Mason Pratt Young Executive of the Year 2007

Marram | Public Website

In December of 2007 the Marram Trust engaged Provoke to design, develop and deploy a new e-business and database system. The new application is now live and has transformed the way Marram conduct their business.

The Project

Marram is a not-for-profit organisation that contributes to the health and wellbeing of their communities by providing funds for medical expenses, long-term sick leave and subsidising rental rates of their holiday home network.

Public website and database system.

The growing needs of the Marram community led them to review their existing web strategy and engage Provoke to build a new e-business website and database system that would cater to their holiday home customers and medical assistance program.

The project comprised of a system which allows users to interact through a new website to request holiday bookings, partake in ballots, arrange health cover and process any subsequent claims. The website also provides Marram staff with the ability to login and perform the day-to-day process of holiday bookings and process health claims. Thus giving Marram one core solution for both external and internal users; replacing legacy systems and streamlining user processes.

One of the key success factors of the project was security, this was to both ensure the sensitivity of data in health claims and to provide users with the ability to pay online for holiday bookings via credit card.

Designing for Multiple Users

Provoke’s design team used the Functional Specification provided by Marram to start the design process. The team soon realised they had to carry out further analysis and design focusing on user and business goals, information architecture, and visual design which was then combined with the original Functional Specification provided.

Bob Medcalf, who runs the Design & User Experience (Dux) team at Provoke was the design lead on the project. "Following our standard design and user experience process, we developed personas to represent both sides of the Marram system – the customers and back-end administrators that would be handling the day to day operation of the site such as claims, maintaining businesses and customers as well as reporting. This enabled us to focus our design efforts and prioritise features of the new system."

Key Technologies Used

The solution was built using a combination of bespoke development (.Net, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Reporting Services) and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to administer content managed parts of the site, including the online forum and surveys.

Services Delivered

  • Detailed Analysis & Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Interaction Design
  • Technical Architecture
  • Visual Design
  • Project Management
  • User Testing
  • Quality Assurance & Testing
  • Technical Documentation
  • Support & Maintenance

What the Client said...

The result of our new website is a testament to Provoke's User Centred Design methodology by creating a solution from the end-users point of view. We wanted to create a service that our customers would find easy to use, something fresh and adaptable to our future requirements. Marram’s website is without doubt one of the best designed websites I have ever used and our customers truly love it.

Tim Dutton, Head of IT and Systems at Marram

I am delighted at the guidance the team at Provoke has provided to help Marram deliver this world-class solution. The website has delivered both business value and great customer satisfaction for our members. We have taken great pleasure in partnering with Provoke for this project and hopefully this will continue long into the future.

Glenn Clark, Marram CEO

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