At Publicis Sapient, our aim is to always help businesses keep pace with change while meeting the ever-evolving needs of their customers.

We focus on legacy modernization and transformation. Many institutions we work with are overburdened with legacy systems, so modernization has to be a priority for the sake of efficiency and future-proofing.

Andrew Cordes, vice president, is responsible for our work with the AA. “The opportunity to support one of the U.K.’s most iconic and instantly identifiable brands is a real honor and privilege for us,” says Cordes. “With well over one hundred years of history, the responsibility to help this heritage organization transform is one we take very seriously. We recognize that a significant cohort of the U.K.’s drivers rely on the AA in times of genuine need.

“We know the AA has to get it right for its customers every time. Therefore, we have to get it right for the AA every time. For us, digital business transformation is underpinned by our SPEED capabilities: strategy, product, experience, engineering, and data and AI. This is exactly the capability that we provide to the AA, to support their very talented existing teams. We help them to take new concepts and products to market quicker by providing additional capability.”

“We ask ourselves, ‘How can we modernize a business at a pace that means they don’t have to wait for several years for value release?’” says Murugesh Ramachandran, senior director of technology. “It’s about continuously driving forward to achieve that, and ensuring the AA is staying ahead of the competition. We are also very focused on data, which has become so critical for every company’s success. In particular, we’re looking for new value by adopting a Gen AI-driven approach that enables businesses to get a full view of their delivery lifecycle, react quickly and always be ready for the future.”

The relationship with the AA began when they were searching for a new digital partner. The AA ran a highly competitive RFP process to select a new digital partner to future-proof their business, and we won the contract based on our strong credentials in the digital business transformation space. We began supporting the AA in January 2023, ready to roll up our sleeves and help them modernize via an agile methodology and an improved mobile experience.

“We began an enterprise agreement to provide transformation capability for the entire digital estate for the AA,” explains Ramachandran. “Our first three months were spent onboarding and making sure that the transition from the AA’s previous partner to us was a seamless one.”

“We aimed for a twofold transformation to improve team productivity and drive higher digital adoption," says Saurabh Bansal, senior program director. “One focusing on redefining the ways of working based on the scaled agile framework, and the other to strengthen the engineering foundation to allow faster deployment of new features and capabilities for the customers." Publicis Sapient embarked on this challenging journey by baselining the AA’s maturity, identifying the targeted interventions and driving a plan to implement the changes.

“The support of the AA’s digital leadership team was instrumental in swiftly implementing the changes,” Bansal continues. “This includes the adoption of the Publicis Sapient open-source tool, PS KnowHow, for transparently measuring individual team performance and training team leads as evangelists on agile methodology to promote higher adoption. During the transition period, the engineering team focused on a plan for the changes needed for a strong technology foundation.”

We invest in delivering value to our clients by tailoring solutions to their specific needs and actively engaging in the transformation process. For the AA, our data-driven approach has enabled us to deliver value to customers at a faster pace. With a highly productive team, a tailored approach and focused interventions, we have driven transformation while effectively managing business as usual, ensuring the AA maximizes their digital opportunity.

“There were many examples of excellence at the AA before we started working with them,” explains Ramachandran. “But we had to help to standardize an agile maturity across the whole digital organization for the AA to operate more effectively in the current digital landscape. Their tools needed updating to deliver software that’s more in line with scaled, agile ways of working.”

One key element of the transformation work has been the mobile experience. We supported the launch of a new theory test app, designed to help learner drivers pass the first time. Pass rates fell to an all-time low in 2022, with only 44 percent of learners being able to move straight to their practical test. The app is user-centric and focuses on making drivers more confident via mock tests, hazard perception clips, flashcards and more.

The AA app had 35,000 users in the first six months, and it has helped the business learn a lot about the support learners need to pass. This is a prime example of transformation that the customers get to see firsthand—the part that benefits the end user in a tangible way.

As the two businesses forge ahead with their relationship, the plan is to relaunch the AA’s mobile proposition later this year with more robust technology and enhanced customer experience to drive higher digital adoption.