A new corporate website : Crédit Agricole is reinventing itself as it evolves digitally

Crédit Agricole SA has put its new corporate website online. It has been redesigned to offer a better experience to its users. Developed by SQLI with a "Mobile First" approach, it has been integrated into a global digital platform, which is a major project for the Crédit Agricole Group. This new space highlights the company's news and key events by centralising the Group's, its subsidiaries' and its entities' information.

Highlighting the Group's news for the general public and staff

The www.credit-agricole.com portal aims to reflect the Group's identity and inform the general public and the financial sector about the diversity of its banks, its businesses and its sites.Crédit Agricole is keen to be at the cutting edge of the latest technologies and address new uses, and wants to overhaul its corporate website, both graphically and technically, with a better adapted design and ergonomics for both its external (website) and internal (Intranet) target audiences.There are several challenges:

• To facilitate accessibility to the website on any device,
• To improve the user experience,
• To share more information with the Group's subsidiaries and entities,
• To simplify access to the information with a search engine and centralisation of the Group's information for the general public and investors on the one hand, and staff with access to the Intranet on the other hand.

With its in-depth knowledge of Crédit Agricole's challenges and the established trusting relationship based on multiple projects completed by the Group over more than 4 years (Crédit Agricole's Jobs website, mobile applications, internal webzine website, etc.), SQLI was chosen for the project's overall orchestration and technological development, with a design by the BABEL agency.

A responsive dynamic website with an eZ Publish solution

The new Crédit Agricole website has invested in the latest graphic and technological trends on the web. It also offers comprehensive information: real time news feeds, publications, banking education and economic analysis, etc. i.e. lots of sections which reflect the Crédit Agricole group's dynamism and commitments. The website was designed with the aim of complying with digital accessibility standards.

With a Mobile First and Responsive Design, it has optimised ergonomics which facilitate browsing and access to information and make all of the content accessible with the same browsing comfort on a smartphone, tablet or computer.This website has two roles, with public internet access on the one hand and Intranet access for staff on the other hand.The overhaul of this corporate portal began in early 2016 with the supervision of BABEL by SQLI, and then continued with the technical development using eZ Publish by the Group until the beginning of 2017.

The website was officially launched in February.To develop this new solution, SQLI opted for a "semi-agile" methodology where batches are divided up and each batch is defined in real time, with precise monitoring of the change in scope throughout the development and daily meetings, which has led to a close partnership between the SQLI and Crédit Agricole teams throughout the project.This new website incorporates features for:

• An advanced search based on a particularly effective 'faceted' engine, with suggestions of results, several filters and which also makes it possible to go and look for information on the Group's other public websites;
• Automated website management, fed by all the content from the Crédit Agricole Group's information (social networks, websites, external feeds, stock exchange prices, etc.) 
• Optimisation of the contribution for internal and external communication by sharing content on a single back office for the website and Intranet, which means time saved in terms of development and data entry.

The technical solution designed by SQLI has real advantages, such as a reliable platform which benefits from an active eZ Publish community that makes it possible to develop the Back Office over time with new features and optimisations. This upgradeable platform is already ready to welcome the future eZ Publish update: eZ Platform.