C.E. Unterberg, Towbin (CEUT) is a high-profile, US-based investment bank with a niche focus on the technology sector. The company has offices in New York, Denver, San Francisco, and Saratoga Springs, and has over 20 analysts in its research department covering approximately 14 different research sectors.
The challenge for investment banks
The key objective for an investment bank's research department is to efficiently deliver timely and quality research, which in turn facilitates astute investment decisions by its clients. The Web has provided investment houses with a powerful new publishing medium where they can
However, without an efficient publishing process and an effective means of presenting this research, the Web will not deliver the desired benefits.
C.E. Unterberg Towbin, recognizing these issues, required a simple yet highly effective web publishing solution to meet their specific requirements.
The solution
The brief was to build a research website and supporting infrastructure that would increase the profile of CEUT's analysts in the investor marketplace. Mini-sites dedicated to specific CEUT research sectors were envisioned that, ultimately, would be maintainable by the analysts in the respective area. Each site would contain both industry-specific and company-specific research, as well as general information about the sector to further educate investors.
Key to the success of the project were the requirements that the introduction of the solution would have minimal change implications on the organization and that it should be simple and easy to assimilate into existing work practices. The research content would be contributed into the system, follow an editorial workflow, and then be easily published by a non-technical individual to the relevant section of the website.
Achieving this objective involved focusing on the key areas of understanding CEUT target readers and content requirements, information architecture, the CEUT publishing organization, and publishing technology.
This process included
- a detailed content and reader review
- completely revising and tailoring CEUT's information architecture on the research site
- developing a unique classification structure for categorizing content
- installing the application
- utilizing the Webpage Publisher, introducing "block"-based webpages that can be updated and published without HTML skills in minutes
- the delivery of a dynamic database-driven site
- training of key users
The results
C.E. Unterberg, Towbin staff have taken to the application with surprising speed and success in a very short period of time, with little education required from our consultants.
To date, the only training given to CEUT has been a single two-hour session on the Content Contribution tool. Additional training for other modules has been prepared and even scheduled, however it has not been required. This is a testimony to the intuitive nature of the Arconics solution.
In 10 man days, a single junior research coordinator contributed well over 500 pieces of content (six months of CEUT research). This content was then ready for immediate publishing to the Web via the Webpage Publisher. A contribution includes metadata, title, short document summary, long document summary, and an attached document (PDF).
Furthermore, CEUT's webmaster has successfully added new classifications, companies, and users without requiring any training. He has also edited over 150 pieces of content in less than a week without being formally trained in the editor tool.
Take a look at the site for yourself.
