CM System Designs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Marketing of CNM College of Naturopathic Medicine

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

CNM is the leading training provider in Natural Therapies across the UK, Ireland and online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CM System Designs to accomplish?

• Replace a proprietary database with a cloud-based, modern, bespoke CRM

SOLUTION

How did you find CM System Designs?

Other

Why did you select CM System Designs over others?

High ratings, Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Company values aligned

What was the size of CM System Designs’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

CM Systems Design were tasked with replacing an antiquated proprietary database.

The key deliverables were:

• Cloud-based modern CRM
• Integration with Outlook 365 
• Robust API to support automatic importation of leads and contacts 
• Automatic assignment of leads based on configurable rules 
• Reduce human interaction wherever automation is possible 
• Improved KPI and Analytical reporting 
• Automated lead, sale and commission reporting 
• Migration of approx 25 years of historical leads/sales information

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Successful deployment of the finalised solution

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They were excellent throughout the entire process, from the initial specification stage right through to the delivery of the final application. Milestones were achieved in a straightforward manner and they kept our own stakeholders on brief and on time too.

What was your primary form of communication with CM System Designs?

In-Person Meeting, Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

From the moment we engaged with them, we were impressed by the professionalism and expertise of their staff. What really sets CM System Designs apart, is their commitment to providing ongoing support and improving their software to meet their clients' ever-changing needs.

They are proactive in their approach, always seeking ways to enhance the software and make it more efficient and effective for their clients. This level of dedication and customer service is rare and is a testament to the high standards of the team at CM System Designs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something CM System Designs could have done differently?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a partner in a corporate training and coaching organisation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CM System Designs, and what were your goals?

Website development - a more up-to-date template, a more secure site with automatic updates to ensure continued security, and SEO.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were recommended CM System Designs by a contact.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

In the initial chemistry and briefing call, Sigal and her team expertly guided us through the options and implications. She shared an analysis and a range of potential approaches, with the pros and cons of each, and gave a recommendation which we agreed with. The team worked fast, sharing a first round of templates, then researched other options based on our feedback. The team built the site based on their recommendations and the needs of our business and clients.

They did a great job in recommending and building a first-stage site, with recommendations for more sophisticated elements in the months and years ahead. We worked closely together, with daily calls, with the team building the site and then me either supplying or imputting content, depending on complexity. We had some very specific requirements which they were able to find bespoke solutions for.

At each stage SEO was a central consideration. We are already more efficient as a result of the site. We are looking forward to developing the site and increasing the sophistication of the system in the future. We know that as the opportunities in our business appear, CM System Designs will be able to give us new ideas and execute them.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Better-looking and more secure website is already receiving compliments. The new template makes it much easier to upload new content.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Excellent communication via email for simple conversations and zoom for more complex discussions and screen-sharing. Very responsive - email responses immediate or within a few hours, work executed quickly. Very clear explanations for non-technical clients. Very fast work for the times it was needed.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Ability to listen and understand what was needed, ability to explain things simply, ability to provide a great solution, and fast. They've been a pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director of Edzell Associates Limited, a management consultancy. We help financial services and professional services companies to implement or refine governance and risk management systems, and improve operational effectiveness.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CM System Designs?

We commissioned CM System Designs to develop a new website for the business. We have subsequently used them to advise on a variety of IT issues and continue to do so.

SOLUTION

How did you select CM Systems Designs and what were the deciding factors?

By competitive tender. We were impressed by the rigour of the team's analysis of our requirements, their recommendations on format, content and functionality.and their competitive pricing.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

CM System Design staff asked detailed questions about our business, the types of client we act for, our proposed website content, and the required functionality. Once we had commissioned them we had further meetings to enable them to fully understand our requirements. They then prepared intial thoughts and recommendations on all elements, and responded rapidly and positively to questions and feedback throughout the build phase and launch.

How many resources from CM Systems Designs team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked closely with two of the company's management team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The website has proved fully fit for purpose and we believe it has contributed to the success of our company. Feedback from prospects and clients has been consistently positive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Fully effective. They provided clear guidance but were also receptive to our own thoughts and input.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The time they were prepared to devote to fully understanding our requirements and the quality of the website they created for us. They were professional and clearly knowledgeable, and also very personable and enjoyable to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director of a commercial lettings and sales and business sales business based in Surrey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CM System Designs, and what were your goals?

Our website was outdated so we employed CM System Design to re-design this for us

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had known Sigal and seen lots of their work so decided to proceed.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We sat down for a few initial meetings to discuss our requirements etc, then we were able to try out the new site. We were very impressed with the results straight away.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Sigal and Chris worked with us the whole time ensuring everything went smoothly

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have had several comments on how lovely the website looks and how it is very user friendly.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Fantastic communication, easy to reach all of the time and any amendments made very quickly for us.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Friendly and supportive throughout the entire process and the ongoing support is fantastic, we also found them very reasonably priced compared to a lot of other companies. Our system allowed us to manage our workflow in a much more manageable and efficient way!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No, we are extremely satisfied with the service and our website.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Allware Systems Ltd.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CM System Designs, and what were your goals?

