With the Prudential as its majority shareholder, Egg has been at the forefront of innovative financial services, marketing across multiple technology channels. Initially a telephone banking operation, Egg made an early entry into the Internet environment. PA first supported Prudential with the launch of Egg in 1998. At that time it was a telephone banking operation. PA's role was to strengthen the existing team to ensure that Egg was launched within the ambitious target of one year. The timescale demanded an alternative approach to programme organisation and management, backed up by project coaching and the development of a progressive culture.
This culminated in a full dress rehearsal, checking the system for successful interaction with 600 pseudo-customers. Extensive system changes included setting up a new call centre and developing and implementing the new technical architecture. This support helped Egg to launch on time, to meet five-year targets within the first six months and to establish the brand as a UK household name, attracting more than ten times the anticipated customer base.
Egg soon realised the competitive advantages of exploiting Web-based technologies to design an organisation "specifically for the digital age". Egg needed to provide additional value to banking transaction processing, which would place a huge reliance on IT systems and support. Any systems architecture developed would have to be able to deal with millions of transaction in a fast, reliable and secure manner.
PA's specialist knowledge and expertise ensured that all issues of infrastructure and future platforms were addressed. With the existing architecture deemed inappropriate for projected usage, PA worked with Egg to develop one that would enable online trading, anticipate the development of a financial portal and virtual communities. Other features included increased functionality, a user-friendly interface and a high degree of personalisation.
As the customer base grew to over 400,000, growth plans included broadening the product range and the development of a portal.
One such product was the Investment Supermarket, which at launch integrated the complex real-time delivery of up to 220 funds, available through 17 fund managers, which PA critically tested and appraised in terms of operational performance, systems integration, front-to-back office linkage security processes and disaster recovery. This meant that business operations were able to respond to transaction volumes that were hard to predict.
Such product launches identified the requirement for a significant ramp up in software configuration and technology infrastructure, to satisfy the growing levels of client and supplier interactions. PA provided assistance in upgrading the Egg IT operations capability across a number of functions, and in developing processes and technical know-how to support the new architectures and transaction volumes.
PA was also engaged to evaluate the issues and provide solutions for the creation of a stable technical environment in which multiple development projects could work effectively. In parallel, PA improved processes and coached staff in their use. Working with the multiple development team, PA streamlined software release processes from concept to implementation to reduce website downtime and errors, and improve time to market. The new processes integrated the development, operations and support functions to ensure releases were accurately promoted while service integrity was maintained.
In capacity planning and network management, PA worked with Egg's network team, reviewing hardware capability and asset use, providing management and technical support to ensure website availability, throughput rates and security.
As the company grew, management plans to develop Egg focused on floating part of the company. Egg's dependency on IT and its pioneering use of EPO – Egg was the first UK IPO (Initial Public Offering) to use an entirely electronic share application process – were likely to come under public scrutiny.
Egg commissioned PA to provide an objective review of the IPO prospectus, validating and challenging the critical dependencies on Egg's IT systems, as well as reviewing the technology supporting the on-line share application process.
PA's participation gave all stakeholders the confidence that the prospectus stood up to external scrutiny, allowing senior executives to focus on getting the key messages to the market. PA's communications campaign successfully maintained the integrity of Egg's brand values and enhanced market perceptions of the company, which was a significant achievement given the controversy over Internet valuations and adverse market conditions in the technology sector at the time.
The huge growth of Egg's over-all client base and the sophistication of additional services launched (transaction accounts, insurance, investments, interactive services, personal shopping and linkages to third-party suppliers) all continued to challenge the robustness of the existing IT infrastructure. The resulting complexity of the technical architecture meant rising cost of ownership, and integration and investment issues.
PA established a strong joint team to take charge of the short-term technical issues, and to propose a longer-term view of the necessary architecture changes.
Long-term plans included the evaluation and direction of a new channel development programme at the forefront of technology, specifically WAP, 3G mobile communications and idTV.
With PA's support and partnership, Egg was one of the first companies offering personal financial solutions to make comprehensive use of the Internet on a fully integrated basis. Confidence in PA's judgement and implementation enabled Egg to move quickly and confidently and meet demanding launch targets, particularly the initial launch that was achieved in under a year. Subsequently, significant risk has been removed from further product launches and new delivery channels.
Egg has developed and launched its many e-commerce initiatives – some of the most competitive and flexible in the market – knowing that the systems architecture is in place to succeed in the highly competitive, rapidly changing financial services market. As a result, throughput rates have increased and downtime on website and technical rework has been reduced.
The IT infrastructure and performance have enabled consistent delivery of services, providing the customer base – now exceeding 1.3million – with seamless and fault-free transactions.
Improvement in IT operations management control, software, hardware and infrastructure has meant that the cost of ownership has been contained, eliminating the need to pay high maintenance to a third party.
The recent implementation of a number of technical solutions and the adoption of the new channel platform proposed by the joint client/PA team has meant that Egg has not had to make risky upgrades and product changes in 2000, which has resulted in multi-million pound savings. What's more, tight control on operational and investment expenditure and a significant increase in the utilisation of existing hardware assets, without negative impact on performance, has generated high asset utilisation for Egg.
PA's involvement and skills transfer have also given Egg's management confidence in the ability of the business to deliver reliably. PA has helped to build the credibility of Egg's technology teams, thus strengthening the internal relationships between the business and IT teams. In an environment of uncertainty and stretch, this has proved immensely valuable to senior management.
Public awareness and visibility of the Egg brand – synonymous with innovation – have been strengthened. The company was applauded by analysts and journalists for making information about the IPO both clear and readily available. This generated positive media messages, which in turn helped to enhance the valuation placed on the company brand and capitalisation.
Consultancy: PA Consulting Group
Client: Egg
Category: E-business
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