Metlife approached Ruder Finn to overhaul several significant systems for their internal transaction and employee service components and to rebrand the Global Technology and Operations group by building a new, optimized external website. Ruder Finn subsequently reached out to übergig to help with the development and rollout of the external site, http://www.metlifegto.com. The timeline was extremely aggressive and the technology had to be built from the ground up including spinning up the entire development/staging/production infrastructure. We also had to navigate an extremely large and diverse client base of highly disparate opinions. The end result is a fully responsive, modern website with a full custom CMS for continuous client updates.

1. MetLife, Ruder Finn and übergig
Metlife GTO overhaul
übergig Case Study
December 15, 2013

2. übergig : MetLife Overhaul Case Study
© 2013 übergig, LLC, All Rights Reserved.
December 15, 2013
pg . 2
212.übergig
433 Fifth avenue, 6th
floor
New York, NY 10016
212.222.1212 info@ubergig.com
Table of Contents:
1. OVERVIEW 3
2. BUSINESS PROBLEM 3
3. TECHNICAL PROBLEM 3
4. SOLUTION 4
5. RESULTS 4
6. PLATFORM AND PRODUCTS USED 4

3. übergig : MetLife Overhaul Case Study
© 2013 übergig, LLC, All Rights Reserved.
December 15, 2013
pg . 3
212.übergig
433 Fifth avenue, 6th
floor
New York, NY 10016
212.222.1212 info@ubergig.com
1. Overview
Metlife approached Ruder Finn to overhaul several significant systems for their internal
transaction and employee service components and to rebrand the Global Technology and
Operations group by building a new, optimized external website. Ruder Finn subsequently
reached out to übergig to help with the development and rollout of the external site,
http://www.metlifegto.com. The timeline was extremely aggressive and the technology had
to be built from the ground up including spinning up the entire
development/staging/production infrastructure. We also had to navigate an extremely large
and diverse client base of highly disparate opinions. The end result is a fully responsive,
modern website with a full custom CMS for continuous client updates.
Übergig was excited to be a part of this initiative and is happy to give more details on the
solution and the challenges we faced in developing it. Please see the contact section at the
end of this case study for information on how to contact us.
2. Business Problem
• The product had to tie in the new GTO branding, which had evolved very
differently from the Metlife global branding.
• The product had to demonstrate the capabilities of Web 3.0, with extensive
Javascript, HTML 5 and CSS 3 along with a full CMS on the back end for MetLife
content managers.
• Übergig wanted to inject a sense of fun into the site, with the latest forms of
interactivity possible.
3. Technical Problem
• Metlife’s desired consumer browser coverage was far broader than a full
HTML 5 CSS 3 site would support. Consequently we had to develop a
hybridresponsive design with certain HTML 5 advanced features unused for
maximum compatibility.
• Metlife’s desired timeline of 90 days from storyboard and infrastructure
spin-up to completed launch was very aggressive. We were able to achieve
this through a combination of staffing (assigning more staff and having them work
in parallel), and blackboxing many components from each other, defining inputs
and outputs first and then having developers branch off and work simultaneously.

4. übergig : MetLife Overhaul Case Study
© 2013 übergig, LLC, All Rights Reserved.
December 15, 2013
pg . 4
212.übergig
433 Fifth avenue, 6th
floor
New York, NY 10016
212.222.1212 info@ubergig.com
• Metlife wanted us to deploy to the cloud but emulate their server stack so
that they could bring it back in at any time. Their stack however was big iron,
Oracle databases, Websphere middleware, and many other enterprise
components that are resource-intensive and generally not available in the cloud.
To go live within 90 days, we developed a solution based on open-source
components, but developed a detailed plan for them to fold the entire site back
into their internal farm within 90 additional days.
4. Solution
http://www.metlifegto.com is the result, a highly technical, phased site build (including the
plan to transition back to their stack.) The site is fully responsive, includes a standalone
CMS for Metlife to continue adding content, and embodies an extremely modern aesthetic.
5. Results
Ruder Finn and Metlife both loved the resulting site.
• As of this writing, the site had risen to over 50,000 unique visitors per day.
• The executive board of Metlife liked the site so much they asked to have additional
marketing sites for other divisions designed similarly and asked to have the global
branding altered to include some of the features of the GTO site.
• Übergig delivered on-time, launching on the 90th
day from initial contract signing, and
well within the budget outlined in the SOW.
6. Platform and Products Used
Web site:
Linux-based cloud services from IBM Smart Cloud
IBM Websphere
IBM Websphere Portal
Spring framework
Github/svn
Groovy/Grails Java Framework
IBM DB2