The Norwich Building Society was founded in 1852 under the title of ‘Norwich and District Provident Permanent Benefit Building and Freehold Land Society’, and the Peterborough Provincial Benefit Society was founded in 1860. Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) Building Society was formed in 1986 when the societies merged and it is now the 14th largest in the country. Its newly revamped website site is functional and practical and was awarded Best Customer-facing Internet Service for its electronic trading service for intermediaries at the Institute of Financial Services’ Innovation Awards last year. Its electronic trading service was developed to enable mortgage intermediaries and direct customers to receive a key facts illustration, approval in principal, case submission and case-tracking. Nevertheless, while the main sections and pages are informative and well laid out, the impression is given that some of the functionality has been added separately. This does not harm the functionality of the overall site but it is a shame as it tends to let down the user experience.

The branding, design and simple menu systems are all good and there are some nice practical touches. The colours and branding are consistent throughout and there is plenty of ‘white space’, which I am a fan of as it makes the pages look crisp and clean. N&P has recognised that this is a functional site and appropriately removed a number of the graphics used in the consumer site to improve the functionality.

The content is good and considering just how much there is, the lender has done well in not making it look overwhelming. There is an intelligent division of the information by product type and area of interest. This is not a site where the user has to go hunting for information, which is always a good sign and is evidence of the time and effort put in. The calculators are also a nice touch. Within the application section there are all of the documents that the broker would need for the application if they did not want to send it in electronically, and the mortgage club product grid is a useful quick guide to products on offer.

The functionality of the site is good and the expanding menu system on the left-hand bar for product types works well and enables an adviser to jump straight to the section of interest. There are some nice touches, such as the thought to provide buttons to make the text bigger or smaller at one click. Not a huge thing but it does show that N&P has given some real thought about the user experience. If there is one small complaint, then it is that within the online forms it would be helpful to have a little guidance on the format required – for instance, should dates be dd/mm/yy or dd/mm/yyyy? It is a small point but worth noting as this could create an unnecessary frustration at the very start of the process.

The e-commerce functionality of the site is nicely packaged as a separate section. This password protected area is where the real work is done and a simple menu offers quick links to all the online broker services of key facts illustration production, applications in principle and full mortgage applications and the online case tracking. All of these are accessed directly from this front page and enable advisers to jump straight into the important task of actually making a sale.