Case study
A national network for independent insurance brokers had built up a digital estate of 140 websites, run by a small in-house team that had reached its limit. I scoped the whole operation, wrote the requirements, and ran the search to hand it to a specialist agency, all under strict FCA compliance and without disrupting a single broker client.
The marketing arm of a large insurance broker network offered its members a full website service, design, build, copy, hosting and maintenance, effectively acting as an in-house agency for around 140 brokers. It ran on two tiers: bespoke sites built from scratch, and a faster template-based service for smaller or newer brokers. In total, 80 bespoke and 60 fast-track sites, all on WordPress, hosted across three managed servers, with another 11 in the pipeline, and a team of just three developers holding it all together.
They had hit a wall, and were honest about it. The demands of a modern web estate, Google's shifting standards, security, constant updates and the compliance load that comes with regulated financial services, had outgrown what a small internal team could realistically sustain. The answer was to hand the whole digital remit, the websites, the hosting, the security and the member relationships, to a capable external agency. The catch was that they could not afford to drop the ball on a single broker while doing it.
The job broke into three parts: understand the estate honestly, define exactly what "taking it over" had to mean, then find the agency that could actually do it.
I documented the full picture, the two service tiers, the technology, including an ageing template theme that needed replacing, the managed hosting across three servers, and the commercial and compliance realities the brokers operated under. Then I wrote the requirements, and not just "manage the websites". I set out the entire proposition an incoming agency would have to run: start-up sites for new members, ongoing maintenance packages, migrations off the legacy theme, bespoke builds, landing pages, digital marketing and training members to update their own content. Running through all of it was a hard compliance spine, because this is insurance: FCA standards in the copy and regulatory statements, GDPR and cookies, security and web application firewalls, penetration testing, and a proper snag-and-test process before anything went live.
With the requirements set, I ran the search as a proper process, an invitation to tender to a field of suitable agencies, evaluated against the brief rather than on a hunch or a relationship. And I planned the transfer itself in phases: reaching out to suitable agencies, interviewing and negotiating on cost, a hosting and migration plan for all 140 sites, and a client-liaison plan for a phased handover with clear pricing and SLAs, so members felt continuity rather than upheaval. Alongside the procurement I ran a retainer, auditing the sites and their structure, so the decisions rested on evidence rather than assumption.
The network went from an in-house team quietly drowning to a clear, documented plan to move an entire 140-site estate to a specialist agency, with the requirements defined, the compliance obligations pinned down in writing, and the migration phased so that no broker client was left exposed. The hard part of an outsourcing like this is never choosing an agency. It is doing it without disruption and without a compliance slip, and that was built into the plan from the first page.
Handing over a large digital estate is not a purchase, it is a transfer of trust, and it goes wrong when a business rushes to pick an agency before it has written down what "taking it over" actually involves, or forgets that the clients caught in the middle must not feel a thing. In a regulated sector the stakes are higher still. The value sits in the unglamorous groundwork: documenting the estate honestly, getting the compliance requirements down in writing, and phasing the handover around the client rather than the supplier. Get that right and even a 140-site migration stays calm.
By phasing the handover around the client rather than the supplier. The plan covered a hosting and migration approach for all 140 sites and a client-liaison plan with clear pricing and SLAs, so members felt continuity rather than upheaval.
The compliance spine runs through everything rather than sitting at the end. For insurance that meant FCA standards in the copy and regulatory statements, GDPR and cookies, security and web application firewalls, penetration testing, and a proper snag-and-test process before anything went live.
Because “manage the websites” is not a requirement. The brief set out the whole proposition an incoming agency would have to run: start-up sites for new members, maintenance packages, migrations off the legacy theme, bespoke builds, landing pages, digital marketing and training members to update their own content.
Scoping and running a selection like this sits under advise. On testing whether a supplier's reporting matches reality, see your agency's monthly report is a sales document.
A foreign exchange firm that believed its site converted at 2%. The audit found 0.4%, and set the brief for a responsive rebuild.
Read the case study →A long-established stockbroker whose own staff called the website frustrating, handed an evidence-based plan for a rebuild.
Read the case study →Scoping the requirement, running the tender and evaluating agencies against the brief rather than the relationship.
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