an introduction to valtech_

An introduction to Valtech

An Introduction to Valtech April 2015

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Contents


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• Who are Valtech? • Who we work with • Our Global Partners • Our philosophy:

• The Digital Charity • Selecting Technology

• Client Stories • Our Recommended Approach • Summary

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Who are Valtech? We are a full-service digital agency. We help brands gain competitive advantage in a digital world. If you want to understand how we work and what we believe, then the best explanation is this 15-minute video of our MD George Smith speaking at the Wired Conference in November.tinyurl.com/ValtechWired


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http://tinyurl.com/ValtechWired

Every brand and every business strategy is different, but 3 pillars underpin how to make sense of this new, digital world.

“

’’George Smith - Digital MD Valtech UK


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ORCHESTRATION

At Valtech we believe that the role of a digital agency is to help clients orchestrate experiences around their customers, making it intuitive to consume your products and services when, where and how they desire.

As such we have an exceptional team of strategists, creative technologists and experience design talent. We have also pioneered the methodology of ‘Lean

Service Design’ as a way of articulating and delivering such orchestrated experiences and making sure they produce a measurable difference to your bottom line.

We leverage our world class creative and technical talent to orchestrate and evolve a brand’s customer experience across any time, channel, device and physical location.


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INTEGRATION

The biggest obstacle to organisations in being able to orchestrate and evolve experiences around a single view of the customer, is often the complex integration of multiple systems.

This is where Valtech’s unique engineering heritage as an SI (Systems Integrator) liberates our creative minds

to not be bound by the limitations of single platforms or channels.

Due to our unrivalled expertise in Service Design and Systems Integration. We can go beyond just being able to help you conceptualise and design the perfect experience for your customers. We can bring it to life.


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EVOLUTIONEvery part of a modern business is continually being disrupted by innovative digital technologies. As such your business strategy and customer experience must continually adapt and evolve.

Valtech has long been recognised as a global leader in Agile and Lean methods, evolving customer experiences to make a measurable difference.

Our teams don’t just operate our own projects in a Lean way, we can also help bring business change to an organisation through enablement activities, and act as the catalyst to a more Agile and Lean mindset within our clients’ businesses.

Based In London BUT THE SUN NEVER SETS

MANCHESTER BRISTOL SYDNEY

NEW YORK PARIS

COPENHAGEN MUNICH DALLAS

SINGAPORE STOCKHOLM

DUSSELDORF BANGALORE


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End to End Digital Services

USER

CREATION

STRATEGY

DESIGN

INTEGRATION

TEST

PERFORMANCE

OPTIMISATION


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WHO WE WORK WITH


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Over the course of hundreds of implementations spanning a number of years, Valtech have forged global partnerships with the following platform vendors:

We are also proud of our extensive open source and bespoke skills and experience, gained through years of working with non-profit and public sector organisations such as several UK Government agencies. This wide range of expertise gives us the freedom to choose technology from the whole market to meet our clients’ needs.

OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS


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Digital technology presents a significant opportunity for many businesses to increase reach, engagement, and revenue. However, in our experience there are several specific considerations to be made when defining a digital strategy as a non-profit organisation.

Differentiation by Experience

Firstly, with a multitude of different businesses all vying for support, differentiation through digital is increasingly difficult - it is no longer sufficient to simply have a ‘web presence’. We believe that in today’s world, differentiation is best achieved through quality of user experience. For most this means maximising investment by taking the user on a fast, smooth, and meaningful journey of value.

Goal-driven Investment

Rapid and high ROI is critical. As such, any digital expenditure should therefore be focussed on a small number of key business goals, which should inform technology investment decisions, rather than the other way round.

Digital Agility

When running event-based campaigns, having the agility to flex to meet rapidly changing business and user requirements without being tied down by technical constraints is particularly important. This can only be achieved through technology that allows you to quickly evolve your operations without breaking the bank.

