Partner portal notifications
Product background
A large chunk of Symantec Website Security's (now Digicert) business comes through reselling partners. These partners are companies like Internet security and website hosting service providers, who bundle Symantec’s digital certificates along with their own services.
Partners use Symantec’s Partner Portal to manage the resale account of their end customers. Through this portal partners can buy certificates and manage them on behalf of their customers.
The portal sends renewal reminders to customers and partners, at specific intervals, before and after a product expiry.
Product increment
Symantec wants to launch short-term SSL certificates as a subscription.
Symantec also wants to introduce subscription model for existing long-term SSL certifications.
Difference between non-subscription and subscription certificates:
Non-subscription model
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Each certificate is sold as a single unit.
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When a certificate expires user must renew it.
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User needs to pay for renewal.
Subscription model
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Each certificate is sold as a subscription.
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When a certificate expires, user must replace it.
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User doesn't need to pay for replacement.
Project
Provide new notification templates for replacement of short-term certificates.
Update existing notification templates for renewal of long-term certificates so that they can address both the subscription as well as the non-subscription certificates.
Effort
The Partner Portal deals in 21 products across all SSL brands of Symantec.
Average number of events for existing long-term certificates = 9
Total number of existing templates for long-term certificates = 216
Number of events for new short-term certificates = 6
Using the existing method, number of templates required for short-term certificates = 126
Challenges
Inconsistencies in templates across the same brand.
Unnecessary text.
No use of variables.
Bad language, style, and presentation.
Confusion on terminology – should we even call this a “subscription”?
Bringing PM on-board, to accept our proposal on terminology.
Rigid timelines.
Work
Long-term certificates
Approach:
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Analyzed all templates, cross-matched the content in all of them
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Identified similarities and differences across products
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Categorized inconsistent but similar chunks of content together.
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Re-worded content to go with as many templates as possible.
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Placed chunks of texts into categories and created a standard structure for all templates.
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Identified all existing variables in the system and introduced new ones.
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Used variables and new terminology to merge multiple templates into a single template.
Result:
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Updated templates can support both subscription and non-subscription long-term certificates.
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Improved quality of content.
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Reduced number of templates to 16, from 216.
Short-term certificates
Approach:
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Identified similarities and differences across products
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Looked at the backend to understand how the system pulls different templates for different events
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Used variables to merge multiple products and events in the same templates
Result:
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Created 2 templates, instead of 126
