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| Client Services Extranet |
A secure, confidential and highly flexible web-based extranet solution that paid for itself within just a few months.
FBS Extranet Website
Developed by KBL to improve customer service levels and internal efficiency for First Business Support, this unique and exclusive solution delivers greatly enhanced customer satisfaction, improved staff productivity and increased new business sales.
Comprehensive
Enabling around 5000 customers to securely review account information online, this Extranet web site makes available full details of support conversations, downloads of FBS manuals on Working Practices, Law, Health & Safety and a quarterly magazine.
Cost-effective
In order to maximise a significant investment in in-house developed systems and solutions, KBL created a solution based around standardised Windows technology and provided support to enable The Client to maintain the site themselves.
All-round success
Customers now receive a far better service, which places fewer demands on sales staff. Internal IT personnel have ‘bought into' the system and the solution, which paid for itself on the savings of just one issue of the quarterly magazine, is also used as a powerful sales tool.
Details:
FBS Extranet
An example of how KB Logic provided a solution that helped both internal staff and external customers by providing a unique and exclusive solution.
First Business Support wanted to develop a client-focused website to enable around 5,000 clients to review information online about their accounts including support conversations, working practices manuals written by FBS, and Health & Safety guidance. At the same time, the website was to serve as a new and inexpensive channel to publish the quarterly magazine that all clients had historically received through the post.
To ease management of the system, the solution was to be integrated into the Client's suite of products (developed in-house) and to be presented using MS-Sharepoint Services so that FBS could continue to manage the Extranet site themselves following deployment.
The Problem
In an aggressively competitive market-space, The Client had to think laterally about how they could provide unique, distinctive, value-added elements to their business proposition in order to gain more market share. They wanted to develop an Extranet ‘Portal' that would make all documents and information prepared for each customer - along with a history of conversations - transparently available without the need to refer to an FBS staff member.
Although the client had an in-house IT development team and all the information required was readily accessible, the team had doubtful availability due to work pressures and limited skills in this area. Moreover, The Client was uncertain how to realise their ambition.
The Requirement
KB Logic was asked to create a highly secure Extranet website that would enable customers to research their own records and documents online and remove the costs involved in printing and mailing a quarterly magazine by making it available for customers to download on-demand.
Rather than re-inventing the wheel, we were also asked to maximise the Client's investment in in-house developed systems and solutions by using these to obtain client/account-centric information wherever possible.
The website was to be based around standardised Windows Sharepoint technology for ease of administration and we were also to provide mentoring-level support so that the Client could continue to maintain and support the site themselves once it had gone live.
The Solution
Existing systems and infrastructure were utilised where possible to extract relevant data about customers' documents and interactions with each customer. These were then published to a Windows Sharepoint Services based Extranet site in the form of web-parts.
Customers were thus able to see a record of all conversations, all procedures manuals, Health & Safety and Employment Law guidelines. There were also areas for customers to download the quarterly magazine, plus sub areas where FBS could focus on news items related to Health & Safety or Employment Law.
Given the highly commercially sensitive nature of the Extranet site, we also consulted to define a highly secure web architecture, designing and implementing a defence-in-depth solution using Windows Domain Security and Secure Sockets.
The Benefits
The Extranet is structurally very secure, meaning that highly confidential and commercially sensitive data can be published on it. The site is segmented by user and can be tailored to make a unique experience for each individual. Customers can now self-serve, so that rather than asking FBS for the latest versions of any document, they can simply log on and get it.
Where legal changes require documents to be updated, FBS can alter their master document, which automatically uploads to the Extranet site so the customer always has the most up-to-date version. FBS now have far fewer ‘Can I have my latest copy of such and such a manual' type of telephone call.
Utilisation of existing in-house systems encouraged buy-in from the IT development staff who felt valued rather than pushed out, and the costs of printing and mailing the magazine were completely removed, this in itself paid for the entire development in just one issue!
The Extranet is used as a primary sales tool by Salespeople who demonstrate its usefulness to new prospects and has been extremely well received by prospects, making sales where it was previously difficult.
KB Logic created a slick, transparent system that empowered a knowledge-sharing relationship between FBS and their customers. Achieving complete handover of the system to The Client after go-live, our flexible approach ensured that the client had no tie-in to the software supplier. |
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