The Austrian Contractor Register (ANKÖ) has renewed its website. ANKÖ Chairman of the Board Bernhard Jarolim and ANKÖ Managing Director Emir Prcić in an interview.
Vienna (OTS) – In 2014, the ANKÖ published its last homepage that was online. A new website was put online on December 18, 2023. Find out everything here about the reasons for the renewal, the new content strategy, the reduction to the essentials and the New World of ANKÖ, which will be introduced at the turn of the year.
The harbingers of the renewal of the ANKÖ were obvious. With and above all through the current managing director Emir Prcić, a process of rejuvenating the Austrian contractor register (ANKÖ for short) has been initiated since 2018.
Platform interfaces were successively revised, simplified and made increasingly intuitive. Accessibility was also given special consideration and noticeably improved.
The introduction of a modern dark mode and the constant harmonization of all ANKÖ platforms, i.e. the standardization of positions and functions, areas and buttons, has significantly improved acceptance and user-friendliness. A product color scheme now supports orientation and quick work in the cockpit of the ANKÖ portals.
A logical consequence and the crowning achievement of the renewal of the ANKÖ is the relaunch of the ANKÖ website https://www.ankoe.at/ A complete redesign and revision of all content not only occupied the ANKÖ communications team for months. The winning design and concept was ultimately created in cooperation with a renowned Austrian digital agency, which was selected from a total of 15 participating agencies.
ANKÖ CEO Bernhard Jarolim, “Reduced to the max” means “concentrating on the essentials”. It means reduction to what is absolutely necessary and thus to the essence of a thing. What is the essence of ANKÖ and how did this motto guide the work on the new homepage?
Bernhard Jarolim: “As a full-service provider for public procurement in Austria, we are aware of our great responsibility. Since 1999, we have also been offering outstanding digital products that make awarding in Austria easier, more efficient and more attractive. The dynamics of the procurement market based on the Federal Procurement Act does not allow us to stand still. Of course, this also applies to our website. As a service platform, a simple but efficient design was always important to us. Our homepage, which is also an important external tool, has been in operation for 23 years, is constantly updated, and has been relaunched several times.
As part of the current relaunch, we took the opportunity and completely restructured the site. The focus was on contemporary design, high usability and more interactive displays. In addition, the new website was adapted to modern user behavior. Excessively long text passages are increasingly being rejected; Getting all the information you need quickly is the priority these days. In recent months, we have also increasingly relied on customer support in the form of webinars. With great success. For this reason, we have defiled, streamlined and reduced all texts and explanations without compromising the understanding of the text. Reduce to the max. These adaptations and the structured tidiness are immediately noticeable on the new ANKÖ homepage. In this way, we maximized the message focus of the content and minimized the length at the same time, in keeping with the motto of the relaunch.”
Mr. Jarolim, thank you very much for this statement!
In addition to the statement from the CEO, we asked ANKÖ Managing Director Emir Prcić about the strategic background of the new ANKÖ website.
Mr. ANKÖ Managing Director Emir Prcić, how will the new ANKÖ website help make the work of public clients and companies easier?
Emir Prcic: “Since our founding in 1999, the purpose of ANKÖ and also our homepage has been to promote the efficiency, transparency and simplicity of public procurement in Austria. In our new page we have also remained true to the path of dividing our services into two main sectors – services for clients and services for companies. However, within each of these two sectors we always have the same structure Advantages – Steps – Services – Contact – Brochure a new orientation logic was created. This means you can immediately see the purpose, benefits and costs of every product for every need.
We want to use our page to demonstrate that we have not only made efficiency and transparency a goal in our products, but also demonstrate efficiency and transparency in the logic of our homepage.
In addition, the support contact is listed on each product page and, if you want to contact us, this can take place immediately.
In this sense, the new ANKÖ page makes it easier for both procurement beginners and long-time procurement professionals to find out more quickly than ever about the services of our products. For beginners, we have created a simple graphic based on long considerations by depicting an awarding cycle including the client-company horizon, which shows an example of a typical awarding process, with the respective ANKÖ products coming into force. A comprehensive glossary of procurement terms and a massively improved FAQ page not only answer frequently asked questions about ANKÖ, but also about all possible procurement law terms.
In this way, we not only explain market-leading procurement products, but also immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in the exciting world of procurement. A one-stop shop for procurement knowledge, so to speak.”
Mr. Prcić, one graphic feature is dominant in the new design: the hexagon. What’s it all about?
Emir Prcic: “Our word-image brand consists of the word “ANKÖ” in DIN font and a red-gray graphic element in front of it. Consider this element in more detail.
You will see that these are “two transparent books facing each other.” You guessed correctly: one of the books is that of the client, the second transparent book is that of the bidding company. To this day, this logo has not lost its symbolic power for the mission of ANKÖ.
So we made this graphic stylistic device the key element for the new ANKÖ page. If you outline the facing books, the outline results in a regular hexagon. This hexagon is the main stylistic element of all new page areas – be it as a seamless arrangement like a honeycomb or as a bullet point element with a 120 degree angle.
The geometry of a hexagon is the most efficient shape found in nature and also in molecules and crystals, as it ensures the greatest possible capacity and maximum enclosed space with the least amount of material and at the same time the highest stability. We then applied this geometry bionically to the economy and found the seamless fit of the hexagons to be particularly symbolic for the ANKÖ: a seamless economic network, a joining and coming together of clients and companies to form a stable, efficient fabric.”
Mr. Prcić, in conclusion: If the new ANKÖ homepage is an important part of the New World of ANKÖ, what further modernizations will there be?
Emir Prcic: “Following the harmonization of our portal pages, a highly successful webinar initiative and the new page design, we will also be launching a new product on the market in 2024.
Our surveys have shown that well-organized reference management is a desired feature for our customers. After many months of planning and strategic considerations, we have now succeeded in devising a reference management tool that fits perfectly into the ANKÖ product catalog. Our surveys show enormous potential for making this area manageable efficiently.
At the end of the year, we will present the lecture “eForms, use of artificial intelligence, electronic reference management and cognitive search: The future of e-tendering has long since begun” at Austria’s most important procurement event in autumn 2024, which is intended to conclude the year of change .
And at the end of 2024, on December 23rd to be precise, we will celebrate our 25th anniversary! Here we celebrate a quarter of a century of ANKÖ, a quarter of a century of successful hard work to promote the efficiency of public procurement in Austria!”
Mr. Prcić, thank you very much for the interview!
Thomas Gerstl, Marketing & Communication, ANKÖ spoke to Emir Prcić.
Link: New ANKÖ website: https://www.ankoe.at/
Questions & Contact:
Mag. Thomas Gerstl
Marketing & Communication
+43 1 333 66 66 – 39
t.gerstl@ankoe.at