Building an omnichannel digital experience platform

Solution overview

To win in this highly competitive environment, KBC needed to translate their integrated bank-insurance business and operating model into their digital organization. AmeXio helped them re-think and re-design their digital portfolio from the customer’s point of view. To achieve this, moving from their old proprietary content management system to a fully-fledged digital experience platform was imperative. The goal was to have a single core CMS where they can manage and reuse content across channels, while the users’ experience remains seamless and consistent.

Technical foundations

The technological basis for the new platform is Adobe Experience Cloud, a mature and powerful solution ideal for large, complex environments and managing content in-house. It was clearly the right solution, or rather an ecosystem of tools for KBC to achieve content synergies between platforms and further personalize their offer. Adobe Experience Cloud also integrates with other additional tools, such website translation software, site search tools, as well as transactional websites. All of this fit in perfectly with KBC’s strategic plan, in which customizable speed and flexibility are central.

Platform transition

The transition of all of KBC websites to AEM was a major step and included the full streamlining of their digital landscape on the needs of each client segment, instead of on the Group’s solutions and branch locations. To promote speed, flexibility and knowledge exchange, an onsite AmeXio web and digital team is integrated with KBC’s business teams. This ensures a shared, unifying working methodology and close involvement of our technical experts since very early on all projects.

Content migration was split in waves. The first wave of the program was the KBC website aimed at business owners and SMEs, which also served as “proof of concept” process to develop templates and key components that would be needed, and which would then be reused for other KBC sites. This pilot case was also an instrumental step to design testing strategies, build automated workflows, and ensure security and performance are maintained. As one of the largest European bank insurers, KBC’s websites can get up to a million visitors per day.

Results

A full blown digital experience ecosystem

Through their close, strategic cooperation with AmeXio, KBC transformed a dispersed portfolio of online services into a hybrid one-stop shop for bank-insurance customers, providing seamless high-value interaction across channels: branch, call center, online and mobile.

Empowered with a full-blown Digital Experience Platform, KBC team can now manage websites and content in apps in Adobe Experience Manager, A/B test conversion rates with Adobe Target, deploy digital campaigns, newsletters and eMessaging systems in Adobe Campaign, all while Adobe Analytics measures data and customer interactions in real time.

Following the successful proof of concept, the new public website for KBC in Belgium was launched in November 2015. Since then, thirteen of KBC’s websites and apps have been progressively fully migrated from the original proprietary CMS into AEM. The remaining KBC Group website was moved from Drupal to AEM during 2019.

An organization-wide Content Hub

With content managed from a single CMS, all channels are fully transparent and provide a consistent experience to customers. Privacy protection and digital security ensure they can do easy banking via computer or mobile, get instant access to insurance assistance or track investments with the same high level of quality as in a personalized, in-person branch visit. The network of bank branches and insurance agencies remain crucial contact points for engaging with customers directly, but they are also key to bring more and more customers to digital, by advising them to download an app or consult the website.

This integrated approach to digital experience management is a true reflection of KBC’s integrated bank-insurance model and the unique cooperation and interaction between their broad range of distribution channels (e.g. tied agents, bank branches, contact centers, websites, and mobile apps). It was also a strong driver of various commercial synergies, leading to the rise in the number of clients holding both KBC banking and insurance products.

Better understanding clients’ needs

The Adobe Analytics capabilities allow KBC to deeply understand and address their clients’ behaviors and needs, so they’re better positioned to proactively offer them more complete and relevant solutions. This commitment to adding value to clients helps KBC build trust and inspire loyalty, two cornerstones of financial services in the digital era.

Helping people take well-informed decisions

This investment also rendered positive outcomes for KBC’s corporate social responsibility goals. They’re contributing to raising financial literacy by improving general public knowledge of financial concepts and products and helping people take well-informed decisions.

Looking to the future

As the figures above show, the joint work between AmeXio and KBC has recorded strong results for their digital initiatives. To highlight the importance of innovation and digitalization within KBC, the Group appointed a Chief Innovation Officer to focus on their agenda in this area.

Through this strategic partnership, we are continually working together to fine-tune client experience. Our common goal is to make KBC’s one-stop-shop offering the reference in client-centricity and to secure long-term, sustainable growth for the group.