Chubb - Case Study

Chubb employs over 47,000 people, has two million customers and annual sales of 1.6 billion pounds world-wide.

Chubb's strengths are underpinned by a global infrastructure, Chubb's highly skilled and experienced workforce, a diverse range of quality products and services that provide a one-stop-shop for security.  

Chubb is responsible for the security in many of the most prestigious and vulnerable sites around the world.

In the UK, Chubb supplies systems and services to most of the FTSE 100 companies. They provide 12 million personnel hours of security, perform 150,000 security systems site inspections, and service over 4 million fire extinguishers.

The Issues

As with many large companies, size creates both marketing and logistical issues. The fire and security industry is diverse, with a variety of product and service offerings. Cross-selling becomes complex whilst maintaining one core brand, not only globally but nationally, becomes a marketing challenge.This diversity had resulted in Chubb's online presence being haphazard. A number of websites existed, each pertaining to a specific area of the business. The development of each, however, had been pursued as individual projects, resulting in inconsistent branding, layout and content.

Other issues that Chubb faced included the duplication of information between sites, often giving rise to contradictions and unclear messages. The sites were largely 'static', with updates made by external agencies. It was clear that in order for Chubb to pursue a single, focused Internet strategy, the site maintenance would have to be brought in-house. A Content Management System (CMS) was the obvious answer. It offered Chubb the following core benefits:

• Complete control over content
• Roles based security
• Workflow control
• Dynamic, personalised content for the end-user
• XML-based Content Management System

Box UK worked closely with Chubb to implement the Amaxus XML-based Content Management System.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) allows the structuring of data, making it easy for a computer to generate and read that data. Read more on XML and RDF.
The use of XML was a key component of Box UK's recommended strategy, offering numerous benefits including:

• Accurate retrieval of data
• Output of the sites to any platform
• Automated cross-selling of compatible products
• Transfer of data between Chubb and it's customers and suppliers
• Chubb's previous content was quickly reversioned and tagged using the elements Chubb had defined, together with standard elements taken from the Dublin Core, and other relevant schemas.

The content management system also gave Chubb the ability to control numerous sites using the same system. For example, although Chubb UK and Chubb Ireland have different content, they are maintained via the same interface. User's of the Chubb CMS can choose whether a document appears on an individual site, or on both.

Automated Workflow Process

A roles-based CMS was essential for Chubb due to the scale of the organisation. 'Roles-based' essentially means that different users have different privileges. Not only did each department need to have responsibility for their area of the site but Chubb Ireland (in effect a different entity) needed to control their site which would run off the same system, but have different content.

Scenario

A large organisation has 3000 documents that have to be added to its Intranet by the time of its launch in three weeks time. The deadline is looming, and the web team decide to hire temporary staff to enter the data into the system. Before they let the temps loose, they setup a workflow structure:

The temps will add the documents to the system. A department administrator will receive notification when a document is added. They will then proof it, make any amendments and submit it back into the system. An Authoriser will then be notified. They will review the document and if it is satisfactory, approve it. The document will now be 'live' and viewable via the Intranet.

Workflow structures can be setup to work with an organisation as a whole, or individual business units.
 

Virtual Walkthrough

Chubb were keen to place their broad range of products and services in a 'realistic' setting. This would enable users to get a clearer picture on what Chubb could offer them.

After an initial briefing, Box UK proceeded to develop a 'Virtual Walkthrough' using Macromedia Flash. The Walkthrough involves an office building with a number of typical areas, including a foyer, kitchen, warehouse, working area and external perimiter. In each area, applicable Chubb products and services are highlighted and explained.

The Virtual Walkthrough has been a great success, recently being developed further by Box UK for Chubb Australia.

Conclusion

Since the launch of the UK and Ireland websites in April 2001, Chubb has seen traffic grow by 700%, and sales enquiries triple. The scaleable and extensible backend enables Chubb to continually streamline and develop its online strategy.

Box UK also provides Chubb hosting and online marketing services.