Complete IT System for a Start Up

A start-up company in the debt collection industry who needed a complete IT system to help manage their communications, reporting, payments and customer management approached us after reviewing options to buy or develop. As a new business, cost control and a phased delivery were important to keep entry costs low, whilst delivering on time and to budget. With limited internal resource and a unique business process not supported by off-the-shelf applications, we were able to provide a strong foundation to get their business off the ground and a road map for additional functionality going forward.

Requirements

Technology - our client requested to utilise the latest technology, including Cloud-based applications and delivery methodologies to future proof their business.
Quality Module – to ensure they are complying with their strict regulatory controls, our client wanted to automate their quality process through AI.
Time Constraint - to start making a return on their investment, they needed the business to be live and taking payments within 9 months.
AI Trends & Analytics – to undertake analysis of all their interactions, our client wanted the reporting of trends, findings and exceptions to be managed by AI to support their continuous improvement of processes.
Single Version of the Truth - our client wanted to use automation and integrate all their processes into each other in order to ensure the accuracy of figures and results.

Solution

We split the project into 6 interconnecting modules:

Bespoke CRM - allows our client to effectively monitor and manage their customers’ journey with them. The system logs and tracks all communications, payments and updates to customer accounts.
Omni-Channel Platform – allows our client to be able to have customer interactions through telephone and web chat whilst integrating all comms into the CRM for seamless data exchange and interactions.
Customer Portal – lets customers self-serve and choose different payment options to suit them. The portal reduces the cost of delivery by freeing up agents time to support customers who prefer or need a more personal service.
BI Models & Reporting – we created models to allow our client to pre-score any potential inventory before purchase to allow them to understand the value and expected ROI, as well as further models to be used operationally ongoing.
Marketing & Communications Platform - integrated marketing platform & reporting which allows for the creation of email, SMS and letter campaigns (case study)
QA / Compliance – AI backed tools to ensure compliance at every stage, any problems can quickly be raised and rectified to lessen downtime.

To achieve this, we used 3-layer architecture, comprising of Angular, C# and SQL, along with a RESTful Swagger (v7) based API. We provided formal project management in order to adhere to the strict timelines we were under as well as meeting the budget requirements. By undertaking rigorous testing using Test Driven Development (TDD) we were able to optimise the infrastructure for scalability, performance and as a stress test solution. We wanted not only for the backend functionality to be seamless, but also for the frontend to be visually appealing and user friendly, for this we incorporated UI / UX development using Figma Prototypes to help envisage and incorporate prototypes.

We delivered the full project on time and within budget, and we will continue to work with the company to offer ongoing support and any future development needs.