The collaboration with Retraites Populaires started in 2020, that’s when the common story began. The vaud-based specialist in life insurance and occupational benefits is well know in the Romandie. As a major player in the Vaud economy an important client for us as well.

How it all began - the needs

Efficiency is one of the values of Retraites Populaires. That’s not only a promise to clients but a credo they life internally as well. Two years ago, after the first meetings the needs were clear pretty soon. Retraites Populaires needed to quickly redevelop a new front-end for one of their projects with an efficient and modern framework (Vue.js). Rather than outsource everything, they wanted to approach the project as an opportunity to strengthen their front-end skills and agile mindset. A challenge we’ve been happy to meet. We provided an agile framework and an expert eye for creating a high quality user experience.

A first project which scaled and builded trust

The first project was to see how the collaboration works but also what we can provide as a basis for future projects. In 2020 it all started with an employer portal and a mixed team. What we call a mixed team, is when the development team working on the project is from both sides, the agency and the client. A developer from Retraites Populaires joined the team to be responsible for the front-end while our developers took care of the backend of the employer portal.

Agile from onboarding to production in every project

In the onboarding phase of the new developer in our team we started to introduce Scrum to the client too. With the advantage that the developer in our team got use to an agile way of working super soon we are happy about the openness of Retraites Populaires for Scrum. The understanding of agility means to let go from fixed scopes which is hard in the beginning. The benefits of the agile methodology were clear pretty fast, as we are fast to add different priorities and still develop step by step until all the internal platforms work together flawlessly. For users the agile way of working is beneficial too, as in our case, we could show steps along the way to internal stearingboards already. And as the prioritisation is the clients hand we can shift according to market and internal needs. Scrum isn’t all there is but especially in digital projects with a lot of complexity the way to go. The agile way of working lowers complexity and adds efficiency and consistency in the collaboration and the project.

Four web apps, two targeted audience one basis

After the launch of the “Espace Employeur” the style guide works as the main library and is a lively document to build up on. The “Espace Employeur” is a platform for managing all data relating to companies and employees concerning their occupational benefits.
The second application allows you to open a vested benefits account online and is currently being expanded to allow you to open a 3a insurance policy. The third web application is the offer management tool for all products for private individuals. It is a central tool in the work of Retraites Populaires and brings together all the data from other applications, such as offer requests and contracts from the website. And last but not least, the commissioning retribution management platform is being redeveloped for the management of business reporters. A lot of business intelligence and adapted forms help the employees of Retraites Populaires to maintain and change data efficiently and effectively. We are using the same business logic and visual language internally and on the website. As a basis the style guide transports a strong user experience to employees and clients. Convince yourself with your next vested policy.

Key to success - agilty and integration

What started with a mixed team and a test project two years ago turned into a great story. The priorities are given by Retraites Populaires and we are collaborating and developing together. The integration of a developer and the effort in educating this person on vue.js and vuetify was a great success. As now we grew to a team. Working agile using Scrum as a methodology. Setting priorities is not a big deal anymore, neither for Retraites Populaires nor for us. Everyone is used to work agile and as the mixed team worked closely together we do speak the same language. Due to the style guide we’ve all been able to work with the same business logic on all projects. This helps to onboard more people and build flexible features. Last but not least, it improved productivity on the client and its users side. All needs met for now - and we are looking forward to connect more applications and continuously reduce the work of our clients.

Retraites Populaires published a press release about the tool and our collaboration. This is what they say.