Data platform for a financial market leader

Our client is a financial services firm whose digital landscape had grown apart over the years. Separate applications, separate interfaces, separate data sources. Your Tech Club brought them together in one data platform with one design language.

What was wrong with the existing systems?

They didn't talk to each other, and that cost money and usage. Every application had its own interface, its own login and its own way of naming things. Staff had to relearn where everything was in each system, and maintenance meant doing the same work in several places.

Analysts built dashboards that hardly anyone used, because the people who needed them couldn't access them or couldn't find them.

How did we approach it?

In phases, starting with research and ending with ongoing development. Each phase delivered something that made the next one concrete.

Research into behaviour and pain points

We analysed how staff actually use the existing systems and talked to stakeholders about their goals. That gave us a picture of where time is lost and what information people were missing.

UX design and user flows

Based on that research, we designed user flows and wireframes that remove the main bottlenecks and make interactions consistent across applications.

One design system across every application

At the heart of the solution is a shared design system: one set of components, colours, typography and patterns used in every application. It speeds up design and development. More importantly, a user who knows one application immediately understands the next.

Frontend and backend

The designs became responsive interfaces in React. On the back end, the new systems were integrated with the existing infrastructure, with attention to security, scalability and the performance standards the financial sector demands.

How does access to data work?

It is role-based and tied to existing Microsoft identities. Staff see the data that belongs to their role and user ID, without separate accounts or loose permission lists.

That is more than a security measure. Because access is always right, fund managers and decision-makers can go straight to the dashboards the analytics team builds.

What has it achieved?

The organisation names three outcomes of bringing everything together. They aren't measured figures, but what changed in day-to-day work.

• Lower operating costs

  One managed environment instead of separate systems: less duplicate maintenance, less integration work and less upkeep in multiple places.

• Higher adoption

  One recognisable interface across every tool. If you know one application, you understand the next, which lowers the barrier to adopting something new.

• Better decision-making

  Dashboards reach the people who make decisions with them, instead of staying with the team that built them.