Improving cash management in schools
An award-winning redesign that improved efficiency and saved millions of dollars for schools managing cash transactions.
Award: Secretary’s Award for Excellence | EdConnect | 2019
Impact:
95% reduction in unreconciled financial transactions, saving $2.6 million annually.
Improved operational efficiency of cash management.
Shifted the focus of cash management from fraud prevention to supporting people to accurately complete financial transactions.
Timeframe: 8 weeks
Services provided:
Research
Qualitative ethnographic research
Current-state research
Design
Service design
Concept creation
Prototype testing
Deliverables
Current state insights: A series of insights about the current state experiences of users, including video highlights.
New service concepts: Set of concepts for immediate implementation, medium and long-term development.
Service blueprint: Current state blueprint for Cash Management in schools.
Strategic roadmap: A future state roadmap of actionable steps.
Context:
Each year, over $700 million in cash transactions are processed by schools so children can access extracurricular activities. Our client, a state government department, was concerned about the cost of handling these transactions and the impact this was having on schools, parents, and students.
WAVE was engaged to investigate and redesign cash management in schools to increase efficiency and improve the experience.
Approach:
Our client did not have a holistic picture of the existing cash management system that encompassed both users and service providers. To inform future solutions, we needed to understand how things were currently operating, including the experience for users and the behind-the-scenes service delivery supporting it. We gathered staff and experts to create a visual map of the entire process, allowing us to identify key pain points and target areas for future exploration.
To build a richer picture, we needed insight into the real-world contexts of users. Using this map as a foundation, we identified key stakeholders and users to engage with through exploratory research interviews. To share emerging findings and gain buy-in we held frequent showcases with stakeholders. To help stakeholders connect with users, we created videos for each insight, sharing first-hand accounts of user challenges from the research sessions and setting a foundation for future innovation.
The next challenge was moving from understanding the current pain points to solving them. Reframing our insights into opportunities allowed us to brainstorm a series of early concepts showing how cash management could be improved. These included streamlining the payment process through automation and establishing peer communities to support troubleshooting. We tested the concepts with the team and prioritised them based on their value, providing our client with assurance they were both practical and addressed the core challenges identified by users.
Testing our ideas with users was critical to validate our assumptions about what would resonate with them. We created simple prototypes and gathered feedback through user testing sessions, where stakeholders also observed the impact of potential changes, building engagement and buy-in for the solutions. We also produced a unified vision for the future of cash management, based on user feedback, demonstrating how each concept worked together to improve operational efficiency.
Finally, to ensure feasibility, we collaborated with experts across the organisation to evaluate the necessary steps for implementation. We considered user, service provider, technology, and policy needs to create a realistic roadmap that aligned with both the users’ and the organisation's objectives. This set our client up to proceed into the next phase with confidence.
Outcome:
We made a significant improvement to the operational efficiency of cash management in schools, achieving a projected 95% reduction in unreconciled financial transactions, expected to save $2.6 million annually.
By working closely with our client, we empowered the team to take ownership of the future state solutions, independently presenting a final walkthrough to their leadership. Throughout the process, the leadership group gained valuable empathy for the system's users, directly informed by our ethnographic research and compelling artefacts. Everyone was aligned on the potential impact of the solutions and had a clear roadmap to ensure the project's long-term success. Following the completion of the project, our work was recognized at the Department with a Secretary’s Award for Excellence.
