eCreations

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president of Weber & Weber.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eCreations?

We desperately needed to get our client’s websites in operational order. After three years of working with unqualified vendors and trying several different platforms, we decided to redesign the platforms for the fourth time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

eCreations is redesigning two websites for us; one is an asset for a brick-and-mortar shop, while the other is an e-commerce platform powered by the WooCommerce plugin. Both sites are built on WordPress. They are developing an industry-leading product filter for the platforms. Our previous vendor caused a few data issues, so eCreations is helping us recollect the 300,000 skews from various manufacturers and clean up the data. To help us maintain sales, they have also repaired the functionality on the current site.

What is the team composition?

eCreations’ CEO is our main point of contact, but we occasionally work with other members within their organization.

How did you come to work with eCreations?

Due to our negative experiences with web vendors in the past, we made sure to vet the candidates extensively. We gathered a list of referrals from commerce sites and reached out to them via phone. After conducting a second round of interviews with companies on our short list, we decided to work with eCreations.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we have spent about $175,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They came onboard in January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

eCreations is still in the process of renovating the websites, but the platforms already appear to be state-of-the-art. The innovate features that they integrated on the sites will be an industry first. From an e-commerce perspective, we expect the product filter to put our business in a position of absolute strength.

How did eCreations perform from a project management standpoint?

If I could rate them on a scale of 1 – 10, I would give them a 20. I have been in business for 30 years, and I have never worked with a vendor as efficient as eCreations. When eCreations tells us that they are going to do something, they do exactly what they promise and more. Their team also goes above and beyond to take care of our needs. Their communication efforts are awesome as well. They always respond to our questions promptly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our partnership with eCreations is unlike any other professional relationship that we’ve ever had. We can always expect them to deliver beyond expectations. The solutions that they find are always customized to fit our specific needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have yet to experience any issues while working with eCreations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any collaboration, it’s important to vet companies properly and establish open and honest communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a web content manager, staff writer, and photographer at PVA Publications. We publish SPORTS ‘N SPOKES magazine, a source for news regarding wheelchair sports and recreation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire eCreations?

We were unsatisfied with our website and were looking for a complete redesign. We were also hoping to add several features on the backend.

What were your goals for this project?

Our primary goal was to have a product that gave us complete control over content and layout through an administration portal. We also wanted our website to meet certain accessibility requirements, work on any device, and have a hip, upbeat feel.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After more than three years of unsuccessful partnerships with other developers, we set out to find a local company that could handle our project. We researched firms online, vetted suggestions from friends, and conducted several in-office evaluations before finding eCreations. We met with their team and immediately felt confident that they were the right choice to build the website we needed.

Describe the project in detail.

After eCreations was officially brought on for the project, we held a series of discovery conversations to explain our needs and understand their capabilities. At these initial meetings, their team offered a great deal of insight regarding the ways a Wordpress platform could help us achieve our goals. They also laid out a project timeline, and soon after began meeting their deadlines.

After receiving our feedback about their wireframes, the team started guiding us through the entire implementation process. As they completed different segments of the website, I gathered observations from internal stakeholders regarding its look and functionality. Their developers made updates as needed, and we now have a product that meets all of our requirements.

What was the team composition?

We had a host of people assigned to our project, including Krystel (Senior UX/UI Designer), Jill (Web Developer), and Christopher (Web Developer). We also occasionally communicated with Steve (Founder & CEO) and Franklin (Director of Technology).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a few days post-launch, we were getting emails from our board of directors saying how wonderful our new site looked. The work that eCreations produced has far exceeded our expectations and restored our faith in the web developer community. We now have a fresh-looking website that is user-friendly and easy to manage.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Working with eCreations was night and day compared to other web developers. They gave us access to their development site, which allowed us to see all of their work in real-time. Our teams mainly spoke via email and video conference calls, though we were able to schedule face-to-face meetings to cover more complex issues. Initially, all communication went through Krystel, but as the project moved forward, I was able to reach out directly to their dev group. Overall, the workflow between our two teams was seamless, and collaboration felt natural.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Though eCreations is a small company, they have the technical skill and expertise of larger firms. Their team is very talented and knowledgeable, and they were able to troubleshoot and correct problems within minutes. They also brought a personal touch to the project that made us feel like we were all on the same team. It was a true collaboration.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think we could have done a better job of promoting the launch of our website. Other than that, the project went well, and working with eCreations was a pleasure.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The Electronic Components Industry Association represents various members of the electronic component industry, from manufacturers to distributors, and independent sales represenatives.