Legacy System Integration

Finally, many brands rely heavily on legacy back-end systems for day to day operations. Integration of cutting-edge technology to create a powerhouse digital ecosystem is therefore key to success, to drive down cost whilst also increasing the value of your existing investments.

Through engineering meaningful experiences in support of specific business goals in an iterative, lean, flexible way, brands can achieve digital success, driving higher return on investment, and supporting their positive impact in the marketplace.

OUR PHILOSOPHY


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OUR PHILOSOPHY - SELECTING TECHNOLOGY


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You need a partner with experience of: • Providing strategic input on website projects • Validating clients’ strategic and functional requirements • Validating clients’ CMS requirements • CMS shortlisting and recommendation

At Valtech we take an Agile Engineering approach to recommending a CMS. We believe this should be one of the last stages before commencing development, and we typically apply the Agile principal of "last responsible moment" to technology selection, to allow us both, as a partnership, to make the most informed decision.

Our experience indicates that there are two key success factors for a new CMS project: 1 User satisfaction 2 Future fit

Be fit for the future

A CMS recommendation usually represents a moment frozen in time. Full of hope for the shiny new future website, full of trust in all the powerful new features that the partner will implement and the customer will immediately use. The reality is somewhat different - features get de-scoped, or not delivered how you imagined them, or don’t deliver the expected business benefit, or else never even get used. Fixing this drives our Agile delivery approach, as does a commitment to flexibility, to ensure that as the world changes, so does your CMS. For us, flexibility is about more than product choice. Equally important are delivery methodology and customer enablement. Baking it in to every part of the implementation results in a platform that you are still in love with long after go-live. For this to be achieved, flexibility also needs to be ingrained into your organisation – the ability to adapt to new circumstances, test out ideas, and learn from the results. As part of our commitment to this, we work as a collaborative partner throughout, to transform our clients, enabling them to take back ownership as quickly as possible.

Keeping users happy

A CMS is a tool, and must be designed around your users. Audience reach and engagement is driven by your content, and the quality and timeliness with which it is produced. Every CMS feature that you do not use impacts user experience, and therefore digital performance. Ease of use is often significantly over-estimated by CMS vendors, and what seems easy to use to a technologist making a CMS product selection can be anything but easy to your typical user. It is therefore fruitless to try to jump to the answer before you know what the question is. A great CMS choice is not a single “best product” answer, as the question will be different for each organisation depending on their user and business needs. At Valtech, we can help you best identify these needs to make an informed decision, by looking at what your CMS users do on a day-to-day basis, what they like, and what frustrates them.

We govern the selection process through our 5 Engineering Principles, as outlined on the following page.

OUR ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES


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Our software engineering heritage sets us apart from other agencies. As such, our technical development expertise is deeper than pure CMS implementation partners. The following principles govern our approach to selection and delivery of all technology projects:

Business Fit Dropbox and SharePoint are both file sharing and collaboration tools, offering two very different solutions - neither is necessarily “wrong”, but selecting which one is right for you can be a challenge. Choosing a CMS can face similar issues, but as the products are less distinguishable, finding the right product can be harder. By identifying business and user needs,, we can more accurately select the right product for you.

Last Responsible Moment

Ask yourself “at which point do I really need to know the CMS choice?” We believe in waiting, not analysis paralysis. Allowing time to understand the features and workflows needed, or to imagine and design for them, will of course bear fruit. The architecture then shines light on the capabilities the right CMS will need to have, allowing you to select a product at the best possible moment to make an informed decision.

Choose Like an Engineer Vendor demos are the least illuminating ways to identify suitable software. Your requirements must therefore be clear before seeing “the answer” to avoid being distracted by features that you may not use. In addition, demos often avoid or downplay product weaknesses. Later selection allows you to identify exactly what you need, and how to test software fit. Our engineers ask deeper questions, recognising the importance of performance & scalability, testability, release processes, and the vendor’s strategic direction, in support of this goal.

