Upgrading outdated systems to Microsoft Dynamics 365

Rissier Del Giudice

Project Manager

User Researcher

UX Designer

FigJam

Figma

Microsoft Dynamics 365

🏁 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🎯 Eliminate 17 outdated legacy systems -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 a single platform for better data management.

🎯 Reduce Average Handling Time (AHT) -

To improve efficiency and boosting customer satisfaction (NPS).

🎯 Enhance the operator experience -

To provide 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.

🧠 My role

As Product Design Lead:

I defined the end-to-end UX strategy, aligned with the Product Managers and business objectives.

I guided two designers in conducting interviews, prototyping, and usability tests, providing technical direction based on the UX strategy;

I managed stakeholder relationships by regularly delivering status reports and advocating for design decisions

I established the design handoff process, ensuring smooth and regulary collaboration with development teams.

⚙️ Design Approach

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.

Strategy to convert and centralize a single workflow into Dynamics 365 in 4-weeks:

The First Steps to Insight

The first month was dedicated to empathizing with users and stakeholders to understand their key problems and goals from their perspectives. The team also focused on exploring the design capabilities, possibilities, and limitations of Microsoft Dynamics regarding UX Design. Then, each workflow followed its own research process to gain a deeper understanding of its unique elements

To start the research, the team established the following steps:

4 Internal Interviews - with Product Managers and Tech Leads

4 External Interviews - with Operational leads and Operators

1 week for Desk Research - to understand Microsoft Dynamics 365

By converging the insights from the previous stage, we consolidated our findings into two main user profiles, the mapping of the operator’s ‘As Is’ workflow for Advancing Payment Settlements, and four usability drivers for the project. These tools guided us in creating the initial wireframes.

User profiles

Usability Drivers for the Project

The usability drivers were adaptations of some of Nielsen’s heuristics, tailored to the project’s specif. They were employed throughout the whole project to support design decisions.

Mapping the “AS IS” Workflow

The flow illustrates three different legacy systems used by the operator to assist the client in the Advancing Payment Settlements workflow. The systems are: PRC; CICS, and Workflow (system name)

Wireframe studies

Wireframing 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.

The Power of Regular Communication with Stakeholders

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.

Hi-Fidelity Prototype: Advancing Payment Settlements Workflow

After the usability test sessions using low/mid-fidelity prototypes, the feedback helped the team make crucial design decisions that shaped the entire project.

Explore the full interactive prototype below.

View Interactive Prototype >>

✅ Partial Results

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.

Gaining Support Through Visibility

Operations Managers quickly recognized the value it could bring to their work by the first usability test. This understanding made it much easier to gain their support and collaborate on key design activities, such as usability tests, focus groups, and 1:1 interviews for the next steps.

📜 Conclusions and Learnings

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:

Designers are the Usability Experts, 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 Mean 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.

Design Beyond Requested Demands

It’s our responsibility to encourage and promote design practices that go beyond what the squad asks for. We need to show how our expertise can add more value to everyday operations and contribute to better decisions and outcomes.

For example: Promoting Usability Tests, Competitors Benchmarking, Data Analysis, and more…

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Posted Dec 28, 2024

The project centralized 12 workflows into Microsoft Dynamics in one year, integrating data from up to 17 legacy systems in one single system.

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Banco Itau