Eclipse Media Solutions

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of SuperBrand - a brand strategy and design agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eclipse Media Solutions, and what were your goals?

We hire Eclipse to develop websites for our clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select Eclipse Media Solutions and what were the deciding factors?

We've worked with Eclipse several times and they have a great system, excellent communication and they do pixel perfect implementations of our designs.

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

We began the project with a brand identity book and design for two pages of the site. Then Eclipse create the wireframe and design for the remaining pages. Then developed the site.

How many people from the Eclipse Media Solutions team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with two people from Tim's team - Tim the owner and Annie the project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Eclipse did an excellent job with the site. The designs we provided were implemented perfectly. They also interpreted our designs to flesh out the rest of the site and the result was excellent.

Our client was incredibly happy with the result and their audience gave us all great feedback on how much they loved the new site.

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

Tim and the team were in contact with us throughout the entire build. They were super responsive - usually within a few minutes of contact at least to let us know they received our communication. They were always friendly and let us know exactly where everything was at with the work. Incredibly transparent which is awesome.

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

I'm always incredibly impressed with how much the final site looks like the design. With Eclipse I'm never worried that our design won't get implemented right. It's always amazing to see the site up and it functions exactly the way we imagined it to.

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

Honestly, not really - Development is hard. It's super technical and there are lots of tiny things that need taking care of and Eclipse has a great system for making the process super easy. Well done!

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your company and your role there?

I’m the CEO of Mobility Public Relations. As the name implies, we’re a PR agency and we’re specific to mobile technology companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were trying to address when you approached Dorey Design Group?

We had created an online press kit portal for our clients, strictly media facing, and it was in need of an overhaul. We had several ideas of features that we would like to add to it, and I put it out to bid. Dorey Design Group came as a referral. We met with them. They took the project, not just to the next level, but also to the next level after that. They had a number of better ideas than what we had and some new ideas we hadn’t even thought of. What we ended up building was a much superior portal with lots of interesting features.

Right now, reporters can come to this portal looking for specific clients to get information, or for a specific topic and pull information across multiple clients. The information that they see on one page may not be all the information that’s relevant to them, and there may be multiple pages with relevant information. Dorey Design Group added this feature where a person can go in and check boxes to all of the different things that they like, and then they get a page created with just the information that they’re looking for and only that information that they can come back to again and again. Everything is displayed on one page and there’s about eight sections on a typical page.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their work?

They worked directly with me. We’re a small company, so I was their interface. We had just a couple of meetings up front. Fortunately, we had something that they were able to work off and build, so they weren’t starting from scratch. They had a general concept of what to work with. They gave me a mockup of what it was going to look like. Very shortly thereafter, they delivered the first iteration of it, so that we could make sure that things were placed where we wanted and function the way that we wanted it to. Shortly after that, it went into production online.

There were a couple of issues that you can expect when you have a complicated site come up. Unless you put it through the paces, you’re not going to discover all the different issues. But they usually had a fix, and even in a couple of cases, a new feature designed to address something that came up as a shortcoming. For example, if we’re posting a piece of content that can be used in multiple pages, instead of posting it multiple times, they created a system in the backend where we can just check all the boxes of all the different places it needs to go. It was something that was an afterthought after we got the original project done.

Everything was turned around very quickly. The work was exceptional and the support continues to be exceptional.

When did you start working with them on this?

I think it was 2011. It took about three months between the first conversation and getting the production set online.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

We built this in order for us to have a better interaction with media and to address reporter needs. We hear all the time from reporters that they come to our press kits first, they don’t even bother going to our clients’ websites because we’re giving them the information that they need in an easy to discover kind of fashion, and also because it’s the same press kit designed for every single client that we work with. It’s easy for them to find that information across multiple clients. A lot of the reporters that we work with will be covering multiple clients, so we hear from them all the time that they really appreciate the effort we put into that. Dorey Design created the entire look and feel of that.

The previous iteration that we had was kind of complicated in terms of how we hosted information. It required our team to learn HTML. We had a manual and there was a lot of training that we had to do. But what Dorey did was spend a lot of time thinking about people who don’t know HTML and only have rudimentary information or experience online. Basically, if you know how to type in a username and password, you can operate the press kit portal from the backend. So our employees really appreciate the upgrade. It was a dramatic change. So, both my staff as well as the people we’re serving with the portal are very pleased.

