Paper Form to Mobile Safety Reporting App in Less Than 6 Months

CLIENT

A multinational, Calgary-based midstream energy company.

PROJECT

Reimagine the way employees document safety reporting by eliminating paper forms and moving to an intuitive and efficient mobile application.

RESULTS

Successful roll-out of a Fiori-based application with over 1,100 downloads in the first week. Field workers now experience a nearly 70% reduction in time spent reporting safety incidents.

PROJECT INFORMATION

When an energy company needed guidance to develop creative solutions to their outdated safety reporting process, they decided to leverage Design Thinking workshops to find an alternative to their existing paper-based process. In the existing model, remote field workers were required to fill in paper cards to record incidents and given them to an administrator for processing when they returned to the office.

A version of this story is also available through the SAP AppHaus.

The Challenge

CREATE AN INTUITIVE AND EFFICIENT SAFETY REPORTING APPLICATION

Unfortunately, the paper form did not adequately capture all the necessary information to complete a safety report, resulting in further back-and-forth communication and making the process time-consuming and prone to error.

The design challenge was to create a mobile application that encouraged user adoption by making the new safety reporting easy, intuitive, and efficient.

IDENTIFY POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS AND COLLABORATE ON TANGIBLE SOLUTIONS

Led by workshop facilitator and UX specialist Alissa Sylvestre, the Design Thinking process enabled participants to unpack the challenge by identifying potential roadblocks, then collaborate on tangible solutions. Using maps and storyboards, workshop participants were able to share perspectives and obtain feedback in a new way – one that fostered empathy and creativity. From there, participants created paper prototypes, allowing them to experiment with their ideas and determine feasibility through user interaction and testing.

The AppHaus environment was crucial to the success of the project. By distancing themselves from their regular boardroom and entering a space conducive to collaboration and innovation, participants discovered new ways to solve problems and communicate with one another in order to meet a common goal. Using low-fidelity tools to sketch and prototype allowed them to physically interact with the ideas that were being discussed in a way they wouldn’t have been able to do in their traditional office.

The Solution

A MOBILE APPLICATION THAT ENABLES OFFLINE DATA CAPTURE FROM THE FIELD

With the new application, field workers can use their mobile device and work offline to complete their reporting quickly with embedded guidance on required information. Only relevant questions are presented to the user and they can see their progress as they move through the application.

The Results

RAPID ADOPTION WITH 1,100 DOWNLOADS IN WEEK ONE, AND A 70% TIME SAVINGS IN SAFETY REPORTING

The client piloted their application in just over three months after their workshop series. The thoroughness of the Design Thinking process – combined with the openness of the participants – made for a successful implementation. The pilot users were thrilled with the intuitiveness and efficiency of the application and when it became available for download company-wide, there were over 1100 downloads in less than one week.

And most importantly, field workers now enjoy a nearly 70 percent time reduction when they do their safety reporting, leading to a 60 percent increase in overall reporting compared to last year.

Alissa SylvestreVP User Experience & Design, ConvergentIS

"The Design Thinking process allowed our customer the ability to think creatively and come up with new, innovative solutions. As we were working collaboratively and voting on potential ideas, it really brought everyone together and eliminated a lot of back and forth. The end user feedback we received early on in the process highlighted what worked and what didn't, allowing us to quickly make changes, improve the design, and develop the application in a short amount of time."

Workshop ParticipantMidstream Energy Company

“We really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Design Centre. It helped get the creative juices flowing and created alignment between us. We felt like ConvergentIS really walked us through the Design Thinking process in a way that was comfortable and helped us see thinking in a way we otherwise wouldn't have.”

Project ManagerMidstream Energy Company

“Without a doubt, we picked the right implementation partner. We are really impressed with the quality of work and the low number of defects.”

Why ConvergentIS?

Our team comes from a variety of different operational backgrounds, meaning we understand how people work. We recognize SAP S/4HANA as an out-of-the-box solution that has successfully solved business problems across several industries. But we realize some work processes are still challenging to learn with so many capabilities available in SAP.

Leveraging the SAP design methodology, we have co-innovated with organizations to build solutions that match the way they work. Since many teams face the same problems, we packaged them and made them available as an out-of-the-box application. This means your business still receives many of the benefits of a tailored application without the cost of a custom solution.

FROM PAPER FORM TO SAFETY REPORTING APP IN <6 MONTHS