We needed a new CRM system written to manage customer jobs. This was to take the place of an older Access Database system that was no longer fit for purpose.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found CM Systems on the internet and were pleased to see they were actually quite local to us.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a number of meetings to go through the existing system and to talk about what we needed the new system to do, including having a web interface so we could interact with it in a more mobile way.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We interacted with 2 people from the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The first version was released within a couple of months which was exactly the timescale we were given. We were able to work with CM Systems to ensure any bugs we found were ironed out and the system has grown organically since then. We still ask for modifications every month that are delivered on time.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project management was excellent, we were kept up to date with progress all the way through the project. Communication was excellent.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Whenever a query was sent to the team, we had a response quickly in order to work through a resolution. Their online reporting system is excellent. What they have produced from using Open Source languages is more than I thought you could do, a risk well worth taking.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

It was a "First Class" experience throughout.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Pizza Express is a mostly UK-based but also international restaurant chain with over 400 restaurants. We have four live music venues, and I’ve worked as the music manager for 13 years, which means I manage the live music and the team that operates with it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CM System Designs?

When we started, we used to have a couple of live music venues, and it was fairly straightforward at the time. We’d plan our events using various tools, such as Google Calendar and Excel. Then, our venues escalated, and we grew as a team. Before COVID-19, we were booking an average of 20 shows each week across these venues. We found ourselves duplicating our work, but we wanted to stay on top of things and not drop the ball. 

We needed CM System Designs to help us design a new booking system and to find a more efficient way of working as a central team since we were working at such speed and scale.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CM System Designs provided us with efficiencies and allowed us to continue to scale up. They created a web-based workflow too, where my team can log in and see a list of the operations running. The system they created for us allowed us to communicate internally with each other, but also externally with the recording sessions and the musicians we’re booking. They seamlessly integrated it all, with a system design that's cleverly built to fulfill our needs.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two developers and geniuses who did a bit of everything.

How did you come to work with CM System Designs?

We were having problems loading the restaurant’s background live music, and some friends recommended them. CM System Designs came on board to try and build a solution for that particular project. Their work was so successful and so impressive to me that I brought them in to do a much bigger project, which involved the whole music team, and a lot of the live-music venues where we’ve tested shows.

How much have you invested with them?

I’d estimate it was within the $25,000‒$50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

In broad terms, we worked from April 2013–June 2018, but it’s been an evolving project. We first started 3‒4 years ago with the project for the background music in the restaurant. Then, two years ago, we started doing things more comprehensively. There are still more things we’d like to improve, which we might do later on.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The CM System Designs team was brilliant at the job, easy to work with, and delivered outstanding quality. They managed to understand a very complex operation and came up with the solutions we were hoping to find in a very efficient way.

I’ve been doing my job for many years, so I had lots of ideas of how we could build efficiencies and what it’d look like. There were occasions when CM System Designs absolutely nailed what I had in my mind, and there were other times when they’d rewrite it in a more positive way, exceeding my ideas.

How did CMS System Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly exchanged emails and held meetings. They were spot-on with deadlines and timelines. Whenever we pitched an idea and decided how long it would take them to do something, they’d always deliver on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They responded to anything we requested very promptly, and they were very pleasant human beings. Overall, they completely nailed it. CM System designs are a pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing to improve.

Any advice for potential customers?

Don’t necessarily sit by and wonder what they are going to do for you. Try to be proactive and use them in the most efficient way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the co-founders of an organization called Balance, a saddle making company formed in 1993. We design saddles and associated equipment for horse riding, as well as researching alternative ways of fitting saddles and working with them. We are one the first companies to approach our designs from the horse’s perspective, focusing on their biomechanics in order to make the horse’s experience comfortable.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CM System Designs?

We needed a new website that has a good webshop but that does not dominate the site, because our main focus is on the education of people within the horse industry and horse owners. The site needed to appeal to our main demographic, which tends to be more mature. It needed to be attractive and easy to navigate around.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CM created a whole new site for us. Unfortunately, having them build every part of the site from scratch was not an option for me, because we had a limit on what we could spend.  

That was one of the things that really impressed me from the start — CM respected that and looked for ways that they could make good use of certain elements, like an existing template with a lot of versatility that they could use as a foundation, to save them some time and save me money.  

They could have built the e-commerce site from scratch and made it completely bespoke, but again, the cost implications were a problem. They suggested that they could use Snipcart to create out online shop, which we use to sell the important products that work with saddles to create comfort for the horses.  This solution has worked well.

We have plans to keep updating and refreshing our website with CM System Designs in 2021, so it continues to evolve.

What is the team composition?

We were in contact primarily with Sigal (Co-Founder & Director) but we also worked with Chris (Co-Founder & Managing Director).  

