M2U 2.0 homepage. You like? And works in Safari too!

These past couple of weeks I had been helping to organise an Exclusive Preview of the new site for selected bloggers. The Exclusive Preview took place this past Monday at Delicious @ Marc Residence in KL.

Despite running around like a headless chicken for most of the night–I was so busy!–I had lots of fun. I managed to finally meet a lot of bloggers and friends that I’ve gotten to know through their blogs and Twitter like LiewCF, David Lian and Erna.

Maybank is my company’s client, but I’m a Maybank2u user and so here’s my take on M2U 2.0.

M2U 2.0 also refers to the shift in Maybank’s approach to their internet banking business. The current site is a big mess and that’s the result of being business focused: the website team just threw up all the content the different divisions in Maybank told them to.

M2U 2.0 is all about being customer focused. Maybank is intent on putting its users squarely in the driver’s seat for their internet banking experience. This new approach guided the revamp of the site and will be the guiding principles for the site’s future strategy.

When I joined AGENDA I was extremely impressed that Maybank actually spent money to conduct usability testing. They invested in over 350+ hours to conduct usability tests with 125 people over a 3 month period. And all this before writing a single line of code or designing how the new site would look.

With the usability results in hand, Maybank2u.com was built from the ground up to

1. Show the user the most relevant content, when they want it
2. Be a standards-compliant website (XHTML, CSS and semantic code)
3. Lay the foundation for a Web 2.0 style banking portal

I’ve built more than a few sites myself and the scope of M2U 2.0 truly boggles the mind. I have so much respect for my colleagues at AGENDA and the work they’ve put into the site.

And at the risk of sounding like a Maybank mouthpiece, I also have to give props to the people driving M2U 2.0 internally at Maybank. M2U 2.0 represents a big change for Maybank, and big changes in big companies don’t always go well. But from all the meetings I’ve endured been in and interaction with the team, I can see that the guys in e-Channels and Customer Experience get it. Of course, lots of respect to Maybank’s new CEO Datuk Wahid Omar for being forward-looking and getting behind this.

Despite all the baggage and problems that plague large companies like Maybank, I’m rooting for them. I’ve seen not only M2U 2.0, but I’ve also caught a glimpse of Maybank 2.0, and that picture is promising indeed.