Case Study: Strategic Technology Consulting
SITUATION
A major utility company was undergoing a significant evolution of its digital experience and wanted to modernize its existing website in order to properly service its base of 1.1 million customers.
The company’s web presence was out of alignment with customer needs. The user experience was flawed, especially for online payment processing, and provided only limited mobile device support. The intranet was also outdated and did not meet the operational needs of the business and its employees. Overall, the web infrastructure was difficult to support and maintain due to the internal proliferation of overlapping technologies, such as SharePoint 2007 & 2012, ASP.Net, SAP Portals, and multiple content management systems.
CHALLENGE
New leadership in the web & mobile group was tasked with the management of many needed enhancements for the company’s digital experiences. However, different elements were important to different stakeholders, and management wanted a clear strategy in place to prioritize the needs and solutions.
The company sought help from a third party with proven expertise in web & mobile best practices and emerging trends to define the strategy and deliver an actionable plan with a specific sequence of activities to drive the necessary improvements.
SOLUTION
The utilities company contacted AIM Consulting to craft its web & mobile strategy according to emerging UX design principles. In order to develop a comprehensive strategy, two AIM consultants spent eight weeks interviewing 51 individuals across 27 departments and researching the web analytics and current infrastructure. They identified issues and areas of opportunity in order to get a 360-degree view of the company’s situation.
After taking the time to fully understand what the company and its customers needed, AIM Consulting provided a detailed strategy and technology roadmap, outlining a vision for the company’s online infrastructure for the next 3–5 years.
AIM focused on delivering four concrete deliverables:
- Information architecture that considered the needs of the client’s customers as well as existing or future technology and business constraints.
- Recommendations of tools and skills to deliver web products with consideration of the client’s stated desire to focus more on delivery and less on maintenance.
- A strategic roadmap of quarterly milestones that would deliver immediate value to the client’s customers while achieving long-term strategic objectives.
- A governance model that would ensure compliance with the strategy and roadmap.
RESULTS
The client benefited from web & mobile experts whose strategy recommendations are built from years of experience in the industry. AIM Consulting delivered a thoroughly researched, multi-layered, and comprehensive strategy that considered the business from all angles and adhered to the overarching business and technology objectives to improve customer satisfaction, enable new business opportunities, and reduce costs.
