AlphaCredit, a leading loan company, relied on outdated legacy systems that were not designed to support modern digital applications. These systems created significant challenges in integrating new features and enhancing customer engagement, especially as the company sought to expand its digital services.

With over 200,000 customers still using older systems, AlphaCredit needed a solution that could bridge the gap between their legacy infrastructure and a new mobile platform, ensuring a seamless customer experience while maintaining the integrity of critical financial data. This called for a strategic, phased approach to modernize their systems and enhance customer interaction through digital channels.

AlphaCredit faced a significant technological challenge. The company relied heavily on legacy systems built with technologies which are not used anymore in the tech industry, including old APIs and an complex data model.

These systems were not designed to support the seamless integration required for modern mobile applications, resulting in communication issues and limiting the potential for customer engagement through new digital channels.

The primary goal was to enable a new feature, "Repayments spreading" allowing customers to spread their payments directly through the mobile application while ensuring a smooth integration of the legacy system with the new mobile platform.

Also to increase the users on the mobile application, one of our challenges was to import customers from old systems in the mobile platform representing more than 200k users.

The solution centered around the development of the "Repayments spreading" also called “Instalment” feature within the mobile application, enabling customers to easily manage their credit repayments and customer imports through:

User-Friendly Interface: A streamlined, intuitive interface within the mobile app allowed customers to view their loan details and set up instalment plans. This feature was built with a focus on simplicity and ease of use, ensuring that all customer interactions were seamless.

Data Synchronisation and Integrity: Implementing a robust data synchronisation mechanism ensured that data from the legacy systems was accurately reflected in real-time on the mobile application. This was achieved through the intermediary API layers, which handled data translation and ensured consistent data flow between systems.

Security Enhancements: Given the sensitive nature of financial data, additional security measures were integrated to protect customer information during data exchange and storage. This included encryption protocols and secure authentication methods.

When implementing the "Instalment" feature and integrating it across AlphaCredit’s various partners, a careful non-technical approach was essential to ensure smooth adoption. Given the diverse requirements and complexity, the focus was on gathering clear, prioritised requirements while also managing the phased integration of users. This approach enabled the project to address the unique needs of different stakeholders and ensured a controlled, step-by-step rollout across the organisation. By starting with a small group of users and expanding only after successful validation, the project mitigated risks and laid a strong foundation for broader adoption.

In the non-technical aspect of the project, the requirements definition phase was crucial, especially given the involvement of multiple stakeholders across various partners. As the functional analyst, I facilitated workshops with our team and stakeholders to gather detailed input on their specific needs and business processes. Instead of defining requirements in isolation, we adopted a collaborative approach that ensured all stakeholders had a voice in shaping the core functionality of the system.

However, recognising the complexity of aligning diverse operational workflows across multiple entities, we prioritised defining a minimum viable product (MVP) that focused on the shared, critical functionality required by all partners. This allowed us to create a streamlined set of requirements that could be expanded upon later.

Given the varied user base spread across different entities, our strategy involved a phased rollout of the solution. We chose to integrate a small subset of users from a select number of partners in the initial deployment phase. This pilot group acted as a testing ground for the system, enabling us to identify any potential issues or user experience challenges early on.

Once we ensured the stability of the system and received positive feedback from this initial cohort, we then scaled the solution to include users from additional partners and/or entities. This gradual integration approach allowed for controlled risk management, ensuring that any unforeseen problems could be addressed before broader implementation, while also building confidence among stakeholders across the organisation.

The successful implementation of the "Instalment" feature led to significant positive outcomes for AlphaCredit:

Enhanced Customer Experience: Customers now had the flexibility to manage their loan payments directly through the mobile application, leading to increased customer satisfaction and engagement.

Increased Portfolio Growth: The ability to easily import customers into the mobile application facilitated a broader adoption of digital services, contributing to substantial growth in the mobile user base and the overall loan portfolio.

Legacy System Modernisation: While the legacy systems remained in place, the introduction of modern interfacing techniques set a foundation for future technology upgrades and integrations, improving the company's readiness for further digital transformation.

This project demonstrated the effectiveness of a strategic, phased approach in integrating legacy systems with new technologies, providing a blueprint for similar initiatives in the future.