🏁 The challenge

Rede Itaú is the largest payment processor in Brazil, with around 99 million clients across the country using its terminals. The Customer Support department at Rede Itaú is responsible for managing thousands of daily support tickets, which cover a variety of issues. These include technical issues, client inquiries regarding balances and sales transactions, and various service requests, such as advancing payment settlements and canceling sales.

Due to three main factors, the Customer Support business department decided to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP/CRM. The goal of this implementation was to:

• 🕰️ Eliminate 17 outdated legacy systems
  into one centralized platform for better data management.

• ⬇️ Reduce Average Handling Time (AHT)
  improving efficiency and boosting customer satisfaction (NPS).

• 🤩 Enhance the operator experience
  providing streamlined tools for faster, more effective service.
  
  

The project focused on converting and centralizing 12 workflows into Microsoft Dynamics over one year, with each journey requiring information from up to 17 different legacy systems, depending on the needs. Here, we’ll focus on the first journey “Advancing payment settlements”, which was the foundation of the project and guided all the next steps in terms of design decisions and workflow with stakeholders.

What is the Advancing payment Settlements workflow?

Rede Itaú Customers receive payments bi-weekly, with two set paydays each month based on their total sales during the period. To improve cash flow, Rede Itaú offers a service called Advancing Payment Settlements.

This service enables customers to access their sales payments before the scheduled paydays, though it incurs an additional cost calculated as a percentage of the total income.

What is Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a suite of business applications that companies can configure, customize, and leverage to enable a high-performance ecosystem. It functions as an interconnected CRM, ERP, and productivity suite that integrates your unique processes, data, and business logic.

Dynamics 365 integrates with other Microsoft products like Office 365, Teams, and Azure, making it a highly customizable and scalable modular solution for businesses of all sizes.

For each workflow, I structured a 4-week design phase, focusing on research, prototyping, and refinement with stakeholders. Usability tests were conducted after completing six workflows, considering the complexity of coordinating with operator users in customer support operations.

A large global insurance company wanted to explore new ways to provide value to SMEs – Small and Medium-sized food businesses (such as restaurants and bakeries) considering the low client rates in this sector, compared to other business sectors already well covered by the company.

The strategy to migrate a single workflow into
Dynamics 365 in 3 Weeks:

Wireframing

Wireframe helps the team organize and clarify the main design structure by dividing the screen into the primary workflow on the left and supporting information on the right. It also allows us to map out the TO BE user flows, providing clear design direction for the project’s next steps.

Each column stands for one system

The Power of Regular Communication with Stakeholder

As a design team lead, I was responsible for fostering systematic communication between the design team and stakeholders, ensuring our work was aligned with project goals and deadlines while considering the limitations of Microsoft Dynamics 365 directly with Tech Leads. By promoting a “Lean UX” mentality, I helped the team and stakeholders learn quickly, adapt, and drive continuous improvement.

Building the Foundation for Future Phases

Through this initial step, we learned, refined, and laid a solid foundation for the project’s next phases. This involved defining the core design structure and establishing key touchpoints with both stakeholders and operators.

The importance of being available during the design implementation

As part of the design handoff process, design teams must be available during design implementation, even when agreements are in place. Challenges can arise as developers work, and our presence allows us to adapt quickly.

Them… A Few Lessons for Junior Designers

We Are the Usability Expert, the PM is not.

As designers, our role is to explore deeper into the problems presented by stakeholders who often come to us with a preliminary solution based on their own ideas.

Project managers typically suggest possible solutions while explains the problem, it’s crucial that we do not simply implement what the PM has said. Instead, we must understand the real issues behind these suggestions to ensure we provide the best solutions that truly address user needs.

Squads Means Horizontal Management and Autonomy

We should challenge the notion that squad members are in charge and that we must simply accept their proposals. They are our peers, and they rely on our expertise to suggest ideas, ask questions, engage in discussions, and promote design practices that improve usability.