How we digitalized a steel business to eliminate operational delays
Designed a full-scale web and mobile platform for Recla, a steel trading company, to unify fragmented workflows like vendor onboarding, estimation, and document approvals. The redesign helped teams transition from paper trails and WhatsApp chats to streamlined, role-based digital operations.
My Role
UX Strategy, Feature Design, Product Improvement
Team
Project Manager , Senior Designer
Timeline
4 weeks
Outcome
Reduced Operational delays by 40%
Understanding the Business
Recla, a B2B steel supplier, managed thousands of transactions and logistical workflows, but most of them happened over fragmented channels—paper files, manual estimations, WhatsApp groups, and shared Excel sheets.
Recla operated primarily through offline methods—manual documents, phone calls, and siloed spreadsheets. Their internal teams, vendors, and customers lacked a single source of truth to collaborate or make decisions quickly.
The vision was to create a responsive system that works across web and mobile, tailored for on-site employees, remote admins, and external vendors.
What We Designed (Web + Mobile)
Employee & Vendor Onboarding
Seamless flows with mobile ID capture and approvalsVendor & Customer Management
Add, track, and manage entities with role-based controlEstimation Calculator
Smart pricing calculator integrated with material types and ratesDocument Management System
Upload, review, and approve critical documents like invoices, site plans, and receiptsAccess Control System
Define and restrict actions by user role (e.g., site engineer vs. admin)Real-Time Expense Tracker
Capture daily expenditures with image proof and auto-categorizationDashboards
Admin panels for high-level oversight, project statuses, and quick actions
Mobile Versions :
Why It Mattered
Prior to this, Recla teams used:
WhatsApp to share documents
Excel to manage estimations
Verbal approvals for key workflows
This led to:
Delays in approvals and cost estimations
Frequent errors in manual tracking
Poor visibility for leadership
The new platform brought clarity, traceability, and speed, all while being accessible from the site or office.
UX Challenges & What We Solved
File-heavy workflows on mobile
→ Integrated inline file viewers, upload progress, and version controlGranular access levels
→ Designed an intuitive permission matrix usable by non-technical usersEstimation complexity
→ Built modular calculators with editable formula inputs and reusable templatesScaling across devices
→ Used mobile-first design with responsive adaptations for webDesigning for on-the-go teams + office-based admins
→ Created dual flows: simplified mobile UIs and full-featured web views
How we digitalized a steel business to eliminate operational delays
Designed a full-scale web and mobile platform for Recla, a steel trading company, to unify fragmented workflows like vendor onboarding, estimation, and document approvals. The redesign helped teams transition from paper trails and WhatsApp chats to streamlined, role-based digital operations.
My Role
UX Strategy, Feature Design, Product Improvement
Team
Project Manager , Senior Designer
Timeline
4 weeks
Outcome
Reduced Operational delays by 40%
Understanding the Business
Recla, a B2B steel supplier, managed thousands of transactions and logistical workflows, but most of them happened over fragmented channels—paper files, manual estimations, WhatsApp groups, and shared Excel sheets.
Recla operated primarily through offline methods—manual documents, phone calls, and siloed spreadsheets. Their internal teams, vendors, and customers lacked a single source of truth to collaborate or make decisions quickly.
The vision was to create a responsive system that works across web and mobile, tailored for on-site employees, remote admins, and external vendors.
What We Designed (Web + Mobile)
Employee & Vendor Onboarding
Seamless flows with mobile ID capture and approvalsVendor & Customer Management
Add, track, and manage entities with role-based controlEstimation Calculator
Smart pricing calculator integrated with material types and ratesDocument Management System
Upload, review, and approve critical documents like invoices, site plans, and receiptsAccess Control System
Define and restrict actions by user role (e.g., site engineer vs. admin)Real-Time Expense Tracker
Capture daily expenditures with image proof and auto-categorizationDashboards
Admin panels for high-level oversight, project statuses, and quick actions
Mobile Version :
Why It Mattered
Prior to this, Recla teams used:
WhatsApp to share documents
Excel to manage estimations
Verbal approvals for key workflows
This led to:
Delays in approvals and cost estimations
Frequent errors in manual tracking
Poor visibility for leadership
The new platform brought clarity, traceability, and speed, all while being accessible from the site or office.
UX Challenges & What We Solved
File-heavy workflows on mobile
→ Integrated inline file viewers, upload progress, and version controlGranular access levels
→ Designed an intuitive permission matrix usable by non-technical usersEstimation complexity
→ Built modular calculators with editable formula inputs and reusable templatesScaling across devices
→ Used mobile-first design with responsive adaptations for webDesigning for on-the-go teams + office-based admins
→ Created dual flows: simplified mobile UIs and full-featured web views
Thank you for reading! ✨