SCI has brought people in science and business together since 1881. We helped members enjoy a range of events and exchange knowledge.
The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) is a unique multi-science and multidisciplinary forum where science meets business.
Challenge
SCI was established in 1881, by a prominent group of forward thinking Scientists, Inventors and Entrepreneurs, with founding members going on to set up major businesses producing many products we recognise today.
SCI's governance structure is set up to ensure that an appropriate range of skills and experience exists within it and there is an open line of communication between trustees and the executive team running the day-to-day business of the Society.
SCI reached out to the team at the human tech agency via our award winning website after becoming disillusioned with their incumbent agency. The SCI website had not been updated in 10 years and was no longer able to fulfill the business needs of the organisation. We needed to create a streamlined user journey along with an efficient buyer journey for the events and memberships sections of the site. Another important aspect of the build was the various portals which really add value to the overall business proposition of SCI.
What we did
the human tech agency assembled a first-class team for the project which included UX, design, strategy, project management, account management and front and back end development.
The project represented a complete overhaul of SCI’s digital platform which began with a root and branch investigation into the main areas of the business - Events & Memberships. This involved many departments and areas of the business including the marketing, events and memberships teams as well as the digital content editors and senior leadership teams. We also worked closely with the IT department along with third-party service providers.
We kicked off the project with three, whole day scoping sessions, each focussing on different elements of the build process. We began with a technical/functional phase, then moved on to the design and UX workshops. After the completion of these sessions, we were able to put a clear roadmap to success together and provide a detailed project plan.
For this project, we used a Scaled Agile Framework, which enabled us to use deadlines associated with Waterfall, together with the flexibility of Agile to deliver more frequently to SCI. There was a lot of content, with over 20,000 pieces that required migration over to the new CMS.
In order to create the SCI website, we used the Sitecore technology stack which integrated with MS Dynamics CRM. As with any major enterprise-level project, there are challenges to overcome. At different stages in the project there were as many as 5 other third parties to coordinate so regular project calls and face-to-face catch ups were an absolute must to keep the project on track.
What is next?
The early feedback from the client and users has been excellent. We released the project in a phased approach which involved deploying the events and membership sections first. This really created a lot of buzz around the rest of the site being launched and the users were extremely receptive of the new design and functionality.
After Phase 2 has been successfully delivered we will be working with SCI to refine certain sections of the site and to look at possible enhancements to deliver better search functionality to the user.