Problem

Setting up new trading accounts for clients is a complex process, requiring coordination across different internal teams and systems as well as the requesting organisation.

For our client, some parts of the process were automated but some were still manual or required dual keying of information, where other parts required specific knowledge and skills to be able to complete the necessary tasks in a timely manner in line with regulations.

The underlying systems had been built and improved incrementally over time and naturally had differing user interfaces and flows which created friction for the end-user.

Overall, this left the account setup process slow, error-prone, at times frustrating for end-users and costly.

Solution

We followed a user-centred design process, working with system and business contacts to define a vision of the future state product suite. We conducted user interviews, created lo-fidelity wireframes and then visual designs so all project stakeholders could understand and buy in to that vision without the need for heavy investment.

We set up the programme; recruiting, building and managing a set of agile development teams; and managing them throughout project delivery, operational acceptance and transition to business as usual. We created governance processes to ensure engagement from all key stakeholders.

The technical implementation was composed of

• a workflow engine to control high-level request connectivity and request management
• a business rules engine to encapsulate complex business rules, evaluate system routing and API coverage
• wider APIs in downstream systems to increase volumes of requests that were candidates for STP
• integration with Alert, then owned by Omgeo, to automate request generation
• a full style guide to enable development teams to adopt a consistent user interface that would be familiar with front, middle and back-office teams.