TD Africa is a  pioneer ICT distributor in West Africa and currently represents global brands like HP, Microsoft, IBM, Huawei, Dell EMC, Cisco, D-Link, Huawei, Lenovo, Infinix, Tecno, Nokia amongst others.

Their subsidiary, TDPlus which has proven competence in the deployment of solutions, maintenance and after-sales support to mobile device users in the West African sub-region required a web based app that could improve the after sales service support process for customers who had devices that need support in and out of warranty

Getting started

I led the product design on the project and commenced by reaching out the to TDAfrica and TDPlus teams and other OEM Stakeholders to understand the problem and their current business processes aimed at tackling it. These conversations gave me a proper sense of what a lot of customers have been dealing with in terms of getting Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) after sales support. This influenced the entire information architecture of the problem as well as the business and customers journey

Design process

I decided to utilize the elements of Lean UX in this project, allowing for quick iteration and clear productivity through the design process. This process relies heavily on teamwork and documentation, and with that it will drive the rest of the design process. Communication, collaboration, and iteration were the three main ingredients when creating the design solutions for this platform.

I worked closely with the team at TDAfrica who did provide great feedback and insight as we built this. and i rapidly utilized the elements of Lean UX, Think, Make and Check

User flow

We had a couple of meetings where we worked on the user flow together and produced different iterations of the user journey. this focused on the basic functionalities of the platform

Low fidelity prototypes

I decided to digitally transform the sketches before making high fidelity mockups as this enabled the team and stakeholders implement fixes and changes technically at an early stage

Authentication

Only authorized admins who have been provisioned can access the platform, they can login to access their dashboards and request for a password reset

TDPlus admin dashboard

The dashboard for the TDPlus admin gives them an overview of the all job support tickets as well as links to perform administrator tasks. Administrators range from technical support staff to engineers etc.

Creating a support job ticket - warranty check

When a customer walks into any of the TDPlus support service centers, the admin will investigate the device and go ahead to search the devices database to confirm the device warranty status before creating a support ticket for the job.

Devices with warranty

If a customers faulty device serial search returns a result and the warranty status the ticket is created with a warranty status

Devices not found

If a faulty device serial search returns no result, then the device support ticket is created with no warranty and the customer is liable to pay additional repair fees before a ticket is created.

Creating a support job ticket

If a device serial search returns a result and the warranty status the ticket is created with a warranty status. After the ticket is created the admin can print a copy, track the ticket and make a part order where a part needs to be procured for replacement

Creating a support job ticket - devices without serial

If a device serial search doesn't return a result, then the device isn't captured in the database and will have to be processed by the admin uploading the purchase receipt for the device for it to be manually verified for warranty checks and processed.

Search and update support tickets

Close a support ticket

Admin dashboards and analytics

Email templates

Outcome

With the large market share of Devices, Laptops and Tablets that TDAfrica handles, The TDPlus Platform surely has impacted their after care support turnaround time.

In a few months since launch they have noticed tremendous improvements and reduction in the turn around time in their support and fulfillment processes.

Notable results

Over 70% reduction in device support wait time across board

An increase of over 300% in device parts order requests response time from third party OEM’s due to instant notifications

A reduction in the average device support fix time from 5 weeks to 2 weeks amongst others