PROJECT BACKGROUND

The Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) was facing significant delays in their licensing process for engineers, with applicants waiting 6 to 8 years to complete their professional registration. PEO aimed to improve efficiency and transparency while complying with new regulations under the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act (FARPACTA). The project involved a complete overhaul of their application process, transitioning from a manual, paper-based system to a streamlined, fully digital platform that significantly reduced processing times and improved user experience. As the Senior Business Analyst and project lead, I collaborated with both technical and business teams to implement this transformation, ensuring the new system met both regulatory requirements and user expectations.

THE CHALLENGE

PEO’s previous licensing process was not only slow but also required substantial manual input from both applicants and staff, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and frustrations on both ends. The regulatory framework imposed strict timelines, demanding that PEO acknowledge applications within 10 business days and make decisions within 180 days. Furthermore, the existing system lacked sufficient flexibility to handle different types of applications in an organized manner. PEO needed a solution that:

Drastically reduced application processing time.
Simplified the user experience for both applicants and PEO staff.
Was compliant with FARPACTA and other regulatory standards.
Could be scaled for future application types.

The legacy application form

EXPECTATIONS

The primary expectation for the project was to deliver a digital, user-friendly system that could handle the entire licensing process online, from application submission to approval or refusal. Specific goals included:

Reducing the average time to process a licensing application from 6-8 years to 6 months.
Creating a seamless online portal where applicants could easily track their application status, submit documents, and receive feedback.
Automating internal workflows for PEO staff to efficiently review and assess applications within the mandated timelines.
Ensuring compliance with FARPACTA’s regulations, including timeline reporting and process transparency.

MY APPROACH

Requirements Gathering & Stakeholder Engagement: I worked closely with key stakeholders at PEO and the technical team from PerByte to fully understand the current pain points and regulatory demands. I facilitated workshops and interviews to collect input from both applicants and PEO staff, ensuring that the new system would meet the needs of all parties.
System Design & Process Overhaul: Collaborating with the development team, I led the functional design of the new system. We implemented a modular approach to application processing, breaking the project into smaller deliverables and focusing first on compliance-critical aspects. I helped design an intuitive applicant dashboard that allowed engineers to submit all required documentation in one place. The system enforced minimum requirements, reducing the manual workload for PEO staff.
Integration with Aptify: I facilitated the integration with PEO’s existing Aptify platform, ensuring a smooth flow of application data, from submission to review. This included creating custom schemas for storing applicant data and automating email triggers, event handlers, and other processes that moved applications through the system.
Implementation of Assessment Dashboards: I worked with PEO’s internal team to develop real-time dashboards in Aptify, allowing staff to track the progress of each application throughout the assessment stage, ensuring that no application would fall behind the 180-day timeline.

My design/mock-ups

RESULTS

Efficiency: The time required to process a licensing application was reduced from 6-8 years to just 6 months, a groundbreaking improvement for the organization.
User Satisfaction: Applicants experienced a smoother, more transparent process, with real-time status updates and a clear understanding of the next steps in the licensing journey.
Compliance: The new process fully adhered to FARPACTA regulations, with PEO achieving the mandated 10-day application acknowledgment and 180-day decision-making timeframes.
Scalability: The new system was designed with future growth in mind, providing a solid framework to accommodate other types of engineering applications in future phases.