KPMG
January 2017 - August 2018
Business context
Our client is an international company that provides audit, tax, and advisory services and is known as a trusted consultant to various businesses around the globe.
KPMG came to us to create a mobile iOS software product that would be used as an urgent communication channel by its clients, in particular when:
A client’s company is about to receive an unexpected audit
A client is in need of urgent legal or financial advice during a meeting
In both cases, we needed to consider the fact that making a phone call or sending a lengthy text could be inconvenient for KPMG clients.
See below how we built an all-around mobile solution for KPMG to cover the use cases above and give their users a number of options for contacting company consultants.
Solutions
Elaborating the solution functionality
Both use cases require more than a textbook approach. Also, calling a consultant by phone is not always ideal because it assumes that a client has only one question that requires a consultation with one specialist. But a client can have a number of questions regarding various legal and tax matters.
Speech-to-text input and text messages
We looked for alternatives to telephone conversations and decided to go with speech-to-text input. This means that clients can dictate their questions (which is often faster than typing all the details) and send them to KPMG, indicating whether they want to be contacted by email or phone.
Siri integration
Integrating Siri with the KPMG app allowed us to provide a convenient shortcut for users: clients can request a callback from KPMG managers from any screen and without opening the KPMG app itself. To request help, a user only needs to tell Siri “Send KPMG a message,” then dictate the message itself.
Image and audio recording attachments
If a client needs a consultant’s opinion about some paperwork or a clause in a legal document, they can attach an image or a voice recording to the message. Using voice recordings to clarify requirements saves a client’s time and allows clients to provide consultants with more information.
Admin panel for KPMG consultants
To properly handle all client contact requests and request details, we created an admin panel that allows consultants to:
sort and manage categories of questions
send push notifications to users
display user questions
manage user profiles and authorization
Creating an intuitive user experience
We needed to design a software product that is easy to use when clients are in a hurry or on the go. Our design experts used animation to guide users through the app with an animated microphone icon, input fields and buttons, and soundwaves to deliver feedback to users when making a recording and entering messages. As a result, we created a design solution that is conversation-optimized, minimalist, and aligned with KPMG’s corporate style.
Developing the mobile software product
iOS application
Our development experts used:
RxSwift for asynchronous programming with observable streams
CoreData as an object graph and persistence framework
Alamofire as an HTTP networking library
SDWebImage as an asynchronous image downloader with cache support and a UIImageView category
Сrashlytics as a crash reporting framework with various distribution and analytics tools
This tech stack allowed us to build an app specifically for modern Swift conventions and language features and make it load images fast for a streamlined user experience. Below, you can see the app architecture:
Backend
KPMG’s app was developed for iOS but also required backend development with Ruby on Rails. Here’s how the backend part of the app looks from the inside:
We also used the REST API for delivering user questions with text, photos, and audio, collecting all system categories, and managing current user authorization, session, and profile data.
Results
Traditional communication means like email and phone
Alternatives like voice messages and image attachments
Siri integration for contacting consultants outside the app interface
An iOS software product for a Big Four international consultancy company
Solution for helping clients handle unexpected audits and get urgent legal or financial advice