Prospective SAP partners were unable to see their application status after applying for the PartnerEdge program. The PartnerEdge Application Tracker is a tool created to allow applicants visibility into the recruitment process as well as access to additional support.
A feature design created for SAP partners
Design Lead
Kevin Chiang
Hsu Huang
Wasiullah Syed
SAP has a partnership ecosystem program that allows approved companies to provide customized solutions with the title of SAP Partner. However, the existing experience provides applicants with limited visibility into their application status. After applying, applicants would need to wait to be contacted by a SAP representative or would have to open a ticket to inquire about their application status.
As part of our research methods, one-hour moderated interviews were conducted with four Partner Managers. Participants were globally recruited to identify key issues and insights regarding the recruitment process. As well, SAP support agents were also interviewed as these individuals were the primary contact dealing with application status inquiries.
After conducting interviews with key stakeholders, the following key issues were identified.
The approval process takes a long time so interviewees found it frustrating that there is a lack of easy-to-access updates. This poor communication leads to lower confidence in SAP and the partnership program.
Accessible information does not detail the different steps that will occur during the application process often leading to applicant uncertainty and confusion.
Support agents struggle with complex internal processes and have to communicate with applicants using long email chains which requires extra effort and time.
The available support options are generic and do not address partner-specific issues. Applicants are looking for more curated and relevant content.
While developing the Application Tracker, the design was faced with some technical constraints. The initial design intended for users to search for applications according to partner names. However, this method largely increased the scope and technical efforts of the project, so an alternative was required. After discussions with key stakeholders, it was discovered that other identifiers such as PRM and CRM IDs were alternative values that had been previously used to find partners and would satisfy the needs of our search function.
The tracker’s home page was designed to support different users and scenarios. For example, applicants can have multiple applications being processed at once with varying statuses. Thus, the design for the home page needed to be adaptable and modular to fit the needs of the given user.
While support agents were defaulted with a search bar, this feature was hidden for applicants since application results were automatically generated based on the user account.
The design intends to communicate where the applicant is in their journey by allowing the user to cycle through a timeline, identifying what is completed, in-progress or has yet to be started. Each of these sections contains brief explanations to familiarize users with the process and shows what to expect.
Applicants can review their submitted application information through the Application Summary tab. This tab also allows support agents with essential applicant details that can be referenced while providing assistance.
Originally, there was no clear method for PartnerEdge applicants to access support. As such, these applicants would commonly contact an SAP representative through email, resulting in long email chains. To minimize the amount of email threads, a Support tab was created. The tab contains frequently asked questions that were identified during user interviews, as well as a contact form. By clicking on the contact form, a support ticket will be automatically generated with the essential metadata. This improves efficiency for both applicant and support agents.
Initial feedback from support agents and applicants were positive. Many of the initial users found the application to be a great tool for communicating and informing applicants, while also assisting support agents in their workload. The application tracker is intended to be used internationally so gathering insights from participants globally was essential in defining the final design. As such, I was able to gain experience performing user research with global participants and better understand the laborious efforts needed to source professionals for interviews.