Plum set to take the lead with a new website

25 July 2008

Plum Financial Services Limited (Plum) has refreshed its public website, giving it a new look
and feel, adding more content for users upfront and making information easy to find and
accessible.

Plum’s Managing Director Mike Fitzsimons said with the dynamic environment that the
internet is, super companies today must continually review their web technology and
capability to ensure they meet the increasingly complex needs of members and the public.
‘The web is ever changing and improving and superannuation companies need to keep pace
with the changes,’ Mr Fitzsimons said.

‘That is why we have revamped and overhauled our site, using the latest web technology and
know-how to provide a site that is easier to use, more intuitive to navigate and user friendly
and offers much more for visitors.’

Plum leveraged its in-house technology capability to design and implement the new website.
It has been designed using the latest best-practice accessibility and useability features and caters for the needs of the visually impaired and users with limited software and internet
capabilities.

According to Education and Online Communications Manager Michelle Brown the new site
was rigorously evaluated by an external agency with independent users.

‘We gave the users a number of tasks designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Plum’s new
homepage, how easy it was to find and compare information and how to get in contact with
Plum. They told us the new site was a fantastic improvement and gave some suggestions on
how we could make it better,’ Ms Brown said.

‘We have already applied most of their suggestions to the final design. As a result, we know
our new design and site is more user friendly… because the users have already told us so.’
Some of the changes include:

• Redesign of site layout
• Real time market watch and regularly updated investment commentary
• New media specific pages
• New news pages and archive
• Dedicated product and service sections
• More links, polls and FAQs
• Clearer contacts page and feedback option
• Dedicated calculators in the resources section
  

*Plum’s Member Satisfaction Research 2007 (conducted by Forethought Research), and June 2008 user-based evaluation.

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