Dell Technologies
The Dell APEX offering combines on-premises, pay-per-use infrastructure servers and storage with cloud-based managed resources.
The problem
The current Apex workflows for procuring, purchasing and monitoring were built outside of the Dell ecosystem. It was my teams task to design how it would look and feel under the existing Dell.com account. As lead designer on the project I was responsible for:
Planning all design activities
Facilitating all workshops
Producing all design deliverables
As our team was newly recruited into Dell, we had a steep learning curve. I took charge of the design team, of 3 designers, and lead discovery workshops with key Dell stakeholders documenting everything in Miro.
During the discovery workshops we uncovered pre existing research on the workflows highlighting key pain points with the current process. I was able to use this information to not only move the functionality over but to build a better system that met the needs of the users.
Research
Ideation
Before jumping into designs and Figma I ran co design sessions with the other designers on the team, where we mapped out the customer experience and architecture of the system. This gave the team a clear vision and alignment on the new features that we would be designing. It also gave the team a chance to align with the needs of the business.
The solution
The solution designed went above and byond the initial ask from business to lift and shift the functionality and went on to address key user pain points and new features to help customers and the Dell Sales team.
Communications
I designed into the workflows a chat system that facilitated communication between the customer and the Dell sales team at all stages of the process. Procurring cloud infrastructure is complex and customers need help, having instant access to the Dell Sales team helps to decrease the time to value.
The procurement of Cloud Infrastructure is a team sport for Dell customers. The new system facilitated customers to have multiple people be part of the process. It also enabled conversations between the different roles within the customer organisation eg FinOps talking with Cloud Engineer. This enabled customers to complete the process faster and more efficiently.
Multiple roles
Flexible workflows
We knew multiple people would need to interact with the process at different stages so I designed a way for users to easily stop and start the process, pass it over to another person or simply come back to the process when they had the time.
Transparency
From the research it was clear users were struggling to understand at what stage of the process they were at and ultimately when their subscription would be up and running. I designed a system with clear communications from Dell to the customers informing them of status and any details required from them.
