Website Shop

Project Overview

Organisation

Macquarie Group Limited

Team

The Calculator Factory - an initiative from Macquarie MAStech

MAStech, a part of Macquarie Adviser Services, is a team of technical specialists who provide technical solutions and strategies, education tools and resources to registered financial intermediaries. Their knowledge, experience, and passion for all things technical set MAStech apart from their competition – they have the qualifications, skills and resources to deal with a wide range of technical issues.

Project Brief

Over many years, the Little Black Book has evolved to become a vital tool for financial advisers. We now distribute more than 25,000 copies – which is pretty impressive given there are generally thought to be around 15,000 advisers in Australia.

We launched an app version of the Little Black Book in 2011 to give advisers a new way to access the information they need.

This year we’ve put a lot of effort into improving the app and made a huge leap from static content to a truly interactive tool. Where before, we provided the figures an adviser needed to calculate outcomes for their clients; in this new version, we’ve started including calculators right in the app. The adviser simply needs to input the right client details (for example salary or age) and the Little Black Book app provides the output the adviser needs (for example the tax payable or pension amount).

We’ve also included a news service to help advisers keep up-to-date with the latest legislative and strategy analysis provided by our team of technical experts. And finally, we’ve significantly improved search and added a bookmark function to make it easier for advisers to find what they need quickly.

Project Need

Moving from providing inputs to providing outputs is a simple concept but an incredibly powerful one. The ability to enter a few simple variables and get the answer you need is a big step forward and means we’re harnessing the power of the app to do more than simply display content. That’s what people expect from an app. A source of valuable data is great but users expect technology to make their lives easier. The Little Black Book simplifies some of the most common calculations advisers need to make on a daily basis.

Our other improvements are more subtle but still important. The inclusion of a news service means the Little Black Book is even more important as a source of information for financial advisers. The technical content provided in regular news updates complements the data which forms the core of the app.

The search and bookmarking features make the Little Black Book a pleasure to use. With more than 100 pages of data under 50 separate categories, the ability to bookmark content that’s accessed often and search for content that’s accessed rarely helps make the adviser more efficient.

User Experience

We have deliberately pursued an immersive experience where nothing intrudes on the consumption of content – which is the fundamental purpose of the app. We have achieved this in a number of ways. Simplification has been a guiding principle. Navigation is simple and logical. Colours and icons are non-intrusive. Space is used extensively – particularly on larger tablet screens but even on smaller phone screens. Given the density of content which must be conveyed, it was quite an achievement to be able to structure tables that are aesthetically pleasing while still serving their primary purpose.

The Little Black Book app is also intuitive. There is nothing in the app that requires effort to navigate or find. Simple touches like the ability to bookmark and the fact that search terms are highlighted in search results increase usability and usefulness.

The clean, elegant interface which is both recognisable and accessible creates a great user experience and makes the app more useful.

Project Marketing

We’ve employed a multi-faceted marketing campaign to get the Little Black Book app into the hands of our advisers.

We have used the full range of our internal communications channels to highlight the improvements and new features in the app. The Little Black Book has been promoted through:
• Forward Thinking article (Forward Thinking is our print magazine for financial advisers)
• Forward Thinking ad
• banner ads on the Macquarie adviser portal
• banner ads on Macquarie Access (our transactional site for advisers)
• sales team engagement
• internal communications
• PR
• web content
• ads on copies of the physical Little Black Book
• eDM to Macquarie advisers

And of course entering the 2013 Mobile Awards program.

With more than 20,000 downloads, our aim is simply to raise the profile of the changes and educate advisers on the additional features in order to help them get greater value from the app.