What is your position?

I am the Senior Vice President. I am responsible for our website, as well as memberships, marketing, communication, events, and so on.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with eCreations?

We had an old informational website which needed to be redesigned. The key requirements were ease of access to our data and a good look-and-feel.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We wanted to pick an environment which would ease the loading of content by our staff, so we decided to use WordPress. Aside from this, we wanted to have a website which could display conditional content based on various roles (membership vs. non-membership, for example). It needed to have key features like an interactive forum, a directory, a newsfeed, and many other elements which aren't normally found within WordPress.

Another challenge was a back-office system which we've tried to communicate with. This didn't work out so well, not because of eCreations, but because we lacked the proper application program interface for the task.

We also had to do a lot of data mapping, importing member data from our back-office association management system. It was a big project overall.

How did you come to work with eCreations?

We work with a creative agency in Phoenix, which led us to them. We interviewed a number of other companies, ultimately choosing eCreations.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The first phase of the project had a cost of $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our work at the end of 2013. The initial completion of our project was in August of 2014. eCreations' portions of our work were done within six months.

We're continually fine-tuning the system. We're now entering a process of adding new features and content to the site, including our member profile information, which needed some tweaking. We're continuing to work with eCreations throughout these updates.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The most important goal was improving user experience. We didn't have specific metrics for it; results were assessed anecdotally. We've received a lot of positive feed-back from our users. We keep track of user visits, which continue to grow. The site is quite user-friendly.

Budget was another consideration. eCreations was within budget the whole time. They've performed above expectations.

What distinguishes eCreations from other providers?

They found ways to achieve results in the WordPress environment which aren't typically handled by the system. eCreations was very creative, looking for solutions to a lot of different aspects, from plug-ins to other elements needed to make everything work. I would say that one of the biggest reasons for choosing them, aside from their competitiveness in terms of price, was that eCreations was easy to work with. We didn't have the necessary expertise in-house in order to scope out the project and do technical designs. It was a collaborative process in which eCreations was more eager to engage in than a lot of other developers we talked to.

Is there anything eCreations could have improved or done differently?

Thinking through how things work is something that both our companies could improve on, looking back at it. Sometimes, I should have challenged them to think more about the impact of some of our requirements. We didn't always know that, if we asked for XYZ, we would be impacting something on the other side. It's as much to do with our lack of technical expertise as it is to do with eCreations' efforts. We could have spent more time talking about some of these cases. We mostly communicated through conference calls, with few face-to-face discussions, which also contributed to the situation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The first company for which I utilized eCreations is called Producers Inc. It is a B2B high-tech marketing services firm working within aerospace, secure telecom, oil and petroleum, chemicals, medical devices, and other industries.

The other company is a B2B publishing firm with three national brands. We operate within numerous areas, including transportation and the worship industry.

What is your position?

I am the owner of both companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with eCreations?

We needed help in fixing a QR code system which we were using for a healthcare client.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

eCreations did a spectacular job of making our QR system work, and we've worked with them ever since.

They've completed numerous small jobs for us. For example, we recently had eCreations upload an e-book to our website and place it within a primary position so we could send out e-cards using it.

We've deployed a semester's worth of training promotional e-cards earlier this year, for a series of pilot training clinics across the country. Programming and scheduling the deployment of the files took half a day at most, which was impressive.

How did you come to work with eCreations?

They were referred to us by someone.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Their hourly cost is $125, but we've completed small jobs which could have even run for a quarter-hour. This is very cost-effective in my point of view. We've worked on numerous projects and our budget varies depending on the scope. eCreations is reasonable compared to other companies I've researched.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship. Our most recent small job was completed yesterday.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

If they don't know something, eCreations will not be happy until they've done the research and found the answer to our question or challenge. When I first came across them, we were having an issue with a malfunctioning QR code system. It was a nightmare situation in which they spent way more time than what we were billed for in order to find the reason for the problem we had. We gave them a strict budget for this, and eCreations stuck to it fully.

