My Remigration App

In this project, we developed the first app with which SVB customers can submit an application for our schemes. The Remigration benefit is for people who live in the Netherlands and who want to return to their native country. When allocated, they receive a monthly payment from the SVB.

Both the customers and our employees experience the application process as complex and lengthy.

Together with customers and the SVB employees of the Remigration department, we investigated what is needed to improve the process. The result is an app that can be used to submit the application.

End result

The “My-Remigration” app will be live in the stores from July 2019. Customers, employees and Novum are very enthusiastic about the results of this experiment. With the app can
clients apply for a Remigration benefit, but also communicate with the SVB from abroad via the app. Mail that does not arrive at the SVB is now a thing of the past. 17 customers have submitted an application via the app. This does not sound like much, however out of the 120 total applications, 87 were submitted via the NMI. No requests from the customers that were helped by the NMI were received via the app.

Fun fact is that the oldest customer is 87 years of age who submitted an application via the app. Of the 11 messages received, messages were also for other schemes such as the Child Benefit & PGB.

In principle, the app is ready to be taken over completely, but it can be further optimized for employees. Novum recommends the Mine
Remigration app as an official service by the SVB to take over.
The app offers the SVB the opportunity to gain experience working via an app and to investigate whether this channel can also be used for other schemes.

History of this experiment

We started with a Design Sprint (explanation: https: //designthinkingworkshop.nl/google-design-sprint /).

The application form for the Remigration is complex. Many complicated questions are asked, including a large number of questions that only apply to a few customers. It remains unclear which documentary evidence must be enclosed, which means that the correct documentary evidence is often missing when applications are submitted. Once moved, it is unclear to the customer how to report any changes. In other words, concrete points that require a solution ... The bottlenecks were identified and interesting solutions were proposed. In the end, we decided to prototype an app. During the test with customers, they turned out to be enthusiastic about the solution. The prototype was embraced by the customers and the employees were also happy with it.

Developing the App

The next step is of course to build a Minumum Viable Product (MVP)! The prototype was further developed and, after it was once again validated with real customers, we were ready to build the app. Gillz (in a short time)www.gillz.nl) this app built for us in Mendix. We chose Mendix because it means the possibilities are endless; you can build with it quickly and adjustments can be realized quickly. The first version of the app was then tested again with SVB employees and customers. They remained enthusiastic! The nicest comment was the customer's comment that she immediately called her grandson when she was home. "Grandma has submitted an application herself with an app!"
After a few more development strokes to make the app suitable for being able to go through all legal exceptional situations and handling all required (information) security and security requirements with the SVB, we were ready for the live.

Build - Measure - Learn

The app went live in the Google Play Store at the end of July. Because the procedure for the Apple store is a bit more complex, the live course in the Apple store followed a month later.

When developing the 'my-remigration app' we use the Build-Measure-Learn method from the Lean Startup method. Because all measurable customer ratings can be adjusted directly in our app, there was already a first update in August based on the feedback from the first users. From now on, a build moment has been scheduled with the developer every month, so that we can continue to focus on this.

Learnings

We have learned great lessons in this process. In future, we will always work with the developer together on one location on our development projects, within a defined period. Together, as a team, building something in one room works much better and the results are clearer faster.
In addition, an important lesson is that an MVP is not your end result. Also for the SVB it took some getting used to: don't think too big, stay small. It is never directly a 10-with-a-grit product, you work towards it step by step. A product that is not 100% perfect can also be put live. As long as the customer stays well helped.

You can find more information about the remigration scheme at www.svb.nl/remigration

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

More information about My Remigration App

4 + 11 =

Share this article