Company Information
Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario,
Manulife Financial Inc. [NYSE
& TXE: MFC] is a global insurance and financial services company
with 28,000 employees and agents in 15 countries, principally in North
America and Asia. In a highly competitive field, Manulife is embracing
technology to continuously enhance their relationships with employees,
partners, employees and other critical stakeholders. In 2004, Manulife
completed the acquisition of John Hancock and Maritime Life creating
the second largest insurance company in North America.
Need
With its global reach and need to remain competitive, Manulife
decided to evolve its current Lotus Notes website into one that
included a true, web-based site. To make this evolutionary stage,
Manulife engaged Prescient Principal Consultant Toby Ward to assess
their current environment and to develop the necessary strategic plan
and blueprint for building a web-based, knowledge management worksite –
a comprehensive, single-point access, interactive gateway to internal
business tools and knowledge within Manulife.
Additional work included the creation of a redesigned portal,
governance model, editorial-content policy, user research, prototype
testing and an intranet merger plan and portal design for the new
combined company of Manulife Financial and John Hancock.
Solution
Phase I — A rigorous assessment of Manulife’s current website
included a benchmarking exercise that examined the best practices of
more than one dozen leading website companies, interviews with 35 key
stakeholders at Manulife, and a review of existing Manulife employee
research. This assessment led to a complete blueprint plan of more than
250 pages, with more than 50 strategic and functional recommendations,
a business case with several million dollars in ROI potential, complete
information architecture, wireframes and a design concept, with
content, governance, management, and phasing recommendations.
Phase II — Subsequent phase work saw a complete
redesign of the site which included user surveys and focus groups as
well as information architecture development, design concepts, project
management of the build, prototype testing, governance model (roles and
responsibilities), and editorial/content policy.
Phase III — Manulife merges with Boston-based
John Hancock and Halifax-based subsidiary Maritime Life to create the
North America’s second largest insurance company. Manulife again
engaged Prescient Digital Media to spearhead the strategy and planning
of a combined company intranet portal – integrating the intranet assets
of all three companies. The mandate: to establish a proven, timely, and
short-term common intranet platform for all employees in all areas at
minimal cost.
In December 2003 and January 2004 Prescient undertook an
assessment and formal evaluation of the intranet environments at
Manulife, John Hancock and Maritime Life, which concluded with a
working plan, design concept and recommended technology solution for
launching a new company website gateway in May 2004. The project
included a business requirements analysis, a six-point evaluation of
the three intranet sites, and a benchmarking of leading best practice
companies. The project was approved by Manulife and John Hancock
executives and the new combined intranet gateway launched in May
2004.