The Situation
The Medical Assurance Society’s brand strap line, “We make it easy,” put customer service at the forefront for this membership-based organisation. Supporting over 20,000 medical and other professionals with their personal and business financial needs, ease of customer interaction is paramount.
Offering a comprehensive range of financial services, Medical Assurance Society (MAS) is a company in growth mode. Customer service is primarily driven through face-to-face contact with members via an advisor business network spanning the length of the country. While mechanisms such as a call centre and website were in place to provide support, the strategic overhaul of their intranet was viewed as a significant goal.
Essentially little more than a file-share tool, acting as a repository for around 10,000 documents, the intranet had no search function. Heavily reliant on email, there were no community or sharing functions, which resulted in each of the branches having to take individual responsibility for holding and accessing information.
MAS project sponsor, Ross McMillan, describes the problem:
“It was not possible to share information at any efficient or effective level. Branches had become silos of information and knowledge. Our goal was to achieve a single source of information – one version of the truth.”
The Pain
In reality, MAS didn’t have a functioning intranet. Acting as little more than a front page, it should have been the front door to a depth of shared information and understanding within the company.
A roadmap for the future.
Over a period of 18 months, MAS had identified an IT roadmap, giving considerable weight to a platform choice that would be one that would grow and expand to meet the company’s needs in the future. From the outset, the intranet became a very strategic marker. Ross McMillan explains why they chose to work with Intergen and an EPiServer platform:
“A couple of potential solutions came into frame. One was too big – a sledgehammer to crack a nut, so to speak, so when our Project Manager identified Intergen’s ability to achieve an outcome with EPiServer that had the right functionality, we were convinced. EPiServer was big enough to do what we wanted, with the functionality to grow, and as a cost effective solution we were putting more money into different parts of the design and architecture rather than purchasing a solution that was bigger than we required.”
Engaging a partner who could work in tandem with MAS’s design house, Experience, was another key factor in the appointment, according to Ross McMillan.
“Experience was very pro Intergen – based on their proven projects in the EPiServer space and their openness to contribute to a multi-partner mix.”
Functionality that ticks all the boxes.
Intergen has employed EPiServer technology in over 35 situations, and there is no doubt that it is seen as a product that can achieve outstanding results at a good price.
Ross McMillan sees the value: “It’s a product big enough to achieve the outcomes we were looking for, with the ability to expand to encompass additional functionality down the track. Why go over the top when this ticks all the boxes?”
MAS are now ticking off early wins since the go-live of their intranet. Statistics show the use of the intranet has gone up exponentially, user feedback is highly positive, document sharing is easy and it is seen as a good launch space for internal community interaction. Bottlenecks with content posting have been removed and the intranet is now the go-to space for the latest policy documentation.
“Essentially we now have one version of the truth; if it’s on the intranet, then it’s the current policy
and that accuracy is of enormous value in delivering the best customer service that we can,” says Ross McMillan.
Another benefit is that geographically MAS has virtually brought their branch network closer together through collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The Gain
As a go-to tool that delivers ‘one single version of the truth,’ the intranet supports great customer service and will be a cornerstone of MAS’s ongoing strategy for membership growth.