— ROLE
Research
Design
Prototyping
Build
— SOFTWARE
Sketch
InVision
Illustrator
Photoshop
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Community Cloud
Salesforce Experience Builder
— TEAM
1 UX Designer
1 Project Manager
3 Software Engineers
Challenge:
Procurement across five UMass campuses and the Office of the President was fragmented, inefficient, and costly — with no central way to access documents, track requests, or manage software licenses.
Outcome/Solution:
I led the design of a Salesforce-based public site and self-service portal grounded in user research. The new platform centralised procurement content, improved case transparency, and gave staff simple tools for content management. Results included a 70% reduction in time-to-close, $17M in savings, and a shift toward a culture of continuous improvement across the system.
Overview
The newly consolidated office of procurement, Unified Procurement Services Team (UPST), needed a digital platform that could serve two key purposes:
1. Public-facing website to guide users through procurement policies and updates.
2. Self-service portal for staff to easily access documents, check case statuses, and manage content.
Through user research, I uncovered three core pain points:
• Difficulty locating essential procurement documents.
• Confusion around the steps and regulatory compliance in the procurement process.
• Lack of transparency into the status of procurement and support requests.
The Solution
Using Salesforce Service Cloud, the team consolidated all the existing procurement data into the new platform. Then I designed a customer-facing website in Salesforce Community cloud that delivered a modern, user-friendly site that addressed both user and business needs. Content management was streamlined for staff, and customers gained quick access to documents and real-time case updates.
The Results
• Reduced costs by consolidating redundant software licenses.
• Improved transparency across the system, giving UMass greater leverage in vendor negotiations.
• Hundreds of documents now centralized and version-controlled.
• Customer support requests dropped significantly thanks to the self-service tools.
• Average time-to-close was reduced by more than 50%
This project didn’t just modernize procurement systems — it contributed to a broader cultural shift at UMass. As the UPST team noted, continuous improvement is now a shared mindset, made possible through stakeholder collaboration and a willingness to embrace change.
