Switzerland’s top business award

The Swiss Venture Club (SVC) serves SMEs and offers its 3000 members from all sectors and regions one of the largest and most important business networks in Switzerland.

At the 7 Prix SVC awards in all economic regions of Switzerland, a top-class jury selects the most successful companies in the region. The great and good of Switzerland’s business world all come to this awards ceremony – which has to take place in the large Hallenstadion stadium to fit the more than 3000 attendees. It is reported in the national press, and the companies involved enjoy nationwide publicity. The Swiss Venture Club is therefore a central driving force for the Swiss SME scene, setting an example of good practice. So, it was about time it set such an example for digital transformation too. In addition to the design of its digital presence, Swiss Venture Club’s entire event process has also been transformed.

From service design to implementation

A process that began with service design workshops ended with a comprehensive web platform. The service design process precisely analysed the needs of the Swiss Venture Club, its members and its sponsors in order to establish the basis for a successful web platform – because anyone paying a five-figure membership fee or sponsorship contribution is entitled to have their say on such a project. High quality services, user-friendly applications and informative content for about 3000 members as well as countless regional and national sponsors were in the foreground. Within the scope of the service design process, the following topics were dealt with:

  • Business requirements
  • Business and user objectives
  • Competitor analysis
  • Customer journeys for members and sponsors
  • Interviews with existing members and sponsors

The results of the service design process formed the basis for the next step, namely developing the UX concept and design.
The platform development process then built on these foundations. The CMS Drupal was used to implement the following core functionalities:

  • Website
  • Members’ and sponsors’ portal
  • Event management incl. ticketing

From the very first workshop, it became clear that we had begun an exciting and comprehensive collaboration. An innovative user experience and CRM integration were important in order to attract and inspire interested visitors, members, sponsors and also, of course, the national press.

Heralding digital transformation with good content

The project also included developing a content strategy. We defined messages, content formats and distribution channels. The new website comes with a few changes. We therefore started communicating with our stakeholders about the changes at a very early stage, and members and sponsors were regularly asked for feedback via our newsletter during the digital transformation process. Incorporating them into the change process in this way ensured a high degree of acceptance when the time came to launch the platform.

Compasses over maps

SEO and analytics help to measure, and thus optimise, the website’s performance, so we put them to good use for the SVC website: an audit and a needs analysis were used to define performance indicators and tracking requirements, which we then incorporated into the website. Target-oriented dashboards now provide regular information about the usage and performance of the new page. Key objectives from an SEO perspective were to comply with technical SEO best practices to attract visitors to the website, migrate content without any loss, and support the production of content geared towards users’ search needs.

User numbers and positive feedback show that the close interaction between concept, design, content, analytics and, of course, technical implementation has paid off. The Swiss Venture Club is ready for the future.

"The collaboration with Liip was intensive, geared to the needs of our target groups and resulted in a modern web platform. Our web platform was very well received by members, sponsors and the media. The Liip team skillfully moderated the agile development and supported us with high commitment and pragmatic solutions."
Alexander Saner, Head Services - Finance IT