t meeting our expectations for the following reasons:

it requires a VPN connection on a corporate laptop when outside to office
it cannot be done on a mobile device
it is cumbersome to use
which is causing delays in approvals for our business.

Design System

Prototype

The prototype was developed by our development partner. It was reviewed in regular product demos (using InVision) in the early stages of the project. In the later stages the actual product being developed was demonstrated.

User Testing

Once the prototype was showing signs of completion, we ran some user testing sessions to ensure that the UI was intuitive.

I love this part of the process, because you are able to connect with real users of the system, not just the project sponsors and leaders. It helps empathize with the day to day users, get great feedback, identify issues with the design early and work on better solutions before committing to development.

At this stage we were able to demonstrate use on different devices to test the responsive layout of the application.

Build. Iterate. Integrate.

Armed with feedback we took what we learned from users, and used that to fuel new ideas to solving issues in the user interface and to improve the flow of the application.

Behind the scenes I worked with the technical team to plan the architecture of the integration with the ERP tool, JD Edwards.

When finally implemented, the app became the first secure solution available outside the firewall enabling it to be used anywhere on any device.