Migration and new Craft partner for De Volksbank
Successful migration of corporate website, Craft upgrade and optimal security
It is not only retail customers that have long been able to rely on De Volksbank, the parent company of SNS Bank, ASN Bank, RegioBank and BLG Wonen. Corporate customers, partner organisations and job applicants are also an important target group. The website Devolksbank.nl was developed especially for corporate stakeholders, such as media and investors, who wish to learn about the banking group. Seeking support in the migration of this website - as well as its further optimisation - the organisation selected WHITE.
The brief for this website
‘Our corporate website had been managed by another party for some time by the end of 2022 when we decided that the time was right for a new partner,’ says Patrick van Wersch, content coordinator in the corporate communications department of De Volksbank. ‘We were in need of new energy, a higher service level, increased proactivity and an absolute and recognised Craft CMS specialist - because that was the foundation of our existing website and we wanted to continue developing the website in Craft CMS going forward.
In summary, our requirements were:
- support in the migration of our website to a different server;
- Craft expertise for website optimisation and further development;
- more freedom in the CMS to structure and format pages differently.
It was also important for us that the new party could act quickly after agreeing to its proposal. After all, there are a lot of hurdles to clear for a new supplier to a banking organisation like ours.’
‘Most well-considered and best-crafted proposal’
Together with his colleagues, Patrick made contact with various suppliers. ‘WHITE was included in the first selection in any case, because it is one of the few agencies in the Netherlands that is a recognised Craft CMS Enterprise Partner. We ultimately chose WHITE because its proposal was by far the most well-considered and best crafted, and because it was the only one to include proposals for optimising the website. The meetings with Marloes - COO and Head of Client Relations at WHITE - were also very pleasant. She asked a lot of questions to understand exactly what we were looking for, not only for the migration, but also with a view to the future of our website. Conversely, she responded to all our questions with lightning speed and clarity.’
Successful migration, Craft upgrade and optimal security
According to Patrick, the switch to a new website partner went smoothly. ‘As we had requested beforehand, WHITE took care of more than just the ‘relocation’: it also upgraded the website to the latest version major version of Craft CMS, replaced a few plug-ins with new ones and checked the entire website for code improvements. The monthly security scan that WHITE has carried out for us on its own initiative since going live in late 2023 is very welcome as an extra on top of our own scans and annual vulnerability test.’
Collaboration on audiovisual improvements
Asked about further plans for the revamped website, Patrick explains that it also needed to be optimised for people with audiovisual impairments. ‘We want our website to be accessible to everyone, including people with various audiovisual impairments, to do so we have carried out an audit to see what improvements were needed. The improvements that came out of the audit have since been implemented by WHITE. These include visual alternatives to the existing carousel, better contrast between colours and adjusting font sizes and further formatting to improve readability. With these improvements we also anticipate on the approaching European legislation in this area. In the longer term, we also want to expand the website and adjust its structure. For that, too, we will rely on WHITE and its knowledge and expertise in Craft CMS.’
WHITE – De Volksbank collaboration
