CM curbs costs for Swiss bank

User stories from the knowledge front

The average company Web site has grown 1,000% in the past two years, according to a recent press release from Obtree Technologies , a content management software vendor headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. And rather than serving merely as a showcase for an organization, the corporate Web site is said to be a key component in the value chain. Realizing the importance of the Internet today and wanting to reduce spiraling publishing and Web site maintenance costs, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) decided to create an intranet information platform for its 4 million retail customers. The bank needed a content management system that could handle more than 3,000 pages initially. And an estimated 120 authors were involved in online publishing processes from decentralized locations, including WAP, electronic postcards and data terminals.

Explains UBS Executive Director Beat Rohrbach, “We were already clearly aware of the potential significance of the Web as a vehicle for establishing customer loyalty. In order to make this vision come true, we set up a project aiming to make all product information and sales literature available to our 5,000 UBS consultants on the Web.” The bank chose the C3 content management system from Obtree, with whom it had collaborated since 1995, as its solution.

“Today the latest update of [the system] contains the entire UBS retail product portfolio for our customers,” says Rohrbach. “Our catalog including 150 UBS retail products in English, German and French are held within thousands of Web pages, including a travel information system, which will soon also be available for private banking. Our next step will be to extend this platform as a portal for all Internet users.”

The intranet-based Product Information Platform at UBS provides customer advisers with electronic brochures, with which product presentations can be staged for customers, sample calculations can be done, and handouts can be printed. It supports the publishing process in its entirety from input through online response to inquiries. The system is also used for Web-based company staff training, and it includes a knowledge database for application support, so that users with similar problems can benefit from previous answers