Australia’s Housing Industry Association Modernises DXP With Sitecore

Housing Industry Association (HIA), the largest residential building organisation in Australia, has partnered with award-winning Platinum Sitecore Implementation Partner, Switch, to overhaul its suite of web-based content platforms and provide a connected digital experience to its 20,000+ member businesses across the country.

The association said it wanted to change its traditionally face-to-face membership model by expanding the digital experience and services it offers online. The association teamed with digital customer experience agency, Switch, and technology partner, Sitecore, to deliver a range of enhanced services for its members.

“Our goal is to be the trusted, ever-present voice of the residential building industry in Australia, and provide a central digital experience that unites all customer segments under a proactive, personalised and connected experience,” said HIA’s General Manager, Digital, Ben Brooker. “We took a huge step with this project, and it’s been pivotal in changing how our service delivery models operate.”

The transformation project sought to improve the association’s digital strategy, customer engagement, and website design, and deliver a cloud-based platform that delivers hyper-personalised experiences, e-commerce services, data-decisioning systems, and marketing automation capabilities.

“As digital natives become the norm, companies are looking at new service offerings to match expectations and create seamless digital experiences,” said Switch’s CEO, Steve Nelson. “We sought to help the HIA on their digital transformation journey by introducing and optimising new capabilities that enable HIA to respond to members’ needs via digital offerings.”

Switch said it formulated a digital strategy centered around four key transformation goals: Raise and capitalise on awareness, Increase sense of belonging, grow revenue and build an efficient digital operating model. The association’s digital transformation journey included an evolution of their onboarding and membership model, an overhaul of their e-commerce platform, and CPD (Continuous Professional Development) structure, and the creation of an engaging and informative digital resource library cementing HIA’s position as an industry expert.

In addition, an integrated ecommerce solution was created across all of HIA’s digital to support the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell content online. The solution enables access to a number of resources that were previously only delivered in-store or through a customer service phone query. The digital transformation project also included a simplified user management UX that supports HIA’s membership structure, and the creation of a service prompting users to explore the website and learn about the features available.

The strategy resulted in a multi-phased roadmap, allowing HIA to commence their digital transformation journey, starting with a new “Foundation Site”. Ben Brooker adds: “The opportunity for HIA was to provide relevant and valuable digital services and we have succeeded in the first phase of that journey. We have been able to evolve our services and use digital technology to create a genuine sense of belonging within our membership community.”

The association deployed a suite of Sitecore technology platform services, including Sitecore XP (Integrated Digital Experience), Sitecore XC (Digital Commerce), and Personalisation technology.

A testament to the UX design and digital strategy that Switch delivered to HIA, was the recent Good Design Award Winner accolade in the Design Strategy category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.

Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia said, “Receiving an Australian Good Design Award is testament to embedding design excellence at the heart of a product, service, place or experience. It is incredibly inspiring to see designers and businesses working together to find innovative, customer-centric design solutions to local and global challenges.”

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