Cloud ERP Platform
Reimagining Legacy ERP for the Cloud
🧭 Overview
The Cloud ERP Platform was envisioned to modernize a legacy desktop-based ERP system into a flexible, cloud-native experience for enterprise users.
The goal was to retain the core business logic and reliability of traditional ERP systems while introducing modern usability, modular architecture, and accessibility across devices.
By referencing an existing desktop ERP system, we identified functional strengths and limitations — then reimagined the product from a UX-first perspective, focusing on simplicity, scalability, and flexibility.
Project Context
The enterprise had been using a Windows-based ERP for over a decade — reliable but rigid.
Users found it powerful yet difficult to navigate, requiring long training cycles and multiple support touchpoints.
The business wanted to leverage this foundation and evolve it into a cloud-based ERP ecosystem — one that could:
- Scale across business verticals (Finance, HR, Procurement, CRM).
- Offer real-time visibility and collaboration.
- Simplify the interface for users with minimal ERP experience.
- Enable accessibility from any device.
🎯 Objective
Design a cloud-native ERP platform that:
- Retains the core functionality of the desktop ERP but with modern usability principles.
- Enables modular adoption — users can enable or disable modules based on need.
- Introduces flexible, role-based dashboards for different personas.
- Improves task efficiency and reduces training time.
- Builds a future-ready design system for scalability.
👤 My Role
Role: UX Designer (Core Team Member)
Scope: End-to-end UX ownership across modules (Finance, HR, Procurement, CRM)
Responsibilities:
- Analyzed the legacy ERP workflows and user pain points.
- Extract insights from user interviews to understand real-world frustrations and use cases.
- Defined personas and role-based journeys for modular design.
- Created wireframes, interactive prototypes, and visual design system.
- Collaborated with product managers and engineers during UAT and rollout.
🧩 The Challenge
- The legacy ERP interface was dense, menu-driven, and static.
- Navigation was inconsistent, with overlapping modules and repetitive data entry.
- Workflows were optimized for accountants, not general users.
- Data silos limited collaboration between departments.
- The new cloud system needed to remain powerful yet approachable — with flexibility at its core.
The key challenge was balancing enterprise-grade functionality with consumer-grade usability.
🎯 UX Goals
- Preserve essential ERP functions but modernize their presentation.
- Introduce cloud-native flexibility for modular deployment.
- Simplify navigation and reduce workflow friction.
- Design role-based, responsive dashboards for various user levels.
- Build a scalable, consistent design system for multi-module adoption.
🔍 Research & Insights
Research Methods
- Legacy System Audit: Mapped user journeys in the old ERP to identify repetitive or inefficient steps.
- User Interviews: Conducted with accountants, HR executives, procurement officers, and IT admins.
- Task Flow Analysis: Documented high-frequency actions (invoice approvals, purchase orders, attendance).
- Competitive Review: Studied modern ERPs like SAP Fiori, Oracle Fusion, and Zoho One.
Key Insights
- Users valued the functional completeness of the old ERP but disliked its rigidity.
- Repetitive data entry and modal-heavy navigation slowed productivity.
- Role-specific dashboards were missing — users had to search for what mattered.
- A guided onboarding and contextual help could improve adoption dramatically.
👥 Personas
👩💼 Persona 1: Ananya – Finance Officer
- Age: 33
- Goals: Manage daily transactions, invoices, and financial reports.
- Frustrations: Too many steps to reach a simple approval; manual reconciliation.
- Needs: Faster navigation, predictive input fields, and contextual shortcuts.
- Quote:
“The system works, but it takes forever to get through basic tasks.”
👨💼 Persona 2: Ravi – HR Manager
- Age: 40
- Goals: Oversee leave approvals, onboarding, and payroll tasks.
- Frustrations: Inconsistent employee records and scattered workflows.
- Needs: Unified dashboard with alerts and task prioritization.
- Quote:
“I shouldn’t have to jump between modules to approve something simple.”
👩💻 Persona 3: Meera – Operations Head
- Age: 45
- Goals: Track multi-department performance and approve key workflows.
- Frustrations: Reliance on static reports and lack of real-time insights.
- Needs: Role-based dashboard and instant visibility into KPIs.
- Quote:
“I want to make data-backed decisions without waiting for daily summaries.”
🧠 Design Strategy
Vision: “Reimagine enterprise ERP with flexibility, simplicity, and speed — without compromising power.”
Guiding Principles:
- Simplify: Streamline workflows into intuitive, two- to three-step journeys.
- Unify: Establish visual and functional consistency across modules.
- Empower: Create dashboards that surface only what each role needs.
- Adapt: Design for cloud scalability and mobile access.
- Evolve: Build a reusable component library for future ERP extensions.
🧪 Design Process
- Audit & Discovery — Analyzed the desktop ERP and mapped friction points.
- Define & Prioritize — Identified key modules and high-impact workflows.
- Wireframing & IA — Created layouts focusing on visibility and flow continuity.
- Prototyping & Testing — Built interactive prototypes and validated through usability sessions.
- Design System Creation — Established scalable, reusable UI components.
- UAT & Refinement — Collaborated with product and QA teams for real-world validation.
Process: Analyze → Define → Design → Test → Deploy → Iterate
🎨 Design Evolution
🕰️ Reference (Desktop ERP)
- Rigid, form-heavy UI with multiple nested menus.
- Static workflows; each transaction required multiple confirmations.
- Not available on cloud.
- Required significant training and manual intervention.
🚀 Cloud ERP (Final Design)
- Modern, responsive, and modular architecture.
- Role-based dashboards with actionable KPIs.
- Streamlined workflows with contextual buttons and smart search.
- Introduced drag-and-drop configuration, real-time notifications, and filterable reports.
- Designed using atomic design principles for component reusability.
Key Features:
- Unified Navigation Bar across modules.
- Quick Action Panel for approvals and shortcuts.
- Personalized Widgets for key tasks.
- Contextual Help and Guided Onboarding.
🚀 Outcome & Impact
| Metric | Desktop ERP | Cloud ERP | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average task completion time | 5.2 min | 2.3 min | ⚡ 56% faster |
| Training time | 5 days | 1.5 days | ⏱️ 70% shorter |
| User satisfaction (SUS) | 58 | 86 | 🌟 +28 points |
Business Impact:
- Increased adoption rate across departments by 40% within 6 months.
- Unified all core business modules under one consistent design framework.
- Enabled faster configuration and integration with third-party APIs.
- Reduced dependency on IT and training support.
💬 Learnings
- Modernizing enterprise systems requires deep respect for legacy logic while simplifying user touchpoints.
- Cloud flexibility doesn’t mean complexity — it means freedom within structure.
- Iterative validation with real users ensures the new system remains grounded in reality.
- A consistent design system saves countless hours in scaling new modules.
✨ Conclusion
The Cloud ERP Platform successfully redefined enterprise usability — merging the power of legacy ERP systems with the flexibility of modern cloud design.
It delivered a unified, modular experience that empowered users to focus on outcomes, not navigation.
“We didn’t just move ERP to the cloud — we made it work for people, not the other way around.”