emakina academy #13 : fortis merchant banking public portal

Fortis Merchant BankingPublic Portal

Olivier PeralsSenior Account ManagerEmakina

Fortis Merchant Banking Public Portal

Briefing

• Visitor centric (no mirror of MB’s internal organisation)

• Putting forward MB’s integrated cross-border, cross-skill, high value approach (marketing showcase)

• 1 umbrella portal, several sites or editions based on clients segmentation clusters and/or geographical scope: Medium-sized companies (2.5M€ - 250M€) Large corporate (>250M€) Public companies and organizations Financial institutions and intermediaries (traders…)


Challenges

• Define a better customer-driven segmentation with a specific approach for each category

• Provide a competitive benchmark, a comprehensive status of

the current websites and a relevant strategic recommendation based on Emakina's expertise

• Install a convenient content management solution for easy

updates on the website while keeping a strong workflow


Market knowledge: Competition benchmark

• Emakina analyzed competition’s web presence and strategy

• Helped Fortis to understand the context, detect new opportunities and learn lessons from good, best, bad and worst practices

• 7 key elements in the line of fire : Structure/Navigation Homepage Profiling Content Interactivity Banners/News Search


Essential elements

Visual hierarchy

Structure represented

Hint of content

Geographic scope

Intuitive goals

Call-to-action


Heuristic review

• Sytematic review of the content

• Find, identify and prioritize usability problems of your own website(s)

• 7 key elements in the line of fire : Structure/Navigation Homepage Profiling Content Interactivity Banners/News Search

• Ultimate goal: enhanced user experience


***News appropriately put forward: subtle and prominent at the same time.

*It is not clear that the animation is clickable (leads to ‘About us’ section).

**Other highlights, using attractive video. Very likely pulls many visitors deeper into the website.

**Mentioning related websites here (on the homepage, but below the fold) seems appropriate; lost visitors are immediately helped back on their way.

**Feature highlight is relevant, but seems to be dumped on the homepage in a hurry.

***Directing visitors to their right websites is heavily promoted, which is perfect.

*Symbols might not be familiar enough and do more damage than good.

**Link is a lot less useful if it’s not a real login shortcut for returning users.


***

Overall image and tone of voice seems very professional, serious, to the point.

**

CB has a somewhat more dynamic, modern look & feel. MB looks more static, dull, old fashioned (largely due to its lack of visuals and text-only character).

**Do watch out with ‘light’, cute or jokingly tones, because they threat to water down your overall credibility.


Emakina’s recommendation

• User-centric approach: more focus on interactivity and content to improve search-engine friendliness

• Show why Fortis is different from the others (innovative image) • Tighter and clearer customer segmentation that better profiles

each category of customer

• Use emagiC CMS.Net as new content management solution


Emakina’s recommendation

• Construct clarity between the main [brand].com when using a dedicated MB website

• Keep the overall company galaxy (websites) as simple as possible• Objective segmentation based on tangible criteria• Create an overall atmoshpere to gain trust and confidence• Divide content into small portions, and especially short paragraphs• Present content so it is scannable• Keep to ‘writing for the web’ guidelines, like using bullet points, grouping,

keyword highlighting, etc.• Provide explanations at logins for secure content• Integrate multiple media in brand or services presentations• …• Use emagiC CMS.Net as new content management solution


Why emagiC CMS.Net ?

• MS .Net framework

• Web-based interface with integrated WYSIWYG editor

• Multi-lingual editing

• Integrated content versioning

• Language matrix tool

• Role-based administration rights

• Localization of the administration interface

• Very scalable


Global/Local articulation

• This portal is a single source of information for both large corporations (searching for global solutions) and SMEs (commercial banking solutions at the local level)

• The whole content is centralized,managed and published by the « e-Channel » team in Brussels

• Built-in workflow « produce/approve/publish »

• The e-Channel team is even able to update Flash elements (e.g. Flash map displaying local business centers) through a simple XML system

• Long-term ambition: enable countries to manage local content on their own

eMAgiC


Business benefit

• Efficient customer segmentation that guides you to the financial product that fits with your own needs.

• Single portal providing a more consistent image of Fortis

Merchant Banking Business. • Renewed brand image that helps Fortis to stand out in the

European market. • Solid and flexible content management system driving the

content for each of the 16 countries covered by Fortis Merchant Banking Business.


A proof of concept for the « full service » approach

• Emakina provided an integrated solution including every part of the project: strategy, creativity and technological development

* Competitive benchmark

* Heuristic review

* Usability recommendation

* Design, integration and Flash development

* CMS implementation with custom-made developments

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Thank you!

Any questions?

emakina academy #13 : fortis merchant banking public portal

Technology

umbrella portal

public companies

local content

clearer customer segmentation

flash elements

key elements

overall image

current websites