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Gates Benchmark — Unified CRM + ERP Platform for Real Estate

Designed an enterprise platform that unifies CRM and ERP operations for a real estate developer, enabling end-to-end workflows across Sales, Customer Care, Legal, Finance/Treasury, and Procurement — built with Arabic RTL support and role-based experiences.

Role
Senior UI/UX Designer
Duration
6 months
Date
June 2024
CRM DesignERP SystemEnterprise UXWorkflowsReal EstateRTL Support

Executive Summary

ProductGates Benchmark — Unified CRM + ERP Web Platform for real estate operations
UsersSales & CRM teams, Customer Care, Legal, Finance (AP/AR/GL/Treasury), Procurement
ProblemCRM and ERP were separate systems, creating manual hand-offs, duplicate entry, weak cross-team visibility, and delays in critical processes (customer cases, payment violations, receipts → finance transactions, budgeting approvals, and purchases).
ConstraintsArabic RTL support, enterprise role/permission model, high accuracy for financial workflows, cross-module integrations, phased delivery, and strict SLA handling for customer cases.
My RoleSolo product designer: discovery, workflow mapping, information architecture, interaction design, UI patterns/design system, prototyping, and developer handoff (states, validations, edge cases).
OutcomeAutomated budgeting approvals reduced the cycle from 3 days → 1 day. Receipt creation generates background financial transactions automatically. Standardized SLA-driven Customer Care workflows across departments.

Project Overview

Gates Benchmark combines two domains in one platform:

CRM Domain (Front-Office)

Leads, Customers, EOIs, Contracts, Units, Payment Plans, Receipts, Customer Care Cases, Legal Cases

ERP Domain (Back-Office)

COA (Chart of Accounts), Manual Entries, Budgeting, Treasury, Purchases (PR→RFQ→PO)

The core goal was integration: business events in CRM should drive the right financial and operational actions in ERP, with visibility and workflows across departments.

System Scope

The platform supports multiple high-impact workflows across departments:

  1. Customer Care (SLA-driven cases) — Cases are created, assigned to the appropriate department, tracked with SLA deadlines, and escalated when overdue.

  2. Legal + Finance Integration for Payment Violations — Legal cases tied to missed payment deadlines link directly to Finance actions and follow-up.

  3. Receipts → Automated Financial Transactions — Creating receipts in CRM triggers background finance transactions to reduce manual posting and inconsistencies.

  4. Budgeting Transactions Approvals — Budget operations include carryover, write-off, transfer with approvals and traceable status.

  5. Purchasing Cycle (PR → RFQ → PO) — A structured procurement workflow with approvals, statuses, and tracking.

The Challenge

Before Gates Benchmark:

  • Customer cases were tracked inconsistently across departments, making SLA compliance difficult.
  • Payment violations and legal actions were disconnected from finance processing and follow-up.
  • Receipt operations required manual financial posting and reconciliation.
  • Budgeting actions (carryover/write-off/transfer) relied on slow coordination.
  • Purchasing workflows lacked structured tracking from request to purchase order.

The business needed a single source of truth with reliable workflows, auditability, and clear ownership.

Discovery & Workflow Mapping

I worked with stakeholders across Sales, Customer Care, Legal, Finance, and Procurement to map:

  • End-to-end flows and hand-offs
  • SLA points and escalation rules
  • Approval chains and permission boundaries
  • Integration triggers between CRM and ERP
  • Failure scenarios (missing mappings, invalid COA, blocked approvals)

Key outputs:

  • Workflow maps per domain (Customer Care / Receipts / Budgeting / Purchases)
  • Roles & permissions matrix
  • Integration event map (trigger → created record → status → audit trail)

Key Design Decisions & Tradeoffs

1. Unified platform with role-based modules (vs separate apps)

Decision: One platform with consistent navigation and shared patterns across CRM and ERP.

Tradeoff: Higher IA complexity; required strong role-based visibility to avoid overwhelming users.

Why: Eliminates silos and allows cross-team context (e.g., legal/finance visibility into payment violation cases).

2. SLA-first Customer Care workflow design

Decision: Cases have owner, department assignment, SLA timer, status model, and escalation rules.

Tradeoff: Required careful rule definition and edge-case handling (reassignment, paused SLAs, reopened cases).

Why: Makes service accountability measurable and prevents missed follow-ups.

3. Event-driven automation for receipts → finance transactions

Decision: Receipt creation triggers background financial transaction creation with clear status feedback and audit trail.

Tradeoff: Required strict validations, mapping rules, and failure recovery UX.

Why: Reduces manual posting risk and improves finance consistency.

4. Budgeting transactions as governed workflows (carryover/write-off/transfer)

Decision: Budget actions follow approval workflows with status, justification, and traceability.

Tradeoff: More configuration upfront, but far less operational friction.

Why: Improves control, speed, and audit readiness.

5. RTL support built into components from day one

Decision: Design system and layouts built with Arabic RTL support as a first-class requirement.

Tradeoff: Slower initial iteration pace.

Why: Prevented retrofitting cost and ensured consistency across the entire system.

Enterprise UI System & Patterns

To scale across modules, I standardized reusable patterns:

  • Tables: filters, sorting, pagination, bulk actions, export where needed
  • Forms: validation, conditional fields, multi-step flows for complex actions
  • Workflow states: status badges, approval cards, timeline/history
  • Notifications: actionable alerts, escalation cues, reminders
  • States & edge cases: loading/empty/error/permission denied + recovery paths

Key Workflows

A) Customer Care: SLA-driven case management

  • Case creation → department assignment → SLA tracking → escalation
  • Status model to handle reassignments, reopened cases, and overdue handling
  • Views by role (agent, department owner, supervisor)

B) Legal + Finance: payment deadline violations

  • Legal cases created/linked to missed payment deadlines
  • Finance follow-up visibility and actions tied to the case lifecycle
  • Clear accountability and traceability across teams

C) Receipts → automated transactions

  • Receipt creation triggers background transactions in finance
  • Transparent feedback (success/failure/pending) + audit trail
  • Validation and failure handling (missing mapping, blocked posting)

D) Budgeting approvals (carryover/write-off/transfer)

  • Standard approval workflow, justification fields, and history
  • Status tracking and notifications
  • Impact: reduced budgeting cycle from 3 days → 1 day

E) Purchasing cycle (PR → RFQ → PO)

  • Structured statuses across PR, RFQ, and PO
  • Approvals and clear handoffs
  • Traceable lifecycle from request to order

Validation & Iteration

  • Stakeholder walkthroughs across departments
  • Iteration cycles with engineering using prototypes + edge-case specs
  • Continuous refinement of statuses, permissions, and workflow rules to avoid production ambiguity

Impact & Results

  • Budget cycle: significantly reduced through governed approval workflows
  • Automation: receipt creation triggers background financial transactions (reducing manual posting)
  • Reliability: SLA-driven Customer Care improved follow-up accountability across departments
  • Visibility: Legal + Finance integration improved handling of payment violations
  • Scalability: shared patterns + RTL-ready design system kept experience consistent across modules

Tools: Figma, FigJam / Miro, Lovable, Claude

Platform: Web Application (Desktop + Tablet) • RTL supported

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