Capital Economics is an independent economic data and information service operating globally out of London, Toronto, New York and Singapore. Founded in 1999, the company has always produced written macroeconomic analysis targeted at financial market participants and has an international client base of financial service and corporate institutions. In 2012 it won the Wolfson Economics Prize for the best proposal on how a member state could leave the Eurozone. In recent years it has developed an increasing range of proprietary data and forecasts, data APIs and applications, and opportunities for clients to interact with and commission projects with our economists.
Capital Economics traditionally delivered the bulk of its research and analysis by email, but its customers increasingly required a digital content experience. There was a clear need to replace the existing website and back-office systems to be able to compete with new customer demands according to Ray Fawcett, Capital’s director of technology.
“Our clients were telling us they were looking for a more personalised and multimedia service.” he recalled. “We knew we had work to do to get platforms to the right place to meet this opportunity, but that the prize could be substantial.”
Capital Economics blueprint for the future
A fresh approach was clearly needed and the Capital Economics team realised a digitally led solution was essential to retain existing – and attract new – clients.
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“Customer expectations had changed,” explained Fawcett. “We’d been sending people PDFs attached to emails but they were now expecting a more digital experience.”
This meant packaging up graphics, multimedia-rich content and plenty of easily digestible data in a format that could be updated quickly if the macroeconomic drivers and events changed.
Teaming up with Full Fat Things, a London-based digital agency, they put together a blueprint for a fully integrated, flexible website that could provide customers with a personalised experience.
“The goal was to get off the existing cumbersome platforms and start building new products,” said Fawcett. “A lot of cosmetic factors such as branding and email templates were also needed.”
Combining data and content
However, there were a few puzzles to solve. For example, prior to the revamp, data and content had been treated almost as separate entities, whereas readers wanted them to work in tandem.
“Over the past five years, customers have wanted more data and to integrate it into their own platforms,” said Fawcett. “While there’s a huge amount of data available, if we can get it to them quickly and easily then that’s a huge advantage.”
Another issue was how to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to providing content that was more tailored to the individual needs of subscribers.
“A chief investment officer might only log-on when they have a major decision to make, whereas an analyst could be on every day and be reading everything,” explained Fawcett. “We had to take a more granular approach when it came to who was accessing our content.”
Adapting to meet the demands of an ever-changing events cycle, particularly given the volatile economic backdrop of the last few years, was also seen as crucial.
“We needed a flexible entitlement model that allowed us to share content between different subscriptions very easily,” said Fawcett. “This includes being able to package up related articles when a particular macro event breaks in order to give readers more context. Our clients know we are the first to make sense of what matters in the global economy so the speed of our platform delivery is also important.”
Streamlining CMS from ‘clunky’ WordPress-based system
The first step in the remodelling was updating the infrastructure, which had previously been centred around WordPress.
However, the various custom integrations that had been added over time only served to make everything clunky and unnecessarily complicated.
“We wanted to move away from too much customisation and more towards standard plug-in methodologies because this involves less maintenance,” explained Fawcett.
The route chosen was to build an entire website structure as a wraparound to the Salesforce CPQ solution, according to Stewart Robinson, founder of Full Fat Things.
“Capital wanted an end-to-end reinvention of their platform to have everything synchronised,” he explained. “The idea was to have sales, accounts and content providers all working together.”
Such an approach enables everyone to see what is being read, how customers are interacting with the site, and whether there are opportunities to upsell to them.
“We also gave Capital editorial tools via the Drupal web system that enabled them to automate manual tasks such as sending out newsletters,” said Robinson. “The team was also able to explore different ways of chopping up and repackaging content.”
Concision and clarity
Capital Economics has forged a reputation on providing concise articles in clear language, which has always been an effective approach for the most successful publishing groups.
“People don’t want to read an 80-page document to reach a conclusion, especially when a buy/sell decision is at stake with a lot of money involved,” said Fawcett. “Whoever’s first normally has a huge advantage over the competition.”
The analytics capability was also a game-changer in so much as economists realising analysis and data to the site could see whether their content was connecting with audience.
The new set-up provided solid foundations on which to build products such as CE Advance, its premium product featuring embedded videos, podcasts and audio files alongside content and data.
“It even has a Q&A function where subscribers can have questions answered by economists, which saves them having to recruit specialists in different areas,” added Fawcett.
The platform provides exclusive access to a range of proprietary data and indicators, as well as tools enabling users to create charts for presentations and analysis.
Personalised content feed for subscribers
Another area that needed attention was personalisation. With the amount of information available today, it is essential for subscribers to focus on the content they require.
“We created an interface that allowed customers to be more selective of what they wanted from the various services offered,” said Fawcett. “It enables them to drill down into areas of interest, such as inflation in China.”
Fawcett is delighted with the new-look Capital Economics site and is full of praise for the crucial role played at every stage by Full Fat Things.
“It was able to offer us everything under one roof,” he said. “The Full Fat team was great to work, very flexible and willing to give us extra resources when we needed them.”
Looking ahead, while he accepts that the fast-developing nature of content means the pressure will always be on companies such as Capital Economics to upgrade their offering.
“Our platform was due an update to meet market expectations a few years ago but now it’s overtaking the competition,” he added. “That’s a great place to be.”
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