Old Mutual · Digital channels platform strategy · Financial services

49 digital properties. One commercial strategy.

A group-wide platform strategy for Old Mutual - powered by our proprietary DAVM model - that reframes a fragmented digital estate as a commercial asset.

From cost centre to commercial asset.

BrandCustomerBusiness unitValue

Client: Old Mutual
Sector: Financial services
Scale: 49 properties · 5 divisions
Role: Group digital channels strategy
Archetype: Strategy / framework-led
Service: Strategy
Expertise: Product Strategy

The need

Two questions leadership needed to answer.

Old Mutual is a federated group - insurance, savings, investment and banking, each division with its own mandate. Digital had grown organically to serve those mandates independently: an estate of 49 properties across five divisions, with no shared framework for evaluating performance, no common audience language, and no way to prioritise investment across competing mandates.

So two questions needed answering. How do digital channels become a commercial asset in service of each division's mandate - and what role should digital play across five distinct audiences? A federated group can move fast within each silo, but can't unlock cross-division value without shared infrastructure.

Who we serve - and what we're solving for.

B2C

Consumer

Individuals researching, buying and managing products - the broadest audience, mobile-first.

B2B

Adviser / Intermediary

Financial advisers, brokers and distribution partners serving clients - desktop-dominant, tooling-heavy.

B2B

Employer

Companies administering employee benefits and group schemes, with clear processes and status visibility.

Internal

Employee

Old Mutual's own people, reaching internal tools, information and services through one front door.

Enterprise

Institutional / corporate

Large corporate and institutional relationships, distinct from individual consumer and employer needs.

One digital front doorOne digital front door - where audience needs, divisional outcomes and group strategy converge. These are roles, not people: one person may occupy several.

How we worked

An evidence base, not an opinion.

No assertion without evidence. We assessed the entire estate, aligned the people who own it, and mapped what users actually come to do - so every recommendation traces back to something observed, scored or agreed.

49properties assessed and scoreda custom fork of our proprietary DAVM model

30stakeholders alignedacross five divisions, competing priorities resolved into one direction

247jobs-to-be-done mappedvia Jobs-to-be-Done / Outcome-Driven Innovation

5competitors benchmarkedto map the competitive landscape, objectively

5user roles consolidatedone shared audience language for the whole group

247 jobs, converging on three intents

Find

Information, products and the right tools - without needing to know the org chart.

Do

Quote, transact and manage - the core actions, made frictionless.

Connect

To an adviser, to support, and across products - the human and cross-sell links.

The frameworks

The IP behind the strategy.

These are our own frameworks, built once and reused since, and they are what turns 'where does the next rand go' from an opinion into something thirty stakeholders across five divisions can settle. Every score traces back to a rule, so the argument lands on the inputs rather than on who argued hardest.

The hero model

DAVM - the Digital Asset Value Model

Our proprietary model for valuing any digital asset across four dimensions. We forked and customised it for Old Mutual to score and prioritise all 49 properties transparently and repeatably - so a portfolio decision is evidence, not 'magic logic'.

Four value dimensions

Technology

Experience

Data

Commercial value

The value score

DAVMOne comparable value score, per property

Five value tiers

Flagship

Core

Supporting

Peripheral

Legacy

The maturity model

Foundational

Functional

Connected

Personalised

Intelligent

Five sequential levels of digital maturity. Levels are achieved in order - Level 4 personalisation without Level 3 infrastructure only fragments the experience. We build vertical slices that prove all five levels on a priority journey, then widen.

The Service Catalogue

Platform capabilities expressed as a menu, each mapped to a real user job rather than a wishlist. Every service carries a defined scope, a measurement criterion and a value proposition.

A menu, mapped to jobs

Identity & single sign-on

Access everything with one login

Shared

Content & search

Find the right product and information

Shared

Quote & apply

Get a quote and transact

Shared

Adviser tools & dashboards

Serve clients without friction

Divisional

Analytics & measurement

Prove value, decision by decision

Shared

The migration decision framework

A transparent, repeatable logic that gives every property a consistent recommendation. A handful of questions in; one of four clear pathways out - and the decision stays with the accountable owner.

Questions in, one pathway out

Strategic value?

Technical condition?

Role in the ecosystem?

Cost to serve?

Consolidate

Fold into the shared platform; retire the standalone.

Optimise

Keep and invest - it earns its place, made better.

Retain

Leave as-is; it serves a distinct purpose best independently.

Retire

Sunset it; the job is served better elsewhere.

The commercialisation model

Digital pays its way - once it has earned the right.

Today most digital channels sit as cost centres, funded by allocation rather than by demonstrated value. The strategy's core move is to earn a commercial model rather than impose one: prove the value first, and let divisions pay because they want to, not because they have to.

Today

Cost centre

Funded by allocation
Judged on cost to serve
Value assumed, not shown
Caught between requests

The shift

Commercial platform

Funded by demonstrated value
A priced service catalogue
Value proven, then billed
One platform, many mandates

Value proven first, commercialisation earned

Serve

Be the reliable digital front door first - earn the right to more.

Build trust

Deliver value delivery by delivery; proof before promise.

Build capability

Stand up the shared platform capabilities divisions actually need.

Transform

Shift journeys onto the platform; retire what no longer serves.

Commercialise

Formalise the service catalogue - divisions fund what they value.

From strategy to execution

An operational blueprint.

The strategy shipped as a full deliverable stack and a phased roadmap. Governance connecting strategy to delivery, and an AI blueprint that makes the strategy itself queryable and operational.

Platform Strategy Blueprint

The core strategy and the commercial model, in one reference.

Blueprint Operating Guide

How to run it - the operating model behind the strategy.

Ecosystem redesign specification

The build-ready spec for the design and delivery team.

Governance model

The connective tissue that ties strategy to delivery.

AI strategy blueprint

Port the strategy into your own tooling - queryable, operational.

A four-phase, ~24-month rollout

Phase 1

Foundations

Shared platform foundations and the first priority journeys.

Phase 2

Prove

Vertical-slice MVPs that demonstrate value and earn trust.

Phase 3

Widen

Extend the platform across divisions and audiences.

Phase 4

Commercialise

Formalise the service catalogue and the commercial model.

By the numbers

The scale of the assessment.

0digital properties assessed and scored

0stakeholders aligned, across 5 divisions

0jobs-to-be-done mapped

~0month rollout

Five competitors benchmarked, five user roles defined, one commercialisation model and one AI strategy blueprint - and a repeatable framework for every portfolio decision that follows.

The capabilities

Rigorous strategy, with the IP to back it.

Strategy

The model

The Digital Asset Value Model in full: how it scores an asset, why the centre score is the one that counts, and what changes when you point it at a whole estate instead of one property.