Hayward Industries designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of pool equipment and associated automation systems in North America, Europe, and internationally.
The Challenge
Hayward Industries had been using a legacy approval tracking system to notify employees and collect approvals during the product change process. The legacy system was extremely manual, could not integrate with external tools, required expensive licensing, and did not meet the needs of the business. Hayward asked our team to review their current process, and build a new, automated process using Microsoft 365 and Power Apps.
Replace System
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Build a cloud-based system.
Reduce Entry Errors
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Integrate business intelligence to guide users.
Integrate with external systems
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Gather data from other applications and provide automated reporting.
Design
CyberMedics helped Hayward Industries analyze the legacy system and design an ideal solution.
We assessed the legacy system via process mapping, user interviews, and waste identification. Subsequently, we interviewed users to outline the features an ideal system would have:
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Automated reviewer identification
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User-friendly access
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Robust reporting for process issue detection
Develop
CyberMedics used Microsoft 365 to develop an Approval Tracking System that satisfied the needs of both the users and the business.
After grasping the current and ideal processes, CyberMedics developed a solution to meet business needs:
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No third-party tools: Limited to Microsoft Power Apps environment.
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Seamless workflow integration: Automating data import/export within existing change processes.
deliver
CyberMedics met frequently with the project team and end users to ensure a smooth transition from the old to new system.
We collaborated with Hayward to refine the new system, establishing dev, staging, and prod setups per ITIL guidelines. Workshops equipped Hayward's IT to customize and manage it. With team confidence in its performance, we were ready to assess its impact.
Impact
Working with Hayward, we ensured the impact was easy to measure and the project was worthwhile.
The focus on integration for the Approval Tracking System made it easy to identify the impact that the system had on the business. Some positive impacts included:
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Approval tracking metrics surfaced directly into existing management dashboards
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Less rejections due to incorrect approvers
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Quicker approval turnaround due to notification system
To help Hayward Industries, we needed to understand how the existing process was producing value as well as identify the wastes. Using that information, we would build a new system in the cloud that would enable the enterprise to handle change more effectively.
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Microsoft Power Apps based
Approval Tracking System
