Tim van der WeerdFriday, August 12, 2016

Rabobank commissioned Capital ID to develop a brand and communication platform for the bank: Communicatie Shop 2.0. These days, 80% of the Rabobank’s operational communication activities take place via the ID Manager platform. The platform’s value for the bank lies in e.g. the increased communication strength, compliance, improved brand consistency and structural cost reductions it offers.

Savings twenty times higher than investments

Together with the Rabobank, Capital ID has successfully completed work on the bank’s new and improved brand portal: the CommunicatieShop 2.0. Mick Roovers, Specialist Marketing Resource Management at the Rabobank, tells of the success of the CommunicatieShop and these major improvements.

“In 2006, the Rabobank started looking for a platform to strengthen our brand consistency. A digital asset management system that could also support the creation and distribution of communication content. During that period, we had a software suite that we used, but we were straining against the limits of what it could offer. We chose Capital ID’s ID Manager platform because of its ‘templating’ options and the licensing structure they employ. Furthermore, we wanted a solution that would tie in seamlessly with our processes and Capital ID offers just that.”

ID Manager fully customisable

Rabobank has opted for a flexible solution to optimally service its complex organisational structure. The fact that the initial costs of a solution with a custom configuration are higher was factored into the decision. The way in which Rabobank wants to use its platform does not lend itself to an (often cheaper) “Point Solution.” The organisation wants everything to do with marketing and communication to be combined into a single solution – from brand policy to corporate style, from its social media code of conduct to security requirements. Choosing a point solution would have required too many compromises. The CommunicatieShop has been set up in such a way as to simplify the existing processes.

Business case

“Just like other organisations in the financial sector, we carefully consider the costs and benefits of what we do. As the CommunicatieShop team, we require a budget for the management and continued development of the platform and that investment has to be recouped somehow. We have developed a solid business case to that end. Within that business case, we have identified three components to which we want to contribute:

  • Cost (how much do we invest and what savings can we achieve as a result?)
  • Value (what are the gains in terms of brand consistency and effectiveness?)
  • Risk (what forms of reputational damage or other risks can we reduce or even prevent with the platform?)

In all three areas, we are currently doing very well indeed. Every year, we realise savings that are twenty times higher than the investment, we contribute significantly to the brand consistency and to effective and unified methods within the organisation and, mainly online, we are able to mitigate many (security) risks with the help of clear solutions.”

Facilitating

“Our most important task is still to motivate our colleagues to use the CommunicatieShop as much as possible. Whether you work in Communication, as a controller or in the IT department: the platform is designed to add value for anyone, because everyone needs some form of communication content at some point – anything from an email signature, a business card or an entire event registration website. It is therefore important that the platform works well, is complete and easy to use.

With circa 17,000 unique visitors every year, more than 50,000 media downloads and more than 60,000 orders from the “DIY” templates, we are doing well. It certainly helps that we have something for everyone. There is a basic set of tools that everyone uses, e.g. PowerPoint presentations, business cards and the email signature. On top of that, we offer a wealth of options that are more relevant to specific functions, e.g. to campaign managers, social media specialists and event managers. We facilitate people to keep them from feeling a need to look elsewhere.”

User-friendly

The final update was mainly about improving the platform’s usability. With success, because it increased from 53 to 78 points (SUS rating).

“I am extremely proud of this result,” says Mick Roovers, “but I am just as happy about the road we took together with Capital ID to get to this point. We tackled this project in an agile manner and that intensive cooperation has paid off. We will continue work on this project with planned releases in sprints, so we can service our users quicker. We offer them what they will need tomorrow, not what they wanted yesterday.”

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