How did you come to work with CM System Designs?

I had been considering how to build a new website for some time because it was old and becoming hard to manage. I contacted a few companies to find out if they could create what I needed, but they really didn't 'get' what I wanted.  Most were too focused on the e-commerce side to work for us. 

I even thought about trying to build something myself, before realizing that I just didn't have the skill or knowledge. As luck would have it, I discovered that Sigal and her partner Chris were now running a company that might be able to help. I had met Sigal many years ago in a meeting with the company who built our very first website, which must have been back in the late 1990s.  

I made contact and explained what I was hoping to do and that is how it all started.   We agreed for her to come to our offices so she could see exactly what we do and get a clear understanding of what we needed, and I was really impressed that she had clearly done some research on us  before the meeting and was genuinely interested in our work. I felt like we were in safe hands, with someone who wanted to help us to grow and reach many more people and their horses.

How much have you invested with them?
 
We spent just over £17,000 (approximately $23,500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2019–January 2020, and we plan to continue working together this year. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
 
The new website has made interacting with our saddling consulting teams much easier. It has improved the way in which we manage our shop side of the website. Our customers really like the website as well, and we’ve received plenty of positive feedback.  

With all the COVID-19 related problems through 2020, judging how much increase there has been in sales over previous years is not easy, but the new online shop has definitely made it possible to continue to have some income when saddle consultations and therefore saddle sales have been very low. 

How did CM System Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was really efficient; they were able to explain complex technical terms in a way in which we could all understand. Whenever we had an idea or any queries, we sent a ticket to the management tools they set up, and we received an immediate response from their end.

We also had back-and-forth dialog that was recorded, and I could refer back to it whenever I needed to. On a personal note, as someone who did not grow up with computers, one of the things that has been such a relief is that with Sigal and Chris, I never feel like an elderly idiot if I don't understand something technical. They are skilled at working with people with high technical know-how and also with those of us who don't have much at all, which is so refreshing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by their approachability and the fact that they were easy to talk to. They were genuinely interested in what we do as a company and have our best interest at heart. They listen and show respect for what we are trying to achieve. Although they are a small company, they have the knowledge and ability to do big things. That’s worth a lot in this day and age.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything because my experience has been very good. I haven’t come across anything yet. 

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend prospective clients be completely upfront with them about their needs, and what their budget is. CM is willing to work in a way that fits the companies they work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Chief Operating Officer at a software development company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CM System Designs, and what were your goals?

We required a completely new website that integrated with several other key business systems, some proprietary, some SaaS. We also needed to ensure that the site could be updated efficiently by non-technical staff across multiple areas including for SEO purposes and form deployment.

SOLUTION

How did you select CM System Designs and what were the deciding factors?

We have worked with CM System Designs on a number of projects and have a long-standing working relationship. That said, the choice of CMS was a key consideration on this project, so we engaged with several suppliers in a pre-scoping capacity to understand the options.

Based on the strength of the advice that we received from CM System Designs and our previous relationship, we decided to directly award the project to them rather than to tender it.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We worked with CM System Designs consultatively and the initial project scope was turned into a detailed Statement of Work that went through several significant updates before approval. Subsequent to this, the project was fully managed by CM System Designs who liaised directly with our designer and marketing manager to progress the design, build and deployment of the site.

This was a multi-faceted brief including design, build, hosting, integrations, staging environment, version control, documentation and training. The website is built using the Statamic CMS and is hosted on Amazon AWS.

Subsequent to the original build, CM System Designs have worked with us on several important updates to the site including, implementation of internationalisation, cookie tool, accessibility and site search.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 - Sigal Kellermann and Chris Palmer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Website traffic and lead generation have greatly improved since the implementation of the new site. It is, perhaps, not particularly useful to use those as measurements of the work done by Sigal and Chris. What has improved immeasurably is the stability of the site and the time it takes to add new content.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Sigal and Chris worked as an extension of my own team and I could trust them to progress and manage the project as if they were on staff. They are also incredibly proactive in finding solutions and improving things beyond the scope of what we had thought of.

We used email and meetings as the primary methods of communicating on the original project. We use Microsoft Teams a fair bit now, but Sigal is always very happy to talk.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

CM Systems are refreshingly helpful. Whilst not unique, it is certainly rare amongst those who are also highly technical.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a residential property management company that specialises in bespoke services to Landlords with multiple properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CM System Designs, and what were your goals?

Develop and maintain a modern, user friendly website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Recommended from a trusted source.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After an initial meeting to talk through my goals for the company and what I needed from a website Chris & Sigal understood what I was trying to achieve and actually led me through the development stage, giving me ideas I had not even considered.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Chris & Sigal. The owners.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Traffic to the site was immediate and married nicely to a CRM.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Communication was clear, concise and very prompt. They worked tirelessly delivering what I asked for and were always at the end of the phone if I needed them.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their impressive level of personal service and how invested they were in making my new business work.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No. Everything was great.