Product Classification Solution

Inaccurately classifying products according to regulatory requirements can lead to significant business challenges and risks such as cross-border delays, fines and penalties. The VMware product classification system enables Product Release Managers to easily submit their product releases for global trade classification.

Organization:
VMware

Industry:
Information Technology

Screenshot of Product Classification Tool

Status Quo

In VMware’s quest for an efficient PCQ process, they turned to a third-party SaaS application. Yet, as the story unfolded, challenges emerged like shadows in the night: soaring costs from regulatory changes, frustrating user interactions, slow performance, lack of collaboration capabilities, and poor integration with existing product release-related tools. These pain points were uncovered using a mix of discovery research methodologies.

Mapping out new flows

Based on a thorough deep dive into understanding the problem and engaging in collaborative activities with the legal and trade compliance teams, new user flows were mapped out to ensure that every step in the user journey is well thought out, optimized and documented for the new design.

Image showing user flows for Product Release Managers and Trade Compliance Officers

Designing the details

High-fidelity prototypes were created and tailored to each identified user role and the admin console was also created. These new designs leverage established terminologies across the user groups. They also played a dual role, informing both the planning and execution of usability testing, as well as the design-to-development workflow, using VMware’s Clarity Design System.

Screenshot of Product Classification Tool in light mode
Screenshot of request and questionnaire pages

Status Management

Develop a comprehensive status management system featuring clear visual cues displayed on the homepage and questionnaire pages. These intuitive indicators eliminated the need for external assistance for progress report.

Status Management phases
Status Management phases

Historical view

I maximized the real estate on the homepage to offer users a comprehensive view of all submitted requests across various statuses, enabling access to historical data.

Screenshot of historical view

Easy request submission

I designed a simplified PCQ request process, leveraging integration with existing product release tools, thereby eliminating manual entry of product-related information.

Screenshot of product selection process

Business Impact

Reduced Cost: More than $400,000 saved annually in license and enhancement costs.

Strategic Capabilities: Scalability, smooth communication and end-to-end integration with other systems are strategic advantages that were a result of the new PCQ platform

Data Privacy: With PCQ becoming an internal application, VMware got control over all PCQ-related data creation, access, modification and deletion.

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