Iridium Website Redesign
Iridium approached BSL to create a sophisticated, personalized web portal that would enhance Iridium’s online presence with user-centered content and functionality. This enhancement needed to also extend to the Iridium ecosystem with company-wide Iridium marketing programs and tools to facilitate the relationship between Iridium and its channel partners. The overarching objective of this significant undertaking was to ultimately reposition the Iridium brand as a leader in the Internet space.
The BSL strategy group oversaw a discovery process that enabled us to elaborate specific, measurable objectives for target audiences, develop a vision for the site through information architecture, and test this vision with end users. The creative team at BSL established a tone and manner, developed site-wide content and developed a look and feel that was applied to the public-facing website and channel partner extranet that was both faithful to the brand while giving it life in the online space.
The strategy featured a phased approach, beginning with research to uncover stakeholder requirements, to understand visitor needs across all audiences, and to identify key problems and strategic initiatives that need to be supported by the online presence. The strategy also required the completion of online functionality and usability assessment of current systems, the creation of prototype pages to be tested externally, and the establishment of measurable benchmarks for success.
Having launched Iridium’s new corporate brand and messaging platform in 2008, BSL was in an excellent position to demonstrate their vision for bringing Iridium online. Armed with a strong brand guide and solid creative elements, along with a deep knowledge of Iridium’s organizational objectives, BSL was able to create an online experience that exhibits best practices with respect to media, operations, and communications support.
The new Iridium for Partners portal provides partners with the tools they need to do their job well. The new partner view is role-based in that it provides the appropriate level of access and content to authenticated visitors based on the type of partner they are and their role within the organization. Iridium partners can manage their own profiles, and the site features a discussion board to encourage collaboration between partners.
The site has delivered excellent results based on the objectives established at the outset of the project. The ‘How to buy’ – a tool connecting prospective customers with Iridium’s partners is the most popular functionality on the public site, and the third most popular page. The site’s content management system has made it possible for Iridium to publish new content internally, and to work with BSL for the cost-effective integration of multimedia and social media. Increased volume of material downloads and anecdotal evidence have indicated a widely positive response by partners to the new Iridium for Partners portal.
