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Brief
VIE at home (VAH), formerly Virgin Cosmetics, is one of the UK’s largest party planning companies. Around 10,000 Consultants sell its range of high quality make-up, skin care and other products direct to consumers in their own homes. Following a management buy-out in 2008, VAH met with Sitecore and its Solutions Partner, Igentics, and asked them to provide its website - www.vclub.vieathome.com - and associated online community, known as VClub, with a complete facelift. VAH wanted far greater compatibility and coordination between the site’s different component elements from the internal messaging system through to order processing and consultant message boards along with a strongly branded, more consistent look and feel.
Strategy
As a starting point, VAH wanted to give its site a much needed overhaul. VAH was running a Microsoft SharePoint 2007 content management system that it had inherited from its time with Virgin Group. The system was cumbersome, unreliable and expensive to run. Furthermore, key members of the technology team responsible for maintaining the system under Virgin’s management were no longer involved. For the site to be more effective and relevant to their needs VAH wanted aspects of Web 2.0 to be introduced to make it easier for Consultants to engage with head office. It was important that the site should remain based on the Microsoft .Net platform to allow the existing VAH team to take over and manage VClub after the site’s re-launch.
A strategic priority was to make the content management system much faster and easier to use. The original content management system had been adapted to work with diverse applications such as order processing, internal mail systems and consultant forums in a rigid and complicated framework. There was limited consistency of look and feel between the various elements. For Consultants, search and navigation around the site was poor, whilst for staff updating content and managing workflow it was extremely time consuming.
The second part of the strategy was to reduce how much downtime the site had to spend undergoing repairs as a result of its inherent lack of flexibility. In consequence Consultants would be put off from browsing the site as frequently or for as long as VAH would like. VAH wanted this to be turned around to make the experience engaging and informative for Consultants so that they would be encouraged to spend more time on the message boards and make more use of the email system (known as Vmails) which helps the Consultants keep their own customers informed about the latest special offers. The objective was to provide better communication of information so that the field Consultants would feel more closely involved with the VAH brand.
VAH also wanted to make sure management and non-technical staff could easily update and maintain content and branding throughout the site. They also demanded that the overall design should be more interactive and intuitive for their Consultants. A key part of the strategy was to increase the use of images and reduce reliance on text. They also wanted non-technical marketing administrators to be responsible for making sure the site’s branding was fresh and consistent and to be able to update and manage VClub content. Meanwhile the sign-on process for Consultants was to be simplified whilst at the same time ensuring the original sales ordering and tracking portal remained secure.
Another important goal was to reduce the overall licence costs associated with the site. Finally, following the initial brief, the new VClub site had to be ready in just 10 weeks to meet VAH’s tight deadline.
Execution
Igentics recommended that Sitecore be used as VAH’s main Web content management (WCM) platform. Based on the Microsoft .Net-based development platform Sitecore was a natural fit with VAH’s incumbent SharePoint environment. Much simpler to operate and a lot less costly to maintain than the old SharePoint system, Sitecore’s easy-to-use range of pre-built connectors and data abstraction layers were used to address the site’s integration issues. Sitecore’s feature-rich WCM environment also provided scope for more flexibility and functionality to be easily introduced.
Among the additional features and benefits introduced to VClub were:
A user-friendly messaging system - this makes it easier for head office to send personalized messages to individuals and/or groups of consultants and managers in the field, Igentics implemented a Messaging system which allows VAH’s marketers and administrators at head office to easily and quickly send messages from birthdays through to stock announcements to individual consultants or groups of consultants on the same grade or in similar geographic locations. Another Sitecore module, the YAF (YetAnotherForum) .Net forum builder, has been used in a similar capacity to improve the performance of VAH’s shared message board resource.
Better control of workflow - the addition of Sitecore’s Calendar module provides VAH with a powerful workflow tool for their Consultants. The Community Calendar allows head office to notify and remind teams of dates/meetings such as training or private appointments. As a result Consultants have better and timelier information about important events and opportunities
Greater visual appeal - Various Sitecore extensions now allow marketers to, for example, introduce image galleries and embed Flash and other video content to encourage users to spend more time interacting and engaging with the rest of the VAH community.
Fast feedback on new initiatives - Sitecore’s Poll module makes it easy for head office to quickly obtain feedback about new products and services by issuing spot surveys to consultants.
Simplified security and authorisation process - Sitecore’s out-of the-box Active Directory integration feature has made the process of signing-on to VClub extremely simple and straightforward.
Multi-language support - Sitecore’s built-in multi-language support will be another strategically important feature as VAH pursues its stated ambition of extending operations into other European markets in the months ahead. Germany is the first market being targeted for growth.
Result
Since the revitalised VClub went live VAH has benefited from significant time savings on content management. Administrators and management find it a lot easier to keep Consultants up to date with the latest news and changes. There has been a measurable increase in daily traffic from Consultants who are spending more time on the message boards and making use of the improved reliability of the Vmail system. VClub is now able to help VAH process a lot more feedback. In part, this is due to the fact that it is much easier for head office to communicate directly to the Consultants and teams. The changes have been a hit with Consultants who have been full of praise for VClub’s new look and feel. There is widespread agreement that the system is now modern looking and eye catching as well as much more user friendly in terms of navigation and search.
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