Design · Software
FEM HOMI
A project built by the human and technical team behind Ierònne.
When requesting a benefit stops being a hassle
It all started in a visit, mid-conversation...
The project didn't start with a formal brief. It started in the fund's office, in the middle of a conversation about our software development work. At one point, the manager mentioned, almost in passing, that it reminded her they needed a couple of things built.
That's when they started telling us what they'd been dealing with: every department at the fund ran its own personal WhatsApp, each with its own way of receiving and handling requests. When volume picked up, people couldn't keep up with the speed they needed.
A real urgency behind the request
What they needed was for members to write to a single support number, and have it automatically route to the right department. That's where the WhatsApp Business platform came in: a system that centralizes incoming messages and routes them through a bot that identifies each request.
There was also a reason to move fast: the fund was about to lose its main WhatsApp line, because they'd been using an unauthorized third-party service to send their mass messages.
How we worked: the web platform
- Week 1Interface design (roles, conversations, automations).
- Week 2Technical architecture and support flows.
- Week 3Backend development (sessions, roles, chat assignment).
- Week 4Frontend development, for agents and admins.
- Week 5Integration with Meta's WhatsApp Business API.
- Week 6Automations and functional testing.
With that solved, another problem showed up
Before, the way to access the fund's benefits and partner deals (entertainment, home, travel, financial aid, store vouchers, insurance) was through those same overloaded WhatsApp lines, or through the website, which ultimately redirected to WhatsApp anyway. That made internal tracking difficult, and members had no way to know when they'd get a response, or whether their benefit had been approved.
That's how the app was born: it works like an ecommerce for benefits, with a catalog, orders, and push notifications, so each member can request several benefits at once and track the progress of their request.
How we worked: the mobile app
- Week 7App interface design.
- Week 8Technical architecture and project setup.
- Week 9Authentication and initial navigation.
- Week 10Benefits catalog by category.
- Week 11Request forms with validation.
- Week 12History, profile, and request status.
- Week 13Push notifications.
- Week 14Quality testing and fixes.
- Week 15Launch on Google Play and the App Store.
What changed
Today, a fund member can open the app, see the benefits available to them, request the one they need, and get direct support over WhatsApp. The fund's team has an admin panel with metrics, history, and a full count of requests, all centralized and trackable.
The app also works as a census and survey channel for the fund. They recently used it to have every member vote between two annual gift options, with responses landing straight in the panel.
The work didn't end at launch: we keep updating the platform month to month alongside them, handling new needs as they come up.
Work delivered
- Web support platform, with role-based conversation management (agent and admin).
- Official integration with the WhatsApp Business Platform, with a department-routing bot.
- Welcome and after-hours automations.
- Native mobile app for Android and iOS.
- Browsable benefits catalog, with request forms.
- History, profile, and request status for every member.
- Push notifications.
- Admin panel with metrics, history, and a full count of requests.
- Census and survey channel built into the app.
- Final launch on both app stores.
- Monthly maintenance and updates.
Timeline
15 weeks of development, across two phases.
Does your team or community need something like this?
If the people who depend on your organization still have to call, message across several channels, or wait for a manual reply to something that should be simple, this is the kind of problem we know how to solve.