Portus

Designing and delivering an industry-leading software application.

portus | EMPLOYEE BENEFITS consultancy

The Customer

Portus Consulting works with more than 187 companies across
the UK, providing competitively priced employee benefits
programmes designed to meet the specific needs and cultural
aspects of each business.

The company saw the opportunity to expand its solutions
portfolio by creating a fully-functional retirement planner that
would allow employees to manage their retirement plans, called
RetirePort.

“From our first meeting it was immediately clear that Node4 was the ideal partner for Portus.”

THE PORTUS TEAM

The Challenge

Portus Consulting had a clear vision for its new RetirePort application, but it knew that creating this new retirement-planning tool was no easy task. No single product had existed in this format before and it represented a complex development task.

There are a huge number of variables to take into account when correctly planning retirement, including assets like ISAs and unit trusts, property investments and dependants, which all needed to be incorporated into the application design.

Portus recognised it needed more than an IT supplier to help develop RetirePort. It needed a collaborative IT partner who would understand and share its ambition to lead the design and creation of a market-leading software application.

The Solution

Node4 provided Portus Consulting with a dedicated project team, with specific expertise in software application development. The team adopted an agile methodology, which involved a programme of product iterations and close collaboration with Portus Consulting to ensure the development evolved according to the customer’s requirements, in minimum time.

The result is a ground-breaking solution that enables users to enter all their financial and personal information to receive an accurate calculation of what they can expect to receive when they retire. It goes a step further too, by suggesting ways to make up shortfalls, or help budget for unexpected extras.

The ResultS

RetirePort has significantly strengthened Portus’ service portfolio and is playing a key role in its new business efforts, for example, by providing the ideal way to engage with prospects and existing customers around new pension rules that came into effect in 2015. Node4 continues to play a key role in supporting Portus and RetirePort, hosting the tool at its highly secure Data Centre in Derby. This ensures data protection for Portus, with the ability to rapidly scale the architecture as demand increases.

Steve Watson, Commercial Director at Portus Consulting Ltd, said: “We needed more than an IT supplier and from our first meeting it was immediately clear that Node4 was the ideal partner for Portus. When dealing with a complex project it was critical that we worked with a partner who could smooth any bumps in the road.”

He continues: “Node4’s project management was seamless, delivering the finished application within time and budget. Node4 provided an agile and talented team that understood and shared our ambition and offered both the technical expertise and vision to make our new application a reality.”

“Node4’s development team provided the ideal blend of market insights and technical acumen. This project is an example of a true partnership, where an IT provider and business work in collaboration to create something that is truly ground-breaking.”
Steve Watson, Commercial Director at Portus Consulting Ltd