Realize and CWI: partnership that goes beyond software

CWI’s history with Realize began even before the Lojas Renner S.A. finance company was created. Responsible for Renner Card, My Card, Quick Withdrawal and Insurance products, the company has been counting on us for more than 10 years, although it was founded in 2017.

Our work over this time has been part of projects in different areas of activity, such as the digitalization of Realize services, in-store service systems and the negotiation portal. And it goes beyond software, sharing knowledge and experiences that contribute to improving the company’s development culture.

Partnership that generates innovation

Before the creation of Realize, the activities that are currently the responsibility of the company were the responsibility of the Financial Products area of Lojas Renner S.A., which CWI began serving in 2013. The extremely solid partnership provided opportunities for CWI to grow with this client and for Realize in the market , with mutual support.

The variety of project possibilities is a constant in the partnership, generating a very strong cycle of innovation and development. And the innovation we are referring to is not restricted to software development issues. CWI also collaborated, for example, with an evolution of the work format by introducing, together with Realize, agile methods during the processes of the first products.

Furthermore, our first Design Thinking session outside of CWI was held at this company. In short, this is a meeting conducted based on Design methodologies so that we can understand the client’s needs and define possible solution routes. At the time, the purpose of the activity was to think about the evolution of the Lojas Renner application.

Diversity of projects

The self-service totem for the Renner and Camicado chain stores was one of several projects on which CWI worked with Realize. The equipment allows, among other features, payment of payment slips and invoices with a debit card, so that the consumer does not need to go to the checkout line.

Furthermore, the CWI team at Realize was involved in the project of a new digital account, participating in the deliveries of all transactions related to Pix. The account will be another form of payment in the chain’s stores and will make shopping easier for consumers. The service will initially be accessed via Lojas Renner app (in which, incidentally, CWI also operates — find out more below!).

Another application that included our work was the Trading Portal. This is a channel aimed at customers who are defaulters, in which it is possible to renegotiate debts and regularize the card.

It is also worth mentioning the system used in the group’s stores, the Realize Portal, available for both mobile devices and desktop. New customer acquisition, with full security validated by facial biometrics, is carried out through this application, as well as the contracting of other company products.

Photo of a person using a self-service totem.

Two smartphones display screens of the Lojas Renner app.

Digitization of services and evolution of the Lojas Renner app

The Lojas Renner app has undergone major evolution in recent years, in which CWI participated very actively. Until 2017, when we started the project, the available features were checking limits and purchasing history.

The purpose of the new initiative was to centralize access to the financial platforms of the My Card and Renner Card products, as each had its own app and website. The unification of digital channels and customer authentication was also carried out. The solution makes use of Java technologies using Docker, Kubernetes and Spring.

Today, in addition to checking limits, payment slips and invoices, it is possible to generate invoices, participate in promotions, negotiate debts, take out loans on Quick Withdrawal and request the Renner Card. The application is the main channel for generating payments and currently several squads are working with the project, expanding its functionalities.

With the new features, the app placed Renner in an end-to-end digital process. Customers can request the card at home — a factor especially relevant for people who live in cities far from stores —, buy via e-commerce, receive the product and pay the invoice without needing to move.

Due to the large growth of the application and the number of developers working on it, it became necessary to improve the software architecture definitions, with a new standard to facilitate maintenance and assist scalability. This was done, in particular, using four elements: View Code for building screens on iOS, RxSwift for reactive functional programming, MVVM design pattern and XCFrameworks for modularization.

Benefits of improving software architecture

The use of View Code allowed for a more assertive and faster review, in addition to code standardization. This is an approach that requires a lot of writing, but this issue was simplified by the CWI team with the development of its own tools to speed up the process.
The use of the MVVM design pattern made application maintenance easier and RxSwift enabled standardization in message exchange and easy handling of asynchronous events.
This framework demands very specific knowledge and, once again, the CWI team demonstrated its difference: the team came together to learn about the tool and be able to implement this improvement.
Modularization with XCFramework allows greater independence between teams and deliveries. The approach of separating functionalities into modules enables horizontal growth, reduction of compilation time and code encapsulation.

A person works with a notebook and a monitor.

Photo of Simone Kawamura Ertner in front of a projected image that says

Trust, autonomy and ownership mentality

Working together, closely and with a high degree of trust, results in a Realize development culture that has several points in common with CWI guidelines. A way of doing things based on the same values we carry.

The fact that we have been part of the Realize experience for over 10 years means that we have very solid pillars in the team that serves this client, who knows them very well. Therefore, our teams have the autonomy to embrace responsibilities.

Long-term partnerships, like ours with Realize, are common at CWI. Solid relationships and mutual trust are highly valued by our team, whose work is always focused on providing healthy growth for the client.

Another constant is the ownership mentality — the “feeling of ownership”. We treat everything within our reach at Realize with the same care and responsibility that we would apply to an internal project. We are always on the lookout for opportunities for improvement and
committed to business objectives, acting proactively to optimize processes and forms of organization.

About Realize

Realize is the financial arm of Lojas Renner S.A., created to offer products that simplify the lives of its consumers and support retail activity. The Renner Card provides an exclusive limit for purchases in three of the corporation’s store chains, while the My Card allows you to make purchases anywhere in the world. There are also Quick Withdrawal and Insurance services.

Realize’s operations are linked to Renner, Ashua, Camicado and Youcom stores, which total more than 600 physical points of sale. The company has all its shares traded on the stock exchange and has been a publicly traded company since 1967. The internationalization process began in 2017, with the opening of Renner stores in Uruguay, and was expanded two years later with the beginning of operations in Argentina.

About CWI

CWI is an extremely solid company in the Information Technology sector and has been consolidating itself as one of the largest in Brazil in the area. There are more than 30 years of work in software development with delivery quality as the main guide.

Over this time, 2,000,000 hours/year were dedicated to planning, structuring and developing projects. We operate in the retail, finance, technology and many other segments.

Services to optimize results

CWI offers different services in the area of Strategic Software Engineering. Some of them are: tailored solutions, support (monitoring and maintenance of systems) and outsourcing (professionals working in an integrated and collaborative way with the client’s team).

In all these services, high standard deliveries are constant. This is because our team’s varied experiences allow solutions to be designed and executed from end to end, integrating the spheres of Processes, Design, Development and Quality.