SRA implements change control and content approvals

The SRA partners with Optimizely to help solve its digital challenges

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates solicitors and law firms in England and Wales. Its purpose is to protect the public by making sure that solicitors meet high standards. The SRA is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of more than 200,000 solicitors. They regulate 10,000 law firms, as well as thousands of individuals working in-house at private and public sector organizations.

Making services accessible to all

The SRA team needed to provide accurate, timely information to a large cohort of dependents across its digital platforms. The previous platform was buried in code, and in a separate tool that couldn’t be accessed in a timely fashion. This risked the SRA not being as responsive to the dynamic customer as they wanted to be.

The content needed to be relevant and valuable for a range of digital users and speak to different audiences, from legal professionals to the general public seeking legal information and advice. Because of the nature of SRA’s services, the regulator holds classified information and sensitive personal information, so having a secure CMS was also a requirement for the business.

Users ranged from members of the public searching for legal services through to professional global law firms. It was essential the SRA were able to delicately manage the balance between the various groups they serviced online quickly and efficiently. What was the same across all segments of users was the expectation that the SRA delivered a trusted virtual service.

There is significant responsibility placed on the organization given they are the body that regulates the qualification process of solicitors. They also had to make sure they were delivering public legal education to users of legal services.

Meeting the needs of an array of digital users

The SRA’s services are used by hundreds of thousands of people a year, so they needed to deliver relevant, targeted content at scale. They had identified key milestones:

• Authentication on website
• Personalization of content offer
• Integration of content and transaction

At the core of every good experience is strong content, and Optimizely’s Content Cloud offered major advantages for the project. Content Cloud gave the SRA the tools to create compelling content experiences for its visitors. The system empowered editors to create and combine content assets to create a cross section of content to suit those looking for easy-to-digest content and those requiring more detailed information around regulation and compliance. Some of the wording on the SRA’s website is detailed and tricky, even for law professionals to understand.

Optimizely’s CMS, with workflow built in, gave the SRA the opportunity to implement change control and content approval, guaranteeing the right level of governance for changes to the content of questions that tens of thousands of solicitors are going to answer.

Another key consideration was to produce a platform that helped the organization meet its security requirements. Optimizely Content Cloud requires authentication on the content website, helping to meet security requirements and allowing the delivery of personalized content.

The SRA holds a large volume of information about firms and individuals they regulate. This information has the potential to drive ever more personalized experiences of the content and products on their website, such as the ‘Solicitors Register.’

The results

Working with Optimizely, the SRA was able to tackle its digital challenges by keeping its content safe and managed with governance, reporting and controls that enabled improved user journeys. A content-driven website that not only provides information first-hand for its users but is also an authoritative source of information that includes attributes of the service, regulatory status, regulatory record and more, was created and all managed on one secure platform.

The SRA sees major benefits in managing transactional content – both microcontent and contextual help – through the Optimizely CMS rather than sifting through code. The quality of the customer offer is enhanced, while the strain placed on the business through needless inbound contact is reduced.

For the SRA, demonstrating value with their digital estate is not counting cash to prove ROI. It is about demonstrating value for money. With Optimizely, the SRA team is framing their offer in very real, relatable terms.