Extend not Bend

Many CMS platforms are generic out of necessity. Thus some degree of customisation is to be expected, but without sacrificing stability, performance, simplicity, or the ability to upgrade. Avoid using software in a way it is not intended - this is a sure sign that you have chosen wrong. Thus, Valtech’s extensive platform knowledge and expertise is vital alongside our software engineering expertise.

Fit for Evolution

It is vital to have a mechanism for change and improvement beyond first implementation in order to flex to meet business and user needs. The CMS should work smoothly with this, not be a barrier to it. The development and release cycle, the workflows to use the software, the ability to integrate and extend, all should support evolution. Valtech’s extensive Agile experience gives us a unique perspective on platform flexibility in support of this aim.

Chosen in this way, a CMS can meet and indeed exceed your expectations, now, and for years to come. Valtech employs leading platform technology expertise to help our clients make the right decisions.

We’d be delighted to show you this capability in our next meeting.

CLIENT STORIES

To gain competitive advantage through digital, you need a partner who understands how to:

The following client stories demonstrate Valtech’s credentials in these areas.

Orchestrate a digital

experience to help transform a

brand

Help you select a technology

platform to meet your goals


Integrate the new platform

into legacy systems

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How to evolve the experience

through Agile Delivery

ORCHESTRATION OF EXPERIENCES


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SalesLife Online

As part of our digital partnership, Valtech delivered a lightweight working prototype delivered over a 2-week period to validate:

• Re-platform from a legacy CMS onto the modern EPiServer 7.5 platform

• Integration of a hybrid publishing app to EPiServer would serve user need

• Estimates and plan to proceed into the production delivery phase

This has enabled the client to validate decisions quickly and at low cost based on real data, saving costly technology mistakes and giving them confidence in a digital strategy that will drive real business value.

We believe this approach would is extremely valuable, allowing you to make technical decisions in the same way without risking your whole budget.

RESULTS• User-focussed, conversion-optimised design• Responsive, mobile first approach• Increased stability, page load speed, and SEO effectiveness• Integration to back end CRM and complex booking systems

ORCHESTRATION OF EXPERIENCES & TECHNOLOGY SELECTION


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Valtech were engaged by UK holidays company Park Resorts to help with a transformational web redevelopment project in late 2013. A significant part of this involved selection of a CMS. Valtech were selected due to our agnostic, engineering-driven approach to technology selection, implementation, and integration, as well as our strong UX & design credentials.

As part of a collaborative 6-month project, we guided the client through the technology selection process, finally deciding upon Sitecore as the best fit for their business. In parallel, we undertook significant UX & Design activities in order to implement both a new CMS and a modern, clean user-centric design focussed on driving customer engagement and conversions across all channels and devices.

The total cost of this e-commerce and web content project, excluding software licenses, was in the region of £200k..

Valtech have 20 years’ experience in delivering some of the largest and most complex projects in both public and private sectors. We are therefore primed to handle a wide range of integration challenges, such as that between CMS and CRM, for example, through pragmatic application of rigorous software engineering methods and techniques.

Due to the diverse nature of technical integration challenges, further details of specific, relevant client projects can be provided upon request.

Our focus throughout has been not only on delivery but client enablement in application of Agile methods.

Forrester in their report “The Truth About Agile” listed Valtech as one of only 2 global Agile development and transformation organisations that “have the most experience using Agile on co-sourced or outsourced application development projects”.

We have also delivered large-scale Agile delivery and transformation programs for a large number of diverse clients.

COMPLEX INTEGRATION AND ENGINEERING


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Since our inception in 1993, Valtech have delivered over 1000 Agile projects.

As a recent example of our Agile credentials, Valtech successfully re-imagined and built the new digital Carers’ Allowance service for the Department for Work and Pensions. The project was required to replace the non-compliant and challenging interface of the original site, helping to move as many users from the paper format transaction process to online. Prior to the launch of the new service an estimated 3.2 million people were performing 250k transactions a year, but only around 20% were completed online. With the Government Digital Strategy mandating ‘digital by default’ by April 2014, this was a critical project.

