Challenge
Today's customer expects a top-tier experience, especially online. In order to attract customers, websites have to be easy-to-navigate and offer relevant content, while customized portals and self-service solutions are essential to keeping customers engaged. One regional insurance company wanted to deliver an excellent digital experience both internally and externally. While New Era Technology worked with them to complete their digital strategy which included recommendations on how to leverage their intranet portal to deliver personalization, automation, and user insights, their next step was to overhaul their existing intranet.
Their existing homegrown content management system (CMS) was neither customer-friendly nor employee-friendly. It was visually fixed, so it couldn't play embedded content, it didn't have any search capabilities, and there weren't any interactive elements. They company wanted to overhaul their site, updating the design and content, then moving it to Sitecore, which is a powerful content management system with expansive capabilities that combines data, analytics, and marketing automation to provide real-time content across any channel and an environment that allows connectivity and interactivity.
Ultimately, they wanted to:
- Create a frictionless user experience for agents and associates
- Increase awareness, clarity, and understanding of the uniqueness of their service offerings
- Provide more brand consistency and marketing efficiencies
- Empower marketing by enabling them to create and publish content
- Measure content effectiveness to ultimately engage more effectively with their audience
Solution
When the project started, the client already knew exactly what they wanted from their website and that Sitecore was the right CMS to help them meet their goals. Our first step in this project was to evaluate their existing platform and take the necessary next steps to implement a solution that would meet all of their business needs.
Following a digital strategy workshop, we began an initial assessment of our client’s current intranet implementation, design artifacts, content tree, and analytics implementation. During this phase, we interviewed stakeholders and primary users, conducted a CMS platform analysis, and identified strategic and tactical goals to lay the foundation for an optimal user experience in Sitecore. We then mapped out a strategy for the Sitecore development project to meet their objectives
Optimize their Sitecore Environment
We created a content structure that would support multi-site, multi-channel marketing strategies and tactics. This included a digital content governance plan and a publishing workflow process that included both Sitecore functions and offline business activities.
Create a Scalable Design System
We created a design system to scale across their Sitecore ecosystem, including design templates and objects, including:
- Description of tone and visual objectives
- Visual design comps illustrating the visual extension of the brand into a graphic user interface
- A content matrix
- Training requirements
- Testing plan
- A backlog of user stories
Build a Measurement Strategy
Our team then built a measurement strategy that leveraged digital analytics platforms to setup appropriate tags and collect customer data that positions proper analysis. This included internal reporting systems and Google analytics so our client could gain more insight from their data.
By assessing their initial state, identifying the gaps, and creating the right workflows and systems, we were able to target functions that were most impactful to this organization and their goals.
