Clarify Capital

We took over support for Clarify’s bespoke Ruby on Rails application, adding portals and DocuSign and Salesforce integrations.

The Background

Clarify Capital helps small businesses across the United States access finance through a network of lending partners. Its advisers guide business owners through the application process and help them find suitable funding options.

Behind that service is a workflow that brings together business details, supporting documents, sales representatives and lending opportunities. Customers need a straightforward way to apply, while Clarify’s team needs reliable information to manage each application.

Clarify already had a bespoke Ruby on Rails application. We took over support from its existing development team, then extended the platform with a connected online application journey, customer and reps portals, and integrations with DocuSign and Salesforce.

The Challenge

A loan application continues well beyond the initial enquiry. Business owners need to provide information about their company and its owners, sign their application and supply bank statements. Representatives need to see what has been submitted and manage the next steps.

The platform also needed to stay in step with Salesforce as an enquiry progressed from a lead to a contact, account and opportunity. Changes to customer details, representative assignments and application status had to carry through the workflow.

Clarify needed a partner to take over support for the existing application and develop these capabilities. Handling sensitive business and personal information made security, reliability and maintainability central to the work.

The Work

A connected online application and customer portal

We developed the application journey within Clarify’s Rails platform, bringing business and owner details, application signing and document uploads into a connected process.

The customer portal gives applicants a place to manage their application and provide the information Clarify needs. Bank statements and other supporting documents sit alongside the application, keeping the online journey connected to the team handling it.

DocuSign integration for application signing

We integrated DocuSign into the application journey so business owners could sign their loan application electronically. The integration connected the signing process to the assigned representative, with notifications when an application was signed.

We worked through the handover between DocuSign, the customer portal and document collection. After signing, applicants could continue with the bank statements and supporting information needed to progress their application. Signing became part of the same workflow used by customers and Clarify’s team.

A reps portal for managing applications

We built out the reps portal so Clarify’s team could work with incoming applications, access customer information and supporting documents, and manage their follow-up.

Lead assignment was an important part of that work. We improved the rotation logic used to distribute enquiries between representatives and introduced an after-hours queue. We also refined notifications around lead ownership so that application activity could reach the appropriate people.

These changes connected the customer-facing journey to the representatives responsible for progressing each application.

Two-way Salesforce integration

We extended the Salesforce integration to synchronise data in both directions, covering leads, contacts, accounts and opportunities. Updates in Salesforce could be reflected in the portal, while information collected through the application could flow back into Salesforce.

The integration also tracks opportunity status, helping the platform distinguish new applications from renewals and handle customers with more than one business. Supporting documents are uploaded to the relevant Salesforce records so the team can access them within its existing workflow.

We improved error handling and monitoring around the integration, making failed updates easier to identify and investigate. Synchronisation depends on Salesforce processing updates, so visibility into those failures and delays matters as much as moving the data itself.

Security and reliability in day-to-day operation

We moved the application onto managed hosting and a managed PostgreSQL database, with restricted database access, automatic failover and recovery options. This gave the platform operational safeguards for the information it handles and reduced the infrastructure the team needed to manage directly.

We also improved application logging and error monitoring, and used automated tests in the delivery workflow. Together, these measures helped the team investigate problems and check changes to a platform used for live loan applications.

Taking over support for a bespoke Rails application

Our engagement began with taking over support from Clarify’s existing team. We got to know the bespoke application and its integrations, then combined ongoing Ruby on Rails maintenance with development of new capabilities. Feature requests, integration issues and operational improvements were all part of supporting the live service.

Our fractional team brought development and operational expertise to the work, giving Clarify additional engineering capacity and specialist support as its needs changed. Knowledge sharing and technical walkthroughs helped Clarify’s team understand the changes and continue working with the system.

The Impact

Clarify gained a connected platform for accepting and managing loan applications. Customers can submit their details, sign applications through the DocuSign integration and upload documents through the online journey. Representatives can work with those applications through their portal, while the two-way Salesforce integration keeps customer and opportunity data connected.

The work joined up customer self-service, application management and the team’s existing CRM. Managed infrastructure, monitoring and ongoing support strengthened the operational foundation behind that workflow.

For Clarify, the engagement brought ongoing ownership of application support together with the capacity to extend a business-critical Rails platform. The existing bespoke application became the foundation for a more connected lending workflow.