We worked in collaboration with DWP in performing detailed user research over the course of our Agile delivery process, with responses carefully monitored and fed back into the team to design a service with both internal and external users in mind.

Kathryn Baxendale of the Carer’s Allowance Unit championed Valtech’s Agile delivery: “Working with the Valtech and the core team on a daily basis has meant that we can see the service taking shape and the Agile methodology means that nothing is set in stone, things can be revisited and changed based on business and user feedback and needs”.

We have received the following feedback on the service from Mike Penning, the recently appointed Minister for Disabled People:

“The new Carer’s Allowance online claim sets the standard for future DWP digital services. It meets carers’ needs and provides a world-class user experience on PCs, laptops, tablets and smart phones.

Our work on this project has a direct impact on the quality of life of its users. It removes a pain point that the majority of those receiving an allowance were experiencing, and as uptake increases and more people become aware of the system we expect it to make even more of a difference. With the new service described by GDS as “the exemplary exemplar”, Valtech has set the bar high for all future GDS projects.

EVOLUTION OF EXPERIENCES THROUGH AGILE DELIVERY


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INITIAL PROPOSAL

Our Recommended Project Approach



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OUR RECOMMENDED PROJECT APPROACH

We believe that for every business it is important to drive the most value out of technology investment.

We firmly believe that this is best achieved through our application of Agile development and Lean UX methods. Iteratively and continually delivering a website that is rigorously focussed on user and business needs will also help continually maintain the momentum and stakeholder support required for such important, transformative projects.

We understand that projects aim to transform the way clients reach and engage with the public, and we are committed to helping you achieve that goal through the following project structure. • 1-day Vision Workshop • Project Inception • Iterative Delivery

We must not just build it right…

…we must also build the right “it”.


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THE REAL CHALLENGE

We expect every agency that you speak will be able to design, build, and launch good websites. But your biggest challenge is not in the implementation itself, it is in defining a scope that efficiently meets your business goals.

At Valtech, we think differently. As a true digital partner, we challenge our clients to think hard about requirements, starting at first principles in order to create an experience that is the best possible version of your site, driven by the value generated for your users and your business.

For example, we believe that user experience is not about what your users want, but about what they do. Only by first analysing this behaviour can we design a truly user-centric experience that transforms the way you reach and engage with your key audiences.


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Valtech typically proposes a ‘Lego Brick’ incremental delivery model. Through this we successfully achieve early launch of the simplest possible working website from which to gain user feedback, along with a clear, controlled, value-driven roadmap for additional functionality. This ensures that your investment drives the optimum business value whilst maintaining project momentum and stakeholder support.

Our ‘Lego Brick’ Delivery Model

ITERATION 2

ITERATION 1

INCEPTION & MVP

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ITERATION 1Build the next iteration of website functionality based on the prioritised backlog, and launch to the public

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ITERATION 2Launch further functionality, incorporating real user feedback where relevant, and informing future backlog activities

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MVPEstablish the MVP version of the site, potentially on the target CMS

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YOUR IDEAL PARTNER From strategy through design, technology selection and implementation… We are extremely excited about

this project. We believe that our combined experience of orchestrating, integrating, and evolving digital experiences that make a difference to the world makes us your ideal partner.

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We are a full-service digital agency, from strategy, through creative, delivery & support.

Our heritage is in Agile software engineering, with applied Lean User Experience.

Our USP is in delivering competitive advantage through digital for our clients across all sectors through:

• orchestration of experiences across channels, business units, and geographies

• integration of legacy platforms with new digital technologies, such as a CMS

• transformation and evolution of your brand & services, around your customers’ needs


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Jack Stevens Marketing Manager [email protected] Tel: +44 7964 919 517Thank you.


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Valtech 120 Aldersgate Street London, EC1A 4JQ • UK www.valtech.com

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

http://www.valtech.co.uk

an introduction to valtech_

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