Maturity levels of customer portals

Customer portals bring digital services to the customer. To successfully implement or further develop such a portal, the range of functions is not the only decisive criterion for success. Rather, methodology, technology and change management are equally important success factors for getting as close as possible to the vision of a holistic customer portal. Maturity levels help to successfully shape this complex transformation.

Not all customer portals are the same

In the early days of the internet, portals were still more of a collection of information, but now more and more parts of the business relationship are being handled there. Therefore, the term ‘customer portal’ is not clearly defined and there are many possible characteristics that can all be described as a customer portal: In addition to managing your own master data or retrieving information and documents, modern portals also offer commerce functionalities for physical and digital goods and services, contract management, ticketing, field service management and much more.

The underlying digitisation can be driven to different degrees: Is only input collected and feedback given, or is the entire process controlled fully automatically on the basis of the input? Beyond the mere networking of software applications, the ever-increasing connectivity of devices and machines to the internet offers great potential for the highest possible levels of automation and thus for efficiency gains, cost savings and speed increases.

Modern full integration for an optimal user journey

However, a wide range of functions also poses challenges in terms of user-friendliness. As the number of functionalities grows, so does the number of IT systems involved. For a long time, it was common practice to use different user interfaces for different systems and to map integration only through a single sign-on or a consistent navigation structure. In the best case, the design was aligned to conceal system discontinuities. The drawback of such approaches is that user journeys often extend beyond system boundaries, meaning that users have to use several specialised systems to complete a task. A common example from the manufacturing industry is ordering a spare part and booking a service technician to install it. This approach does not always fully exploit potential, such as cross-selling.

The modern approach of full integration is a better way

The various specialised systems are ‘hidden’ in the background and users are presented with a holistic interface that is optimally tailored to the user journeys, rather than to the functional scope of individual systems. To return to the example from the manufacturing industry above: In a fully integrated portal, the user can see at a glance which machine is causing problems and which spare part is often used for this problem (possibly even a more modern material than was used in his machine). During the purchase process, they can book a service technician at the same time, update their machine's manual with the newer spare part and make an entry in the machine's maintenance history – all in one seamless, intuitive process without having to jump back and forth in the user interface.

Maturity levels of fully integrated customer portals

A customer portal is often developed on the basis of an existing solution. Frequently, the vision was not entirely clear at the start of the development and more and more opportunistic functions were added over time. At some point, the time will come when the existing solution can no longer be scaled and a switch to a different technological basis or architecture will be necessary. Since the portal was constantly growing in such a scenario, replacing it in a ‘big bang’ release is too big and risky an undertaking. But even if a portal is to be built from the ground up and without legacy issues, the desired extensive range of functions often presents the same challenges. The usual approach – first and foremost, developing a guiding vision and then letting it lead the way – is of limited help here. The sustainable solution to the problem is called maturity levels.

Maturity levels are – to put it simply – portal expansion stages. Unfortunately, it is more complex than simply defining a minimum viable product (MVP) from the user's point of view and adding further functions in later stages of development. The aim is to develop the portal from a digital desert to a solution that comes as close as possible to the original vision, with value-adding maturity levels that build on each other.

In doing so, many requirements from numerous stakeholders must be taken into account, which means that a variety of perspectives must be considered in the planning:

User journeys

It often makes sense to focus on a specific target group first (e.g. end customers, wholesale and internal or field sales) and create a coherent experience there before targeting the next group. Different target groups will therefore take different paths as they move through the portal to complete their tasks. Staggering the target groups over time is therefore the first dimension of successful maturity levels.

Story mapping and MVP

Once the target group(s) and their user journeys have been identified, the touchpoints needed to complete the tasks are collected in order to derive stories and functions from them later on. Prioritisation according to the MoSCoW method into MUST, SHOULD, COULD and WON'T helps to put together an MVP and represents a further dimension of successful maturity levels.

IT development plan

The adjustments to the IT landscape are one of the most complex dimensions of the maturity levels: legacy systems must be phased out, new systems introduced and data migrated if possible. The requirements for a holistic IT development plan are decoupled from the portal (and usually much more extensive), but must of course be taken into account when implementing the portal as a technological foundation. Thus, the development plan has a strong influence on the platform to be selected and possible functionalities. Conversely, the portal often influences the development plan if features that cannot be realised with the status quo make it necessary to replace or upgrade the underlying systems. This dimension of successful maturity levels is often one of the most complex.

Further dimensions

In addition to the above dimensions, there are others that should be considered when determining the level of maturity: Perhaps a certain function is to be demonstrated at important trade fair dates, resources may only be available to a limited extent (and possibly only at certain times), risks need to be managed smartly, certain changes pose greater risks than others, etc. And maybe systems have to be phased out by a certain deadline due to expiring licences or similar.

Designing maturity levels

Good maturity levels are achieved by taking into account as many of the above dimensions as possible. However, the following remains essential: the value proposition of each maturity level must be clear, the work packages must be manageable, schedules must be realistic (and with sufficient buffer for integration testing and troubleshooting), and risks must remain manageable.

It has proven useful to first create a technological basis and provide some benefits for a specific user group. Systems that will be replaced at a later stage can still be integrated at this level of maturity on a transitional basis to ensure that essential functions do not temporarily disappear during this phase. In the next levels of maturity, additional user groups can then be addressed, backend systems replaced and functions added.

Vision and status quo

At the final stage of maturity, a single point of contact is created for users, offering comprehensive self-service and integrating all hardware; AI-generated insights and recommendations improve effectiveness, while a fully integrated user interface makes the actual work much more efficient.

A development stage of this kind requires sophisticated business processes, a modern IT system landscape with a high degree of networking and expertise in software development. Many companies are not yet ready for this. But maturity models are a suitable tool for successfully shaping the necessary transformation.

Drivers of digitalisation

Carefully executed planning and implementation of maturity models has an impact on the entire company: taking stock of business processes reveals potential for optimising them. Mapping processes in the portal and the associated renewal of the underlying IT landscape also offers the potential to automate an ever-increasing number of business processes. The new customer portal then results in much more than ‘just’ improved customer service and updated systems: it acts as a driver for the digitalisation of the entire company.

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• Fully integrated customer portals in the manufacturing industry
• Reference: Portal platform for GEA Group AG