Ministry of Transport Public Website Refresh.

Ask Kiwibank | Knowledge Base

As a part of their strategy to boost their knowledge management capabilities and improve their competitive advantage, Kiwibank partnered with Provoke to design and build 'Ask Kiwibank' using the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Platform.

The Project

Kiwibank approached Provoke to design and build a knowledge base to provide "One Source of the Truth" for their staff. Provoke delivered 'Ask Kiwibank', an easy to use, enterprise-wide tool that was to become the authoritative source of Kiwibank's operational knowledge for all customer facing and behind-the scenes staff, wherever they may be.

An internal review of Kiwibank's Call Centres had showed that a decentralised approach was being used to manage knowledge and information around Kiwibank processes, products, services and policies. 'Ask Kiwibank' was designed to unify their knowledge, and provide a central knowledge base across multiple Kiwibank business units.

The project involved significant front-end and back-end design support on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) platform. 'Ask Kiwibank' is now being rapidly rolled out across the business, to the critical acclaim from users as being easy-to-use and a valuable asset for both accessing and maintaining their content.

Designing the Search Experience

One of the key success factors of 'Ask Kiwibank' was the detailed analysis and research carried out to inform the design of the tool. The Provoke design team talked to end users and observed them at their workstations, defining the appropriate requirements, and developing a set of design principles to deliver a consistent and smooth experience. These principles included providing immediate feedback through suggestion and visual cues, having page elements navigable by keyboard, having minimum or no instructions using appropriate affordances, and avoiding errors where possible.

Usability testing was also carried out to validate the design and requirements before a commitment was made to build it.

Getting the Technology to Work

To deliver the desired search experience to the end user, 'Ask Kiwibank' required highly customised components. MOSS Enterprise Search and APIs provided a solid foundation for customisation, and guided by the design specifications we were able to leverage and use MOSS features such as 'did you mean' and 'stemming' appropriately.

We started the development process by translating the information architecture by taxonomy, fields, content types and lists, and then configured the search to meet the specifications. This was followed by building the web user interface using custom ASP.NET controls, including AJAX functionality. The solution was deployed using the framework provided by the platform. This greatly reduced the risks that are traditionally associated with manual deployments.

Services Delivered

  • Information Architecture
  • Interaction Design
  • Project Management
  • Technical Architecture
  • Visual Design
  • MOSS Customisation

What the Client said...

'Ask Kiwibank' is a significant step forward for Kiwibank. A multitude of ad hoc systems built during the bank's initial rapid expansion are now being consolidated and streamlined into a single source of reliable, fully interactive content, with a degree of scalability and customisation simply not possible in previous systems.

Thanks to Provoke's experience in design and extensive skills with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, we now have a very scalable tool with which we can easily meet future business needs as they arise. We very much enjoyed partnering with Provoke, and look forward to doing so again.

Kevin O'Donnell, Knowledge Manager, Kiwibank

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