Introduction
In an era where it is uncommon for physical stores to have an online presence most of the more mature online retailers face a particular cash reconciliation problem – one that becomes particularly challenging when the retailer offers cash on delivery (COD) as one of their payment options. This option has proven to be quite popular amoung consumers and in turn, created a headache for online retailers when reconciling goods delivered with cash received.
This article aims to explore how we built a cloud-first reconciliation platform that gave online retailers greater insights into their daily accounting.
The client brief
Our client is one of South Africa’s largest online retailers with a vast distribution network and a fleet of delivery drivers that operate in just about every corner of South Africa. Customers have the option of paying COD for goods. Delivery drivers had to ensure that the cash they collected upon delivery was equal to the sale price of the goods being delivered and then deposit their intake at a nearby distribution centre. Distribution centres recorded all deposits on paper and would manually do reconciliations at the end of the day. This end-of-day process would take anything from two to five hours depending on the day’s activity. One can only imagine the human errors that would delay this process during busy periods such as Black Friday or the build-up to Christmas and other festivities throughout the year.
The client often found their reconciliation to be miscalculated, had conflicts when making drivers aware that they are short on a particular day, and ultimately the business would suffer as losses could not be prevented early on in the process.
“We need a digital, near real-time solution that gives us insight into our balance throughout the day. We want to know exactly where we stand at any time during the day and not only at the end of the day”
Our approach
Our client already had a paper-based process in place. The move from a paper-based process to a digital workflow isn’t as daunting as one might think. If your processes are already well documented then implementing management software that will remove paper in favour of digital records, will be fairly straightforward. The existing process enabled us to create a cloud-first platform that met their exact requirements.
Visually mapping out the process
In order to get an intimate understanding of the existing process we find it of cardinal importance to talk to the key users and stakeholders of the process in doing so we also uncover a lot of shortcuts(“optimisations”) the key users on the ground do in order to speed up their process. Visually mapping out the process is a form of low-fidelity prototyping, it helps us visualise what is currently being done, who does it, and what the outcomes are of their actions.
This visual representation becomes the driving factor underpinning workshops about digital optimisations and what the “perfect” software system should cater for. It ensures that everyone is on the same page and that everyone speaks to the same problem set.
Low fidelity prototyping
Using the visual process map as input to this step, in our experience we found it important to show the client how their existing process would “look” like on a screen in a software system encompassing their requirements. These low-fidelity wireframes make it easy for us to communicate our ideas to the client and enable them to provide instant feedback that can be incorporated into the prototype before we start writing a single line of code.
We get to a near-perfect solution that the client is happy with, they know exactly what to expect, and there’s no uncertainty or doubt that we do not understand the problem set. At this point, they could imagine themselves using their future system before it even manifested.
Building the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The MVP is an iteration of the product that contains just enough features to be usable by the client who can then in turn provide feedback for further development early on in the process. The build of the MVP is now inspired by the low-fidelity prototype and it is an artefact that we want to iterate over as fast as we possibly can in order to get it into the hands of our users as soon as possible.
After the release of the first iteration, the clients’ users were able to log in and click through their paper-based process online using their new system. They were able to visually interact with it online, form early cognitive paths and relate the digital interface to their paper process. After this iteration, we then developed each sub-process to the point where production-level data could be used to stress test certain scenarios. Ultimately arriving at a destination where the paper-based process is now fully incorporated into a digital equivalent and the users are super confident in using the digital version. This confidence is important and can be developed by including key users and stakeholders very early on in the process, reducing the amount of time required to do user training.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
As the cash-reconciliation system took shape after every sprint we got to a line in the sand where we could start the formal process of asking our key users and stakeholders to test all their scenarios on the platform in a bid for us to fully transition from the paper-based system to the online one.
We allowed for a week of testing and a week of feedback. The outcome of this was fewer process-related bugs and fewer suggestions simply because the users have been involved throughout the process. Their sign-off was our green light to release the system into production and gave them the confidence to burn their papers in celebration!
Conclusion
Transitioning from paper-based processes is a daunting task, simply because there is a lot of paper and it’s not uncommon to miss something.
The importance of visually mapping out the process cannot be overlooked it will save a lot of time in the future.
Include the key users and stakeholders early on in the process to ensure that the right solution is delivered on time and according to what they client wants.
