Apttus
Intelligent Workflows and Approvals
AI-managed workflows and approvals for speed across the entire contract lifecycle
Role
UX Designer
Team
Key Contributions
1 UX Designer
1 Visual Designer
1 Product Manager
Cross-functional Leads
Customer research
Design thinking workshops
Contributed to design system
Duration
3 months
Background
Apttus has two key product solutions viz; Configure - Price - Quote & Contract Lifecycle Management. These solutions are designed for Sales representatives to configure products, determine the pricing strategy, and prepare a quotes for their customers. Once the customer agrees to purchase, a sales contract is initiated under the CLM solution. Both these workflows require multiple parties to provide their approvals based on various factors. To date, there was no automated solution for this problem.
Problems
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Experience was not user friendly
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Built like a old Salesforce view
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Redundant information visible
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Hard to find actions or modify requests
Research
We conducted remote research sessions with our customers to understand their workaround. We identified personals and their requirements based on this research. We then met with our internal stakeholders in a design thinking session.
Personas
1) Carl - the sales rep
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Preview all the items that triggered approval
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Check the status of entire approval process
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Ability to nudge/contact the approver
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Recall, resubmit, update the approval process
2) April - the approver
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Approve / Reject all
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View context information
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Contact the initiator
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Reassign the request to someone else
Design Thinking Workshop with Stakeholders
Process
Whiteboarding
Lo-fidelity Iterations
Hi-fidelity Designs
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Proof of Concepts for Customers
Our final deliverable was to give proof of concepts to customer for potential business deals. We created high fidelity design prototypes for each use case.
Scene 1
Carl has just finished creating a quote and would like approval before submitting. Below is his final preview screen.
Carl wants to let everyone know this is part of a larger $2.5M deal with IBM. It needs to close before the end of the month. Before sending the quote for approval, Carl sends a message to all the approvers.
Carl noticed multiple items were flagged for discounts exceeding 50%. By clicking “discount exceeds 50%” inside one of the items, he is able to view just those items, quickly view additional details, and even message the approvers.
While looking at the details of the item flagged for non-standard billing, Carl toggles between list view and card view.
Forty eight hours later, Carl receives an email with some questions about the non-standard payment terms in the quote. He clicks on a link in the email and launches into the in-flight experience, where he can see what is pending, who is responsible, and can take action.
Carl receives a message from Kevin stating he can approve the quote conditionally with quarterly renewals. Carl accepts the counter proposal from Kevin and the item is automatically approved and moved through the system.
Impact
Intelligent Workflows & Approvals was first released in our Sales Kick-off and we got raving reviews from internal sales reps. Customers got the update soon. The new-look was very much appreciated and the user experience team was called out to have played a great role when selling to new customers.
Thank You