When partnering with SingleStone, all software, site upgrades, and infrastructure consulting put your company at the forefront for delivering a reliable, intuitive user experience. By leveraging our depth of expertise, you can focus on its core mission and let SingleStone deliver solutions tailored for your business.
Primary Goal: Redesign Website for Best-in-Class User Experience
Solution Type: Content Management System
Solution Used: UX Research, Implementation, Content Strategy, Content Management, UI Design, Change Management, Content Refresh
Tools Used: Sitecore, Coveo
About the Client
With the current focus on sustainability and renewable energy resources, providing clean energy is a growing and high-stakes business. SingleStone's client, a highly successful US-based utility company, lives and breathes this environment every day. Operating over 16 states and with more than 85% of its energy from renewable sources, this large company sees over $1 billion annually.
We know that renewable energy sources are susceptible to intermittency (the reality faced by these providers because the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow). That’s why internal use of website resources by employees — as well as client-facing communication and informational tools for customers — helps this energy giant manage its wind and solar assets to provide uninterrupted service. And when it needed a new website design to improve that service for both internal and external customers, SingleStone was there to help.
The Challenge
Today’s internet users are bombarded by visuals, graphics, and quality of user experience. Regardless of the product, having a great user interface with relevant, intuitive, and current information can differentiate between a bad experience and a good one. It can also elevate a good experience to a great one. And each step up or down that chain directly impacts a company’s brand perception.
The utility provider faced several common issues faced by large and scaling companies. Their internal stakeholders felt that the website was outdated. They also felt that it lacked a best-in-class experience. As it was hosted on older versions of their Customer Management System (CMS) platform, it did not allow industry best practices to be utilized because of the system’s limitations. And finally, they had previously acquired a smaller energy company and were required to integrate the two systems and sites into one seamless version.
Redesigning and Deploying a Best-in-Class Website
These challenges are familiar to many who have worked for companies with aging websites. Because technology changes quickly, delayed regular updates can quickly turn a platform into an outdated system, placing a drag on user experience. This not only impacts a company’s brand, but keeps them from offering new, updated, or improved service to their customers.
SingleStone excels in providing solutions to these problems and in exceeding expectations once completed. When this billion-dollar utility company partnered with us at SingleStone, we quickly got to work and leveraged our expertise to offer the solutions needed.
SingleStone used Sitecore to develop the user experience platform. As a solutions partner with over 10 years’ of expertise in Sitecore software, we leveraged Sitecore to develop a digital strategy and to redesign the utility company’s website. This included a website design that was data-driven and presented in a user-friendly format to enhance the experience.
SingleStone also upgraded the technical infrastructure with automated deployment pipelines. This meant that changes to code for additional upgrades and service offerings on the site could be done without manual steps, eliminating both error and time-consuming steps. Now, changes can be deployed quickly across the system. Using Secure Email Gateway (SEG), we were able to add intuitive, secure, and relevant content that was purposely displayed for the energy utility’s customers.
For added value to the user experience, SingleStone uses Coveo for Sitecore. As an AI-powered platform, Coveo helps websites “learn” what customers want and need to improve the search functions when on the site. The system can also personalize the experience so that each user sees the most relevant content for them. And it can expand user experience further by offering “Recommended for You” content aimed at the user’s preferences.
The Outcome
The results were striking and visually stunning. SingleStone built and authored 807 pages of the website content, each backed by the power and ease of use of the tools used. We also created 121 design mockups. Because different users – both internal and external – have different needs, these mockups helped customize user interfaces with a unique experience tailored to both individual needs and preferences.
Finally, SingleStone created 18 “change ambassadors” within the site. This allowed the 16 different business areas within the utility provider’s company to be further customized to fit that specific area's business needs.
By focusing on user experience as the core of site design, SingleStone can leverage its extensive expertise to upgrade, redesign, or enhance its websites to provide an optimized, fun, intuitive, and relevant user experience. All of this enhances brand reputation to offer true value to the customer. If you would like to discuss our approach to upgrading your website – or for a wide range of other solutions – contact SingleStone today.