As stakeholder needs continue to expand and change, so do the ways businesses try to address their needs. As such, the demand for bespoke client portals and bespoke employee portals has increased dramatically in recent years. A bespoke web portal is a great way to address your stakeholders’ specific needs in a single place. Whether to enhance client collaboration or data management, bespoke portals can significantly benefit your clients and staff in various ways.
In the past, businesses mainly invested in bespoke portals to keep their stakeholders up-to-date with their latest company news. More recently, though, they’ve become more than just a way to provide relevant information – they help create unique brand experiences. And, they’re no longer just available as an addition to your marketing site. Our bespoke portal development services mean we can create portals as individual applications or extensions of your current online services.
Bespoke portals have become especially popular in the last eighteen months or so. The inevitable shift to hybrid and remote working practices has accelerated the need for businesses to conduct a digital transformation. By converting paper-based systems and form-filling requirements to an online experience, businesses have seen major increases in operational efficiency and client satisfaction.
At Lightflows, we’ve helped transform numerous businesses across various industries by providing them with a bespoke portal. Be it employee or client portal software, our products have met many unique requirements. In this blog, we delve deeper into the types of bespoke portals we offer and how they benefit your stakeholders.
What is a bespoke portal?
Essentially, a bespoke portal is an online web application created through bespoke software development. They give your stakeholders access to various services in one place, rather than having to create multiple accounts or file tons of physical documents. They’re an excellent means of enhancing collaboration and efficiency between you and your stakeholders. Ultimately, bespoke portals help remove stakeholder pains, such as losing track of communications and crucial information.
Depending on your needs, we can add these portals to your current marketing sites or create them as separate web applications on the cloud.
Does my business need a bespoke portal?
Many businesses can benefit from a bespoke portal, and you’ve probably seen more of them than you realise. For instance, we recently developed an online tax filing system for 123sheets, which helps small businesses file their tax returns. Likewise, for Gama Aviation, we were able to unlock a wealth of information, much of it in real-time. Their internal teams can gain insights into a client’s aircraft, including its journeys, fuel usage and financial information, which they would only receive in a monthly report beforehand.
So, whether you offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), deal with sensitive data or simply want to provide your stakeholders with a more personalised experience, bespoke portals are the way to go. The benefits work both ways, too – the more you give your stakeholders, the better return on investment for your business.
Types of bespoke portals
If you’ve come across this blog, you probably know your business needs a portal, but the bigger question is: why? What problems are you trying to solve? Once you’ve figured those out, we can help you establish what kind of bespoke portal you need.
Firstly, ask yourself who will use your portal. Will it be your staff, clients or both? Then, try to define the goal of your portal. If it’s for your team, perhaps you want to offer them a solution for better workflow management. Similarly, if it’s for your clients, maybe you want to provide a place to communicate with your customer service team.
To help you get an idea of how you would benefit from a bespoke portal, let’s look at some industry examples:
- Insurance company portals. Bespoke client portal software for an insurance company can enable their customers to access insurance policy documents, pay bills and update their contact details.
- Legal firm portals. An employee portal for legal firms can help internal teams keep cases, documents and communications in one place, as well as provide access to billing information.
- Wealth management portals. A web portal for wealth management companies and financial advisors can allow clients to review their portfolios in real-time and access their financial statements on the go.
- Medical and healthcare portals. A healthcare portal can help doctors and other medical staff streamline patient consultations by allowing them to order repeat prescriptions and request appointments online.
The benefits of bespoke portals
No matter your requirements, there are many benefits of bespoke portals for your business. We’ve picked our top eight based on various needs below.
Reduced costs
Bespoke web portals can help to reduce business costs significantly. By digitally transforming and automating your services, employees and clients can easily access various documents, lowering administration overhead such as printing and distributing costs.
Enhanced stakeholder collaboration
For a portal that includes a communication channel, such as a ticketing system or live chat, you can keep track of your communications and answer your stakeholders faster. This helps enhance collaboration between you and your stakeholders and, in turn, stakeholder satisfaction.
Improved operational efficiency
A bespoke portal is a great way to store important business information and documents in one place. This helps streamline your business processes and save time looking for documents in various places, such as through different systems or email communications.
Self-serving options
Stakeholders can access the information they need through a bespoke portal without needing to reach out every time. This helps reduce the number of requests from your stakeholders via email or other communication services. You can even include an FAQ section to ensure you’ve covered any common questions your business receives.
Privacy and security
If your bespoke portal handles sensitive data, we provide end-to-end encryption through our software development services. This gives your customers peace of mind that you’ll protect their identities and helps them feel safer when they access their information on the platform.
Flexibility and scalability
As your software development partner, we’ll provide you with long-term maintenance services. This includes making the necessary changes you require to your portal as your business requirements change. We achieve this through various approaches, including agile project management and test-driven development, which you can read the benefits of for your business here.
Accessibility from any device
In a mobile-first world, many customers now demand access to their information from mobile devices. We can offer your bespoke portal in desktop and mobile formats, allowing you to provide your stakeholders with a user-friendly experience no matter the device they use. This also gives your stakeholders more flexibility should they wish to access or update anything on the go.
Insightful data and analytics
The portal we developed for our long-time partner, HomeViews, offers their property partners in-depth insights into their all-time company data. This allows them to gain a deeper understanding of the different customer experiences they offer. If you want to make better business decisions based on your company’s data and analytics, our bespoke portal development services can help you like they did HomeViews.
Summary
To sum up, the possibilities with bespoke portals and their benefits are endless. From company insights to data management, enhanced stakeholder collaboration to flexibility and scalability, we can help level up your business through our bespoke portal development services.
Whether you think you’ve identified your bespoke portal needs or still need guidance, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’ll happily arrange an initial consultation and explain what we can offer you in more detail. But, most importantly, we can’t wait to hear your portal ideas!