Case Study: Vancity

VancityVancity Credit Union is Canada's largest community credit union. With 490,000 members supported by 2,500 staff, Vancity uses its $17 billion in assets to help improve the financial well-being of its members while at the same time helping to develop healthy, sustainable communities.

The situation

Legacy content detracts from member service

  • The volume of legacy policy and procedure content on the intranet meant critical information was difficult for staff to find.
  • Dense and complex content was difficult to read and understand; while inconsistent structures and formats made information difficult to use.
  • Volume and complexity delayed content reviews, updates, and deployment.

The solution

Laying the foundation for a scalable content standard Vancity engaged Information Mapping® to

  • train a team of consultants in the Information Mapping® Methodology, and
  • manage the transformation of key policy and procedure documents.

Results

Vancity management was pleased with the results. Selected highlights include:

  • Reduced content volume by 56% from 3,200 to 1,400 documents.
  • Rewrote approximately 1,200 documents.
  • End-users can now find, understand and trust the information they use.
  • Information Mapping® adopted as a best-practice standard for all new content.
  • Vancity saves time, money and effort due to mapped content that is easier to write, review and maintain.

Capturing tacit knowledge

The Information Mapping® Methodology has provided Vancity’s staff with skill for capturing tacit knowledge—the information locked in people’s heads.
The method’s concept and principles help consultants to categorize, gather and structure content efficiently and accurately.
Content is no longer locked in people’s heads; it’s efficiently captured and documented.

Summary of “Mapped” content

A sample of the processes and lines of business included in the project.

  • Recruitment & Onboarding
  • Retail Lending
  • VISA / FX
  • Business Lending
  • Anti-Money Laundering
  • Privacy Policy
  • Board Level Policy
  • Branch Operations

Management testimonial

Mapping exposed gaps, redundancies, and inconsistencies
“Cleaning up years of legacy policy and procedure content was a critical objective for us,” says John Sharp, Manager of Policy & Procedure and Forms, “the Info-Mapping approach was integral in helping us to analyze, consolidate and streamline over 10,000 pages of source content. The Mapping process exposed gaps, redundancies and inconsistencies in our information and provided a unifying framework for tackling the massive volume of content.”

Mapping structure eliminated wasted time spent reading unrelated information
John continues, “We also needed to organize and present the information to make it clear and usable for our end-users.” Again, the Information Mapping method delivered. “The Mapping structure and formats make the information easy to isolate and understand. Our users don’t waste time reading unrelated information. They can scan and find only what’s important to them; and when they do find it, they trust it!”

Mapping provides foundational standard for growing high value content
When asked about Information Mapping’s impact at Vancity, John stated, “I had a vision of content management at Vancity Credit Union. The Information Mapping® Methodology and the people at IM Canada have helped me execute on that vision! Information Mapping® has provided us with the foundational standard to grow and sustain our high value content.”