How did eCreations perform from a project management standpoint?

In our particular business, everything comes with a do-it-yesterday mentality. We needed someone who can work quickly, efficiently, and get the job done without rehashing tasks. I don't think I've ever worked with a company as responsive as eCreations. We aim to be expeditious and extremely detail-oriented. Their team has been a perfect fit.

They're always available to us when we have a question or want to discuss new trends, things that could help us achieve greater search engine optimization, or anything else that the current project might entail. They come up with suggestions and new implementations, keeping us at the top of our form.

What distinguishes eCreations from other providers?

Their willingness to drop anything and assist us distinguishes them. We have a longstanding relationship and eCreations has always been there for us. We work in industries that don't allow us a lot of flexibility in terms of time. eCreations works with us during weekends and after-hours without charging us extra to make our results happen. They do everything to ensure that we are a satisfied customer in the long-term, which is important. Their owner provides the customer service that he would in turn want to receive from another company.

Is there anything eCreations could have improved or done differently?

Nobody's perfect, but I can't think of an improvement area for them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a technology company specializing in security systems, card access control, and CCTV cameras.

What is your position?

I am the senior administrator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with eCreations?

We wanted to improve our SEO and reach the top of search results. We initially used GoDaddy and similar services, but we wanted more interaction from our website. We wanted to reach out to more potential customers who were searching Google or Yahoo for our services.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We've now finished our second web design project with eCreations. We also wanted to have a phone app which customers could use in order to request services from us. eCreations designed and developed it for us.

How did you come to work with eCreations?

I'm not sure how we came to work with them. I think that they've been in touch with our company since 2006.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost, from our first web design project to our current one, has been upwards of $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first website redesign with eCreations had been done in 2006 or 2007. The second one was done in 2013, and our app was developed in 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have access to Google Analytics in order to gauge how many new and returning customers we have. These numbers fluctuate, given the nature of our business; but from looking at our reports, I can see that we've had an overall increase in business.

Customers have reported that they came across our business by looking at our web page. It is more attractive to the eye than what the old one used to be.

What distinguishes eCreations from other providers?

They're always available. We can call any time and tell them what we want, what our current idea is, and eCreations will bring it to life. We have had a lot of back-and-forth sessions during which they've made an effort to come up with what we were requesting.

Is there anything eCreations could have improved or done differently?

No, there isn't. eCreations has always done what we have asked them to do.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Valley of the Sun Heating & Cooling Supply is a national distributor of LG and Goodman air conditioning systems. We work mainly with hotels and also offer parts for our units.

What is your position?

I am the general manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with eCreations?

We needed assistance in revamping our website in order to better assist our customers.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

eCreations made some optimizations for our web platform. They set up a better shopping cart and redesigned our website in order to improve its performance.

How did you come to work with eCreations?

We chose them based on our initial meeting. I was impressed with the organization level of their workplace and with their owner in particular. I found him to be upfront and very honest. He initially addressed me as Mr. O'Hara, and I appreciated the formality. We'd previously worked with five or six other web design companies. All they were interested in was getting a lot of money from us. eCreations was different. They stuck by our side and helped us every time we had a problem.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost of their services was around $22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was started a couple of years ago. It has been completed, but eCreations continues to maintain our website and e-commerce platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I estimate that eCreations has increased our business by 35-40%. Our sales and web presence have gone up significantly.

How did eCreations perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed the project in a timely manner, which increased our business sales tremendously.

What distinguishes eCreations from other providers?

A lot of other web developers we've worked with would push for project changes after we'd started working with them, in order to get more money. eCreations has not done this. They let us come to them with requests. They do make recommendations, giving pros and cons for any decision, but they don't aim for maximizing their fee.

Is there anything eCreations could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything. From the people who answer their phones, to their development team, they've all been fantastic. They always return our calls, even when they're busy, and they stand by what they promise.