Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson
Emma Okonji
MTN, GT Bank, Kakawa Discount House and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance have won the overall ‘Best Websites’ in the 2012 Webjurist independent website assessment.
It was conducted by Phillips Consulting Limited recently.
WebJurist rating, which is in its 10th year, is an initiative of the technology division of Phillips Consulting Limited to measure the effectiveness of websites in the private sector to ensure continuous enhancement of e-business activities and encourage best web communications practice.
The results which were announced at an event in Lagos, was attended by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and key decision makers in the financial services industry, as well as stakeholders in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
The Webjurist rating results showed that Etisalat and Starcomms came second and third in the overall best websites while MTN emerged best website for technical structure and security. Visafone emerged the best content website and Starcomms best customer aesthetics website.
In the banking sector, Zenith Bank and Access Bank emerged second and third in the overall best website while Zenith Bank, Access Bank and GTBank won awards in the best customer experience, best web transaction and best technical structure and security categories respectively.
In the insurance sector, Zenith Assurance and Consolidated Hallmark emerged second and third respectively for best overall websites while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, Royal Exchange Insurance and Allied & General Insurance emerged best customer experience, best web transaction and best technical structure and security categories respectively.
For the discount houses, the results showed that Associated Discount House and First Security Discount emerged second and third respectively for the overall best sites. Associated Discount House won the best customer aesthetics website, while Kakawa Discount and Kakawa Discount House won the best customer experience and best technical structure and security categories awards respectively.
Head, Technology Division, Phillips Consulting Limited, Mr. Seun Ngonnase noted that during the rating, 18 banks, 25 insurance companies, seven telecoms companies and two discount houses had their website online while two banks had their websites shutdown.
He said Webjurist evaluation tool used intelligent algorithms and processes, involving a detailed step-by-step web analysis to evaluate the effectiveness and performance of websites based on aesthetics, technical aspects, site content, web transaction processing, customer experience and performance.
In her speech, the minister said: “What Phillips Consulting Limited is doing is to tell Nigerian companies to basically put their businesses online.”
She said that an assessment of about 800 websites of federal government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) conducted by her ministry in February indicated that half of the websites were not effective. She therefore, urged Phillips Consulting to extend its rating to the public sector.