Softjourn

Case Study: Improve User Experience & Retention with a Reliable Configuration Team

We gathered two stellar configuration teams to ensure that the users of our client’s platform can customize their expense reporting.
ABOUT THE CLIENT:
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Project:Software Configuration Team Management
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Technologies:
The Challenge

Initially, the client wanted to have one team that would work on solving all configuration issues. However, it quickly became evident that it would be optimal to have two teams.

The Solution

With two teams handling configuration requests simultaneously, we helped our client to increase platform productivity, minimize errors, and offer better services overall.

The Benefits

The main benefits of configuration management include: 

  • Improved platform experience 
  • Better app performance 
  • Reduced risk of security breaches 
  • Maintenance cost reduction
  • Greater agility in problem-solving 
  • Quick restoration service 

The Need

Our client is a global leader in expense management and AP automation solutions based in the US. They are trusted by millions worldwide to make their users’ businesses better through their offerings of streamlining accounts payable processes, increasing productivity by automating travel expense control, and enforcing compliance.

Our partnership began in 2011, and since then, we’ve worked together to upgrade the client’s existing iOS and Android apps, design and develop a white-label mobile app, and have worked on a variety of other projects with their internal teams.

In software engineering, software configuration management (SCM) is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software and is key to maintaining the quality of the product.

While there are many teams working to keep a product up and running, the configuration team is directly responsible for solving issues and increasing productivity. 

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SCM is a part of every product development team and can help teams follow the changes in user requirements, policies, budgets, and other needs. It allows users to make changes to the system without creating holes in the budget or potential problems with code quality. 

Our client has a large expense management platform that serves thousands of users worldwide. They wanted a configuration team to ensure the quality of their platform and services as well as to support clients in customizing the platform to fit their needs. Our client had seen the proven results of working on projects with Softjourn over the span of many years, so they entrusted us to set up and implement a configuration team. 

Initially, the client wanted to have one team that would work on solving all configuration issues. However, it quickly became evident that it would be optimal to have two teams: a live team and an implementation team.

While both teams work on system configuration, the live team would also handle issues stemming from account setup, and the implementation team would work on setting up the environment for new users.

Each team has a Project Manager in charge of assigning tasks that are primarily related to backend technology, UI changes, and platform integrations. 

Once the teams were gathered, we assigned and organized their activities and processes. We set rules on how to record, track, and audit the configuration team’s activities, and then created a process to properly identify and record all changes related to user accounts.

We also made sure the teams would perform audits and tests to ensure there were no issues that could slip through that could jeopardize the system’s performance. While working, our teams relied on Java, Groovy, and SQL to efficiently solve issues.

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The Solution

Configuration management helps organizers systematically manage, organize, and control the changes in the document codes and other entities while setting up the platform environment for different users.

With two teams handling configuration requests simultaneously, we helped our client to increase platform productivity, minimize errors, and offer better services overall.

Some of the most common requests our team dealt with were related to changing the visibility of the fields in the expense management platform since different companies use their own unique documents and often need a specialized UI to make everything work. Also, admins also want to have different authorization levels, so not all of their users can access every document. 

Softjourn’s configuration team supported our client’s users in making UI changes so each business could have a customized solution. For example, if a user wanted to hide certain fields related to invoicing and add other fields for expense reimbursements, we can tailor the UI to fit their requirements. While some changes can be made through the admin dashboard, our configuration team was there to help when there were specialized needs that couldn’t be managed from the user-side.

The process our configuration team uses is straightforward:

  1. Receive and delegate requests. The PM receives requests from different users and distributes them around the team. 
  2. Add requested changes to the system. Once the developers sort out requests and find a way to fix the problem, they create code or make a change in the system to answer the request. 
  3. Perform quality assurance. Before uploading code to the system, developers check its quality as it must adhere to several standards. 
  4. Production. Changes are made and users can take advantage of the new personalized requirements in the expense management system they had requested. 

Beyond the configuration process, our two configuration teams are successfully solving hundreds of tasks each year to catch any irregularity, prevent escalations, measure productivity, as well as identify and solve potential problems before they occur. 

VAT Recovery Solution

Our teams can build an easier way to submit and approve VAT in E&T. Using rules and automation they can improve the process to make it more intuitive for all the parties involved. When users of the expense platform can simply open the dashboard, access the form, and attach receipts to their claims, populate certain fields with the right information and simply send the request to managers. 

The automated solution our experts for VAT in expense management provided our client has: 

  • Built-in triggers and alerts
  • Support for identifying VAT reclamations 
  • Automated approvals
  • Improved reporting
     

The Benefits

Configuration teams brings many benefits, especially for big platforms that offer a wide range of features and services. Since our client offers various tools for platform customization, our team’s prime goal was to help each user set up the system in the way that it would work best for them. 

The main benefits of configuration management include: 

  • Improved platform experience for users.
  • Better app performance due to timely detection and correction of improper configurations that can impact performance.
  • Reduced risk of security breaches or problems that can escalate.
  • Maintenance cost reduction by having detailed knowledge of configuration and product features. 
  • Greater agility in problem-solving enables our users to provide higher quality service and reduce software engineering costs. 
  • Quick restoration service in case of an outage, as everything is documented and automated. 

The importance of SCM is to ensure that two people can edit the same type of software at the same time. It provides a tool to check and follow every change to make sure they were executed consistently and correctly. Software configuration management also offers businesses a way to overcome risks as every time something changes, the team will mitigate the risks using a set of pre-established steps. 

The client was very satisfied with the team’s performance, especially since both teams could serve hundreds of users yearly to ensure they had all that was required for them to effectively engage with the client’s platform, thus increasing user retention rates. 

Conclusion

With Softjourn’s live and implementation team, our client feels confident that the performance of their expense management platform will always be at the highest level. They know that their users can easily reach out to our teams to improve their UI or add new features to their system. 

As our client expands their business, our team continues to grow with it. The client is very satisfied with how both teams perform, and this is exactly what partnering with a software provider should be about: working on great products and ensuring user satisfaction at every step.

If you want to learn more about Softjourn and how we can support you on your development path - please contact us

Partnership & Recognition

Softjourn's IAOP 100 award
Intix Member
Microsoft Gold Partner
Xamarin Authorized Consulting Partner
Monax Parntership
Softjourn in the Inc. 5000 list

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