Chubb Case Study
Client |
Chubb |
Industry |
Corporate (B2B) |
Technology |
Amaxus Content Management System |
Live Site(s) |
http://www.chubb.co.uk
|
Company Profile
Chubb employs over 38,000 people, has two million customers and annual sales of 1.4 billion pounds world-wide.
Chubb's strengths are underpinned by a global infrastructure, Chubb's highly skilled and experienced workforce, a diverse range of quality products and services that provide a one-stop-shop for security.
Chubb is responsible for the security in many of the most prestigious and vulnerable sites around the world.
In the UK, Chubb supplies systems and services to most of the FTSE 100 companies. They provide 12 million personnel hours of security, perform 150,000 security systems site inspections, and service over 4 million fire extinguishers.
The Issues
As with many large companies, size creates both marketing and logistical issues. The Fire and Security industry is diverse, with a variety of product and service offerings. Cross-selling becomes complex whilst maintaining one core brand, not only globally but nationally, becomes a marketing challenge.This diversity had resulted in Chubb's online presence being haphazard. A number of websites existed, each pertaining to a specific area of the business. The development of each, however, had been pursued as individual projects, resulting in inconsistent branding, layout and content.
Other issues that Chubb faced included the duplication of information between sites, often giving rise to contradictions and unclear messages. The sites were largely 'static', with updates made by external agencies. It was clear that in order for Chubb to pursue a single, focused Internet strategy, the site maintenance would have to be brought in-house. A Content Management System (CMS) was the obvious answer. It offered Chubb the following core benefits:
- Complete control over content
- Roles based security
- Workflow control
- Version Control
- Dynamic, personalised content for the end-user
- XML-based Content Management System
Box UK worked closely with Chubb to implement Amaxus, its XML-based Content Management System.
The use of XML was a key component of Box UK's recommended strategy, offering numerous benefits including:
- Accurate retrieval of data
- Output of the sites to any platform
- Automated cross-selling of compatible products
- Transfer of data between Chubb and it's customers and suppliers
- Chubb's previous content was quickly reversioned and tagged using the elements Chubb had defined, together with standard elements taken from the Dublin Core, and other relevant schemas.
Amaxus also gave Chubb the ability to control numerous sites using the same system. For example, although Chubb UK and Chubb Ireland have different content, they are maintained via the same interface. User's of the Chubb CMS can choose whether a document appears on an individual site, or on both.
For example, Chubb is the leading provider of fire extingusihers and fire extinguisher related services in the UK and Ireland. The same page introducing the visitor to Chubb's fire extinguisher offering is used on both sites, although the other pages in the category are specific to the individual sites.
You can compare how the pages appear on the two sites:
Fire Extinguishers - Chubb UK
Fire Extinguishers - Chubb Ireland
Automated Workflow Process
A roles-based CMS was essential for Chubb due to the scale of the organisation. 'Roles-based' essentially means that different users have different privileges. Not only did each department need to have responsibility for their area of the site but Chubb Ireland (in effect a different entity) needed to control their site which would run off the same system, but have different content.
Scenario
A large organisation has 3000 documents that have to be added to its Intranet by the time of its launch in three weeks time. The deadline is looming, and the web team decide to hire temporary staff to enter the data into the system. Before they let the temps loose, they setup a workflow structure:
The temps will add the documents to the system. A department administrator will receive notification when a document is added. They will then proof it, make any amendments and submit it back into the system. An Authoriser will then be notified. They will review the document and if it is satisfactory, approve it. The document will now be 'live' and viewable via the Intranet.
Workflow structures can be setup to work with an organisation as a whole, or individual business units.
A Web Application - The Contact Wizard
Chubb provides such a diverse array of products and services that having a single point of contact for a customer is unfeasible, for both logistical and practical reasons.
The point of contact that an enquiry will reach depends on a number of issues:
- Region of the caller (related to postcode)
- Number of sites
- Major or standard account
- Nature of enquiry
- A large supermarket chain will have a different point of contact to that of a small business, although they may be enquiring about the same product.
To further complicate the problem, a user who is interested in two different products will in effect need to speak to two different people. This inhibits the cross-selling of products.
The website provided a clear opportunity to solve this. By using a series of matrices interlinked via a set of 'rules', enquiries via the website are automatically routed to the correct points of contact. This ensures that a user who may have enquired about a number of products or services will have their enquiry dealt with by the relevant Chubb personnel.
Virtual Walkthrough
Chubb were keen to place their broad range of products and services in a 'realistic' setting. This would enable users to get a clearer picture on what Chubb could offer them.
After an initial briefing, Box UK proceeded to develop a 'Virtual Walkthrough' using Macromedia Flash. The Walkthrough involves an office building with a number of typical areas, including a foyer, kitchen, warehouse, working area and external perimiter. In each area, applicable Chubb products and services are highlighted and explained.
The Virtual Walkthrough has been a great success, recently being developed further by Box UK for Chubb Australia.
Conclusion
Since the launch of the UK and Ireland websites in April 2001, Chubb has seen traffic grow by 300%, and sales enquiries triple. The scaleable and extensible backend enables Chubb to continually streamline and develop its online strategy.
Box UK also provides Chubb hosting and online marketing services.
