Emeka OkonkwoRedesigning Fault-Raising for a CRM Migration
Redesigning the fault-raising architecture for a utility company's CRM migration, replacing error-prone manual processes with structured, validation-led decision flows.
The Challenge
Utility Warehouse had paid £1 million in fines the previous year for incorrectly dispatched engineers. Over 40% of fault submissions required manual correction, and advisers had no way to know whether a ticket was complete enough to action downstream. The legacy system relied on manual fault-code entry with no validation, so errors passed downstream unchecked and duplicate tickets were common. The company was migrating from its legacy CRM (BILL) to a new platform, William, which created both the necessity and the opportunity to redesign the fault architecture from first principles.
The Solution
I redesigned the fault architecture around decision quality rather than screen polish. Progressive disclosure surfaced only the relevant diagnostic path at each stage, context-aware guidance replaced free-text interpretation, and inline validation caught errors before escalation. Structured ticket submission replaced the open templates that had let incomplete tickets through.
There was pressure to replicate the legacy workflows to accelerate migration, but the inefficiencies were embedded in the legacy logic itself. I advocated for redesigning from first principles so the interface took responsibility for decision quality instead of leaving it to individual judgement.
My Approach
- 1
Mapped the full operational journey across residential and business broadband, home phone flows, diagnostic checkpoints, escalation triggers and engineer handover criteria.
- 2
Ran cross-functional workshops with advisers, engineers and operations leadership to understand where errors were propagating and why.
- 3
Challenged the pressure to replicate legacy workflows for a faster migration, advocating to redesign the fault architecture from first principles.
- 4
Introduced progressive disclosure, context-aware guidance and inline validation so the interface took responsibility for decision quality.
- 5
Replaced open free-text templates with structured ticket submission to stop incomplete tickets reaching second-line engineers.
Inside the Redesign
A closer look at how fault-raising evolved — from an unvalidated legacy CRM form where errors propagated downstream to a structured, validation-led decision flow that took responsibility for ticket quality.
