Guernsey Post
Four platforms in one and digitising Guernsey Post's services for an entire population.
Four platforms. One application. An entire island's postal services, taken digital.
Guernsey Post handles 50 million items of mail a year. They needed to take their self-service offering digital, but the brief wasn't simple. Four distinct phases covering consumers, corporate clients, retailers, and customs. We built a single, scalable application on Laravel that now serves as the foundation for everything they do online.
Four phases, one application
Significant reduction in docket processing time
Customs forms completed online
We prototyped in the browser instead of in static designs. On a project this varied, you need real feedback at every stage, not at the end.Alastair Howard
The Challenge
Guernsey Post handles around 50 million items of mail each year for the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Having designed and built their website in 2016, they came back in 2019 with a much bigger ask: overhaul the entire digital self-service offering across both consumer and business portfolios.
The brief had four phases. First, rebuild the consumer portal so residents could manage and access their services through a simple, accessible interface. Second, completely rebuild the platform their corporate clients use for bulk mail services. Third, design and build a system for retailers across the island to order lottery tickets. Fourth, build a customs submission system that worked both online and through in-store kiosks, in response to regulatory changes around international parcels.
The consumer side needed to cater for every adult on the island, so accessibility was non-negotiable. The corporate side needed to serve logistics teams ranging from small online retailers to multinational greetings card companies. And the deadlines were tight across all four phases.
Our Approach
With a brief this wide-ranging, the first challenge was getting the team up to speed with the full breadth of requirements.
We started each phase with detailed research and discovery, scoping out what was needed and planning the approach to each specific challenge. Design was iterative, with prototypes built in the browser so feedback could happen at regular stages rather than at the end.
Development followed the same discipline. Each phase moved through build, QA, and security testing before anything went into production. No shortcuts, even under tight deadlines.
The whole thing was built as a single scalable application on Laravel, giving Guernsey Post a solid foundation they could keep building on.
The Outcome
The result is a fully bespoke platform that covers consumer, corporate, retail, and customs services in one application.
Corporate users of the bulk mail platform have seen a significant reduction in the time it takes to process dockets. Integration with Guernsey Post's core systems has saved considerable administration time internally.
Consumers now access their services through a much cleaner interface and can complete customs forms online before visiting the post office.
The platform has become the foundation for Guernsey Post's ongoing drive to take more of their services digital.
