The Challenge

Cadaret, Grant needed to enhance its Web presence with a new site that would improve the level of service it provided its nationwide representatives and showcase the offerings they could use to lure new independent advisors to the firm. The solution needed to be cost effective, flexible, upgradeable, and timely – they needed to launch in less than five months to coincide with a national convention.

From a content perspective, the challenge was providing more detailed commission and transaction data to the representatives. Most broker/dealers provide commission statements twice a month. If a transaction is missing or a commission amount is incorrect, the problem must be fixed immediately. Retroactively fixing the problems can become quite expensive. Information presented on a daily basis distributed via the web would alleviate those problems and their associated costs.

From a content management perspective, the challenge was giving a group of over 25 non-technical, geographically decentralized content contributors the ability to make website content changes. On top of that, all changes had to go through a legal/compliance and final marketing review before being posted to the live site.

Cadaret, Grant began by outlining its goals for the new website:

• Content Management: allow non-technical business area content owners and subject matter experts to update, add, and change content through a workflow system without the involvement of IT.
• Reduce Operating Costs: allow automatic distribution of commission and transaction data to the representatives to cut down on commission statement and transaction errors and the costs associated with fixing those errors
• Reduce Transaction Errors: rely on digital data (vs. hardcopy fax or mail) to significantly reduce data entry errors based on illegible handwriting and lost data based on missing envelopes or faxes.
• Attract New Representatives: use the website to market to prospective reps Cadaret, Grant’s portfolio of offerings and why they should join the team.

The Solution

To reach its online business objectives, Cadaret, Grant partnered with Bridgeline to implement our content management system, netEDITOR. netEDITOR’s combination of robust content management and flexible application integration gave Cadaret, Grant the ability to maintain all of their marketing and product information on the website, as well as distribute account and transaction data, and communications, in a permission based environment.

Bridgeline engaged its full team of designers, information architects, interface developers and application engineers to develop the site in two phases. The main goal of the first phase was to incorporate all the functionality of their existing site plus some targeted new functionality onto a content management platform. Part of the content included a multimedia Flash presentation directly accessible from the website’s homepage to entice prospective representatives to contact Cadaret, Grant for more information.

The second phase sought to further streamline existing business processes. Targeted initiatives included giving representatives instant access to daily market information, sales commissions and trade confirmations, as well as allowing reps to set up new accounts, initiate transactions and register for company events in an easy-to-use, interactive environment. Because of netEDITOR’s ability to integrate applications outside of content management, the business rules, logic and data responsible for driving this functionality is incorporated directly into the netEDITOR web-based administration application.

Bridgeline’s services group provided strategists, information architects, designers and Flash professionals to ensure a compelling and effective user experience.

The Results

The results have been impressive. Within the first 30 days of launching the new site, there was a 70% increase in representatives who were registered and actively using the website. After six months, transaction and commission errors had all but disappeared (reducing staffing requirements to manage these issues). Additionally, their non-technical content contributors have effectively integrated netEDITOR into their work routines and are competently contributing content through the workflow process. And according to the latest survey of existing and newly signed representatives, Cadaret, Grant’s attention to their representative’s needs was the biggest reason for joining or staying with the firm. The answer most often given about how Cadaret, Grant serviced their reps well was “via the website.”

"Bridgeline brought a great deal of experience, creativity and strategic thinking to the development process," says Art Grant, Founder and President. "Their work continues to exceed our expectations."