Case Study 05 — Telecommunications
Digital Customer Platform for a Telecommunications Provider
Replaced a poorly-rated legacy app and disconnected in-store tools for a major SA telco — delivering a modern mobile app for customers, a purpose-built tablet tool for store staff, and cleaner commercial visibility for the business.
The Challenge
The telco had customers, stores, and a billing programme — but the digital experience for all three was letting them down. The mobile app was outdated and badly reviewed. Store staff were switching between multiple systems to answer a single customer question. The commercial team had no real-time picture of billing status. Three separate problems, happening simultaneously, all needing to be fixed without interrupting an operating business.
The Approach
- 01Ran three workstreams in parallel — consumer app, in-store tablet, and billing — because the problems were related but the work was distinct
- 02Designed all consumer-facing journeys before writing a line of spec — understanding the experience is the precondition for good requirements
- 03Ran UAT properly: structured test cycles, sign-off at every stage, defects tracked and owned — not a checkbox at the end
- 04Documented every API integration so the client's team could maintain and extend without needing to call us
Consumer Mobile App
- One place to see balances, bills, and service status — no more piecing it together across three apps
- Multiple payment methods, debit order setup, and bill pay that actually worked reliably
- Support tickets logged from within the app — because making customers call a call centre to report a problem with the app is not a solution
- Clean test coverage so regressions didn't quietly undo months of work
In-Store & Commercial
- Store staff could look up a customer, see everything relevant, and action changes without switching systems
- In-store service times fell when staff stopped juggling disconnected tools
- Commercial billing moved from opaque to transparent — monthly surprises replaced by near real-time visibility
Outcomes
- A modern, well-tested mobile app replaced something customers had been actively complaining about
- In-store service improved as staff stopped context-switching between disconnected tools
- Commercial billing became trackable and predictable — the engagement ran on clear, documented numbers
- API documentation became a genuine internal asset that the client's teams adopted and continued using
Key Takeaway
Telecoms backends are decades of complexity layered on each other. The product job is to make all of that invisible to the people using the front end. Get the abstraction right, and you can build experiences that feel simple over systems that really aren't.
Customer name withheld by agreement.
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