Can you describe their performance?

There were three people that we worked with. When they came to us with their proposal and how things were going to look and feel, there was one guy that we were interacting with. When it moved into the construction phase, we were working with the lead developer on the team. Then there was a handoff to someone who helps us with maintenance. If there’s an issue related to server questions or if there’s update for the Drupal backend that has to be done, we have a contact for that. All those in-house were very seamless. It seems like there’s a lot of internal communication going on there. So, if I talk to one person about something, he knew what the other people had already talked about. I felt that the communication was really strong.

We have multiple websites. I’ve worked with multiple vendors on getting them done, and there was always been some level of frustration. I’ve never encountered that with Dorey Design Group. It was just smooth the whole entire way. If there was any issue, it was only that we made the project too big considering how small the budget we had to offer, but they set as much of that as they could into it. I think they actually got excited about the project themselves, and so they wanted to deliver something that was really first rate, and they certainly did.

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your company and your role there?

BCRA is an integrated architecture and design firm. We offer architecture, interior services, and structural engineering services. My role is photographer and graphic artist. I help our business development group develop our marketing materials for the company and help run the look and feel of our identity and our outfacing materials like our website and any brand-related materials that are client facing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were trying to address?

Our biggest challenge is trying to offer all these different services that we have in a clean and understandable way. It was definitely trying to organize what we offer and how best for clients of different needs to come and get what they need quickly on our website.

We had an existing website, but it hadn’t been touched for quite a while, so it needed to be scrapped and started over with. 

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

I worked with them for a very long time. The team not only developed and put together solutions, but he is such a wonderful consultant. We tell him what we’d like to do in the initial process, and he is very straightforward and understanding about what will and will not work. If we want something that is odd or unheard of, he will definitely figure out a solution for it. He says it straight and narrow. If it’s not going to work and it’s going to be a problem, he definitely lets you know upfront. He’s very honest and straightforward in answers and helping look for solutions.

Did they also do the design elements for you?

No, that was me and my team. We were developing the look, the feel and how it all as a brand comes together visually. They were a part of helping us make sure that we could implement that on the website. But we’re really happy with how our website turned out and how it functions.

When did this project take place?

It’s been about two to three years since we’ve had our website up.

How long did it take?

We were going through a brand refresh, from an identity standpoint and the collateral. It was all sorts of stuff and this was part of that. It was about a six- to 12-month process.

Why did you select them with which to work?

I’ve personally worked with Paul for more than 10 years in quite a few other projects. When I started working here, we were happy to bring him in on this project. He’s really good about working with you upfront and talking to you about solutions, solving the problems and having an understanding about how things work and run from the backend.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms or a work-hour figure?

I would estimate it was full-time work for four months. Then there’s constant updating and manipulating as we go through. I have a webmaster now that works directly with Dorey Design for any updates, changes, or needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

What we had before was very basic. You click, you go to a page, you get info, and that’s about it. On this one, we have markets, services, stories, people, and info that we need to be able to communicate. It’s visually fun and exploratory.

One of our goals with the website is how can we use the website as a marketing tool for our people. So we have this thing called Our Favorites on our website. It’s like a shopping cart, so if our PMs or our architects meet somebody at a meeting or event, they can go back to the website, click a few projects that were favorites, and click a couple of people from our team that they’d like to introduce to the person. They make a personal note to who they’re going to send it to like, “Here are the projects I was talking about, and here are the people that you can work with.” You send a personal link that gives them a unique bar on our website that shows them the projects plus the message. So, it became a marketing tool for our people.

The website now isn’t just something for our customers to come in and look at, it actually became a marketing tool for our people that we keep pushing.

When working with them, is there anything you’d consider unique or special about them that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve used?

I personally have nothing but accolades. They bent over backwards. They do what they say they're going to. If things come up, they’re always honest and straightforward. You know what’s happening at all times. They are really good at getting stuff done. I just trust them, in a sense.

Is there any area that they could improve on or that you would do differently?

I don’t know. It felt like our guy was a little overloaded sometimes. I don’t know if he was just on our project or if he had multiple projects, but you always wonder if you’re asking too much and if he has too much on his plate. But, what we asked for and what we received was on time. They’re always helpful and always able to adjust and do what we need.