Case Study: Wells Fargo

The amount of debt that many businesses must incur in order to achieve their objectives often produces large interest payments, exposing them to varying levels of risk. The products that the Wells Fargo Financial Risk Management offer employ an array of complex, risk-reducing methodologies.

In their effort to increase sales for the FRM product line, the FRM marketing team’s objectives were two-fold. First, to thoroughly educate their target audience (the primary Wells Fargo sales team, called Relationship Mangers) about the FRM products. The second objective was the creation of an identity for the FRM organization. To achieve these goals, Marker Seven was brought in to create a new FRM intranet site.

The new FRM intranet would serve as the single point of access to the Digital Think E-Learning platform. To address the complex security, billing, and auditing issues that existed between Wells Fargo and Digital Think and still provide an excellent user experience for the FRM target audience, a highly technical team with expertise in a wide array of web technologies would be needed to ensure the seamless integration of the new FRM intranet with the Digital Think E-Learning platform.

To address the site maintenance challenges, Marker Seven implemented a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS offers non-technical users the ability to easily administer and publish content on a website via a simple web browser. An administrator of the CMS has the ability to add editors and to specify various permission levels for each editor. HTML templates and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are typically utilized by the CMS to maintain a consistent look and feel. Workflows can optionally be defined so that new content would need to be authorized prior to being published on the FRM intranet.

To integrate the E-Learning platform, the Marker Seven and Digital Think engineering teams worked closely together to design and implement a solution that would meet the complex requirements of both organizations while at the same time creating a superior user experience.

Enrollment in the E-Learning Platform spiked upon launch, and each week the number of return users to various online courses remains steady. User login and registration functionality from the FRM intranet to the E-Learning platform has been implemented with approximately 99.99% success rate. Exhaustive testing of security, billing, and auditing measures between both systems has proven that the implemented systems are achieving the expected results.

The power of the Content Management System has saved the FRM a significant amount of time and money. With several non-technical team members now able to update content on the site, FRM’s technical resources have more available time and the FRM team can utilize their technical expertise in more efficient ways. “With the Intranet, Marker Seven has greatly improved our ability to share business critical information across the enterprise,” said Larry Roadcap, Vice President of Marketing.

The FRM intranet site has become a model within Wells Fargo. Many other organizations within the company have been enthusiastic about creating an identity of their own and have inquired about how the FRM team “did it”. The sites’ clean look and feel coupled with the fun theme and engaging content and features has resulted in higher traffic to the site than ever before.

Feedback from the FRM target audience (the Relationship Managers) has been consistently positive. Marketing collateral and product information is easy to find and help them understand the products and market them effectively. As a result, the FRM team expects to see significant increases in sales of their products.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified financial services company — providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance from 6,000+ stores, the internet and other distribution channels across North America and elsewhere internationally.

Headquartered in San Francisco, but decentralized so every local Wells Fargo store is a headquarters for satisfying all customers' financial needs and helping them succeed financially. Wells Fargo has $420 billion in assets and 146,000 team members.

For more information, see www.wellsfargo.com

About Marker Seven
Marker Seven is a premier provider of Web-based solutions designed to maximize business sales and communication efforts. Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2000, its skilled, cross-disciplinary team tackles every facet of Web development with a common bond and vision - to deliver value, high-quality work, and exceptional service. Marker Seven's professional team of business strategists, designers, and technical experts deliver solutions tailored to each client. Proven ability to understand client's business issues and technical needs allow its team to hit the ground running, take ownership and fully manage every project. Marker Seven remains focused on and dedicated to each project, delivering a polished look with clarity and consistency. Whatever the initiative, Marker Seven implements and delivers success.