New York—The July 2004 merger of New York-based JPMorgan Chase and Bank One created one of the country’s largest financial services leaders in investment, consumer and business banking, asset and wealth management, and private equity. And with that merger came many changes in both the behind-the-scenes corporate structure and front-of-stage online presence.
But what does that have to do with you, catalog, e-commerce, and multichannel merchants? Chip Weldon, senior vice president, Internet design executive at JPMorgan Chase, outlined for attendees at Tuesday’s Keynote Executive Summit the five steps they followed to successfully reinvent their online experience after the merger.
1. Merge staff and cultures. Although it was a difficult task, Weldon said New York-based JPMorgan Chase and Chicago-based Bank One were able to successfully blend East Coast and Midwest cultures.
2. Combine technologies and platforms. Weldon said that inevitably creating a new Website for the merged company causes animosity because each company feels its site is better, but he urged attendees to “work through it.”
3. Accommodate core background data. JPMorgan Chase and Bank One could not stop to adapt to the merger, rather they needed to keep users financial data current while determining how they would handle that data in the future.
4. Rehost data into new data centers. The new company must be ready to handle the data of all of its customers, not just the original brand’s.
5. Migrate customers onto the new Website. Weldon said JPMorgan Chase planned ahead for this by offering users information about the new site before launching it, successfully lowering the number of problems customers had when the new site launched.
With more than 75 projects taking place, $50 million in project costs, and 11 million customers, Weldon said JPMorgan Chase was still able to decrease annual costs by 30%. “We reengineered the plane while it was in the air with passengers on board,” Weldon said.