Web Development

Prudential Aligns E-Business With Business Strategy

As part of the continual upgrade of Prudential Financial's Web site (www.prudential.com), begun earlier this year, the carrier has added a new page called Women & Finance to its financial planning section. "The exciting and challenging thing is the Web is fluid, so we continually can upgrade and modify the site," says James Brett, vice president and head of e-business development for Prudential.

Prudential uses e-marketing platforms for communicating with customers, according to Brett. "We are customer-design, usability, and metrics focused to understand from a human factor what people need and what's the easiest way for them to get it," he says. Prudential also measures and tracks the success of the Web site, either from a raw Web metrics perspective, from an analytics perspective, or from a sales perspective where leads are generated from the Web site and tracked through a back-end match for Prudential's customer database.

Prudential has structured the e-business development group to be in line with the carrier's overall business strategy, Brett explains. "Our goal is to be connected to that overall strategy but also individually to the different business units," he says. The carrier views the Web as a critical component of the overall business strategy from a companywide perspective. "The work we do on the Web is reflective of what the company's overall goals and visions are," Brett adds.

For example, Brett points to the women's market. The carrier did a study analyzing the women's market and understanding the financial needs of women as a separate demographic. "There really are obvious characteristics, particularly when you go into the research," he says. "It's fascinating about how much longer women live than men and how, in many cases, they're underinsured." The percentage of women who either are the breadwinners or the financial decision-makers in the household also impressed Brett. "There is a whole host of things we've learned through our research," he says.

Once the carrier understood the research information well enough, the interactive development team began working with the communications group, the product marketing areas, and the research department to ensure it could determine how best to present its plan on the Web. "So, we're marrying the business needs and research with the design and usability and interactive principles of the Web," says Brett. "Insurance companies, in general, lag in this area." He lists the need for design usability, information architecture, front-end analysis and development, and building out a simple intuitive interactive experience so it is very easy for people to use the Web site as examples of where some Web sites fail. "Those are the things we pride ourselves on," he continues. The Prudential strategy marries the business needs with the right interactive approach to present the audience information that reflects the re-search, he adds.

Prudential has a centralized content management system that supports multiple business units and is scaled across the enterprise, reports Brett. Within that platform, Prudential has automated custom workflow approvals and the flexibility for new designs. "We have a metrics analytic platform to ensure we can track and understand Web metrics," he says. "We also have click-screen analysis to keep an eye on user behavior–not only after we've tested new implementations with users but to analyze metrics on a regular basis to determine how the overall flow is performing and where drop-off rates are–and then we continually iterate page changes to enhance the online experience."

The goals for Prudential's Web site are to educate a broad-based multiple demographic and to let the industry know Prudential is a thought leader in this area, where customers can learn more about what their needs are and ultimately start to engage with Prudential, Brett indicates. "I'd say we're doing more education and building trust initially instead of trying to get the biggest amount of applications we could get from this demographic," he says. "We take a very broad approach. Our specific business rules clearly are meant to let women know we understand this marketplace and for them to engage with one of our financial professionals."

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Prudential Aligns E-Business With Business Strategy

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