Supporting sales of pensions plans with a web platform

As we’ve entered the 2020s, the aging societies have become an extremely pressing problem. Governments worldwide come up with solutions to secure the future of pensioners. One such initiative is PPK, a long-term savings program implemented by the Polish government.

The parliamentary bill about PPK imposes an obligation on employers to pay an annual premium to each employee’s PPK account, which at the same time creates an opportunity for financial institutions to offer new savings-related products. On the other hand, the bill is highly-regulated and its implementation can create an overwhelming scale of work – especially from Human Resources’ perspective.

One of Polish financial institutions saw this as an opportunity to build an information service that explains the program in an easy way. This is how the cooperation between Aegon, The Heart, and Netguru started, where:

• Aegon, a multinational life insurance, pensions and asset management company acted as the client;
• The Heart, a Corporate Company Builder that creates new businesses, products and services together with corporates acted as the Product Owner;
• Netguru, a full-stack consulting agency for digital growth, acted as a Project Manager and development partner.

Due to the complexity of the bill, Aegon wanted to give a simplified alternative way to go through all the information about long-term saving plans (PPK) for HR departments, Brokers and pensioners as well. A web platform was designed to help with the implementation through reducing the confusion and introducing some empowering tools. 

"We build a place giving you the complete and current knowledge about PPK and intuitive tools to process them, dispel your doubts, save your time, and make your life easier."

The PPK.info project’s main aim was to attract the target group, build brand awareness, and support sales in PPK services and upsell over them. The platform was built as:

• An information portal,
• A lead generation form,
• A toolset for brokers and internal sellers,
• A toolset for HR managers.

At the beginning of the project, we established basic measures of project success: the number of visits, conversion rate to registration, and conversion rate to signed contracts.

The project revolved around 5 key areas:

• Supporting Aegon representatives in selling PPK plans,
• Developing a platform that meets clients’ expectations, is in line with the bill, and embodies Aegon’s vision,
• Scoping the first version of the service – taking into consideration all the latest law changes, 
• Ensuring the platform has all the necessary features and is delivered on time,
• Creating an intuitive information architecture that is readable and user-friendly.

PPK.info is the result of a three-party cooperation: Aegon needed the know-how and human resources for creating the portal, and The Heart needed a good partner supporting product development.

The first project version delivered by Netguru was a simple information website. Over time, it evolved into a portal with both open and restricted content for three target groups (employees, employers, and Aegon’s sales representatives), with various integrations.

The Netguru team started building the platform from scratch. We took the project through all the stages: a Product Design Sprint workshop, design, implementation, and development. During the project, we also offered ongoing consultations regarding best practices in user experience and product development, educating the clients about the specifics of building a digital product. 

To ensure we deliver the web app on time and with all the necessary features, we turned to an Agile approach and fast feedback loops.

We leveraged the following solutions:

• Developing a product concept during the Product Design Sprint workshop, which allowed us to outline a Minimum Viable Product (MVP);
• Building the perfect UX & UI of the platform to present the bill in an easy to understand way;
• Setting up the environment with DevOps practices, so that the product is fast and scalable;
• Implementing React for interactive web components, for smooth and beautiful animations;
• Integrating with a third-party system for newsletter distribution, to ensure Aegon maintained direct communication with their customers,
• Putting the best practices in project management in place to pursue the project along with ongoing changes, adjusting it to any bill amendments made by the government;
• Aligning with the client’s needs and building a product that embodies their vision. Specifically, making sure nothing is lost in the process (Aegon – The Heart – Netguru).

Working in Agile and cooperating among three parties can be a big challenge. In our case, each party represented different means of communication and used different tools: Aegon used email and phone, while The Heart and Netguru used Slack and JIRA for product development. Despite the high degree of complexity of such communication, we managed to adjust our actions and deliver satisfactory results.

The decision making process at a corporation like Aegon differs from one at a non-enterprise company. To avoid downtime in the project, each time we were waiting for the decision, the team worked on other aspects of the project.

Together with Aegon and The Heart, we created a platform that lets users easily find all the necessary information, submit their questions, sign up for the newsletter, and calculate their PPK contributions. 

The PPK information portal also integrates with Aegon CRM. Netguru delivered 100% of the requirements within the agreed timeframe, covering multiple changes to the vision.

Netguru and The Heart took ownership of the project development process so that Aegon could focus their efforts on their core business.