Developing A Standards Extranet
Origo wanted to develop an Extranet to allow their Standards Holders to have greater access to Origo's Standards. Sopra Group developed a bespoke solution, which gave Origo control of the content management of the site.
The new Extranet has increased the user base by over 30%. The Extranet is user friendly, easy to navigate and presents the Standards in a clear manner.
Background
There has been a seismic shift towards E-commerce over the last few years, specifically in the business-to-business arena. E-commerce demands fast and secure communications, which has prompted the Life and Pensions industry to establish a uniform strategy to execute secure trading.
As a result, Origo was launched by sixteen leading life assurance companies as an independent UK forum to bring different industry groups together. These include life, pension and investment product providers, IFAs, portals and software companies. Origo's operating principle is to work to identify and define those elements of processing and information distribution that can be made common across the industry.
Currently Origo's standards are used for all types of business transactions and processes, from quotations right through to contract enquiries. More than 300 companies are currently registered to use Origo Standards. The Origo Sponsors, including Norwich Union, Standard Life and Skandia, make up 80% of the £500 billion life and pensions market in the UK.
Key Objectives
Origo wanted Standards holders and sponsors to be active partners in the development and usage of the Standards. This was not possible using their previous website and therefore it was decided that an Extranet was required to facilitate almost every aspect of Standards Use, Standards Education, Standards Projects, and Standards Development. The website was fundamental to the delivery of Origo's business strategy and had very strong industry support for the value of the data (the content). Over time, the presentation and accessibility of that data had become unwieldy, and restrictive, and the site was perceived to be outdated, slow and difficult to navigate.
Previously, Origo had engaged a third party to control the content management of the site making it difficult and time consuming for Origo to add new material or adapt what was already there. With the new Extranet, Origo wanted to be able to actively participate in improving the reach and relevance of the Standards to all the Sponsors and Holders.
Solution
Sopra Group was chosen to design the Standards Extranet. Their staff possessed both the skills and the in-depth knowledge of the business, having previously worked closely with Origo to develop UNIPASS, a secure digital certificate. Key to the successful development of the Extranet was not only the design and implementation of the solution, but also the migration of data from the old website to the new Extranet.
We followed their standard four-phased approach to projects of this nature:
- Discovery
- Visualisation
- Development
- Stabilisation
The bespoke solution was built on standard, proven, core Microsoft Internet technologies, providing a robust, scalable and cost effective platform not only for the initial development but also for future enhancements to the service.
The solution designed by Sopra Group removed the restrictions of the old site, by giving Origo, the true information owners, responsibility and control over what appears on the Extranet.
"The best thing about working with Sopra Group was the team's enthusiasm for the project and 110% commitment to meeting the very tight timescales. We delivered on time, and to budget. The project was a great success."
Joanne Richards
Marketing and Communications Manager
Key Benefits
Enables Origo's Sponsors and Standards Holders to be active partners in the development and usage of the standards:
- Increases control, enabling the Origo team to access, update and publish material in-house
- Exceptionally user friendly and easy to navigate
- Since it's launch the user base has increased by over 30%
Origo