Byline Bank
Byline Bank, formerly North Community Bank, is a neighborhood-centric bank with over a hundred locations across Chicago. Byline partnered with Devbridge to redesign the rebranded company’s website using Responsive Web Design principles, as well as launch an internal employee communication and engagement platform powered by TeamOS. The result is a multi-channel communication platform that enables a growing financial institution to communicate faster and better with their clients and employees.
Powered by Better CMS and TeamOS
Byline Bank knew that their desktop-only website was falling short on user’s expectations–with a significant portion visiting the site from smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, updates and content authorship was taking a long time to complete on the incumbent content management system. Policies and employee data were stored in Sharepoint–a platform that does a fair job with file management, however, extends very little into actually starting a conversation with employees, promoting collaboration, and communicating organizational objectives.
The solution
Through research and discovery, we pinned down the site information architecture, and with branding help from Landor Associates, we designed a responsive experience that fit within the new brand aesthetic. For content editing, publishing, and media management, we’ve implemented the open-source content management system called Better CMS. A unique parallax styling was created for the homepage, which is a scrolling technique that improves the user experience.
Responsive experience that fits within the new brand aesthetic
From security to tracking published content changes, Better CMS was designed with financial services industry requirements in mind. The platform supports multiple roles, content staging, content approvals, channel control, taxonomy, and other features that make this simple-to-use CMS a powerhouse authorship platform that can power complex multilingual multi-domain websites.
Upon review of the most popular features in the previous website through Google Analytics, we implemented an improved feature that pinpoints branch location relative to the user through geo-location of the browser or smartphone. Lastly, the responsive website solution reduced hiring overhead and introduced a process improvement when it came to accepting job applications. Each open position applications are routed to appropriate recipients instead of having to wait for the Human Resources department.
Integrating TeamOS
The internal communication platform, named TeamOS, matches the very things that we value at Devbridge: organizational transparency, efficiency, and engagement. From “Chirps” to “Cards”, the Byline Bank platform acts as the main channel for Byline organizational communication. Chirps are quick and easy messages that are posted to the Byline Bank platform, and can convey anything from “thank you” to “everyone checkout the important new files in the repository”. Cards, which include sticky cards, alert cards, document cards and so on, are reserved for alerts and notifications and remain a high priority over time.
The internal communication platform, named TeamOS
There is also a direct link to Byline Bank blog, as written by Byline’s own employees, helping keep the brand intact and keeping everyone on the same page. The solution also features a document library that organizes the content that is the backbone of the Byline Bank platform, including videos and documents. The directory feature helps put a face to a name for all of Byline’s workers, as well as contact information, further integrating distributed teams and enhancing the way that individual employees work with each other. Each Byline Bank department has its own place within the platform, as well, and can post policies, notices and other vital information.
While we delivered this internal launch within three months, and the future for Byline Bank holds many exciting things. TeamOS currently supports multiple engagement models, from dedicated mobile applications for employees to interactive TVs deployed throughout Byline Bank offices. We imagine a day where leadership can initiate a conversation with employees through employee mobile apps, send them push notifications, and receive immediate feedback from the floor. The Agile way.
Conclusion
One of our core offerings is speed to market. We have designed a unique mobile-first website for Byline Bank that is fueled by the simple-to-use yet powerful content management system Better CMS. We also launched a company-wide intranet platform, TeamOS, which boosts employee engagement, transparency, and security, all concurrently with a rebranding initiative. We delivered these solutions on budget and within four months!
