Web Redesign for Software Company
- Web Design
- Confidential
- Jan. - Apr. 2017
- Quality
- 4.0
- Schedule
- 3.0
- Cost
- 4.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"I was very impressed with the caliber of the people, and their willingness to do what it takes."
- Other industries
- Austin, Texas
- 201-500 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Imarc aided an internal digital marketer to design and develop a WordPress website. The site would rebrand a recently acquired company, displaying it as a connected but individual entity.
Imarc bends over backwards to meet deadlines and expectations. The site went live with no loss of visitors, no hiccups in SEO, and received positive feedback from internal teams. They stand out due to the breadth of skillsets and their ability to stay flexible while delivering data-based opinions.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Magnitude Software is an organization which enables enterprises to access information from wherever it resides, analyze it based on trusted data established through master-data management, and act upon it for strategic and operational performance management. I am the vice president of marketing.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Imarc?
There were a couple of pieces involved in our initial exploration with them. Being an acquisitive organization, we had taken possession of another group called Simba Technologies, which has a very strong brand in the ISV [independent service providers] connectivity arena, namely drivers. These are the people who have developed the technology which enables enterprises to access information from nearly any system or data source, such as a data lake. We needed to unify the Simba.com website and brand with Magnitude’s, without compromising the brand itself. The website is a primary channel for evaluations, and there are also retail capabilities on it. We were looking to unify the brand and better represent Magnitude, without compromising Simba, as well as streamline the purchase experience and support self-service enablement, as it relates to technical support.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Along with our very talented digital marketer, who has been developing websites for quite a few years, Imarc’s job was to essentially recreate a Simba.com entity which tied to Magnitude.com, both in terms of discovery, planning, and preparation, and in the execution itself. Our digital marketer was also involved in all of those phases, and did quite a bit of execution and testing, but Imarc was ultimately responsible for the full smash.
They were responsible for teasing the result out for us. We had a document which stated our objectives, and we worked with Imarc to establish and help them understand tone of voice and character missions. They worked with us in a collaborative fashion in order to get to a design and wireframe structure.
The site was developed using the WordPress platform. There are different audiences for it. The original one, at the time of acquisition, was primarily oriented towards technical people. We have a couple of audiences for the purchase of connectivity capabilities (or drivers), who might purchase off-the-shelf ODBC [open database connectivity] or JDBC [Java database connectivity]-based solutions, or who might purchase our software development kit for creating their own versions when a ready-made one isn’t available.
We’ve been primarily talking to the more technical people, but have expanded the dialogue to the ones who need access to data, namely business users. These fall into 2 categories: independent software vendors who OEM [original equipment manufacture] our driver into the technology they deliver (BI [business intelligence] vendors, for example), and enterprises with users who might require the connectivity, or product managers, developers and IT people, who are building the connectivity into applications being created, or linking existing applications (from systems of action to BI systems, for example).
Imarc has digital marketing capabilities, but we have a fully-internal program in place with our own marketer. They collaborated with us to an extent, but their job was to essentially build in what we had already established, and not break anything.
How did you come to work with Imarc?
I had worked with Imarc in a previous company, for a fairly small, proof-of-concept website. I found them after searching for a number of vendors, and gaining a number of referrals. A former team member of mine had hired a firm for a website build. They weren’t very happy with the results, and turned to Imarc to fix the problem. With that story in my head, and having spoken with Imarc, I was very impressed with the caliber of the people, and their willingness to do what it takes for the experience to be beneficial, and the results to be what we were looking for.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started talking with Imarc in the middle of 2016. We thought that the project would be kicked off by November or December, but, as we got to the close of the fiscal year, many priorities started to pop. We didn’t officially start until the kick-off in mid-January 2017, and the site was delivered in early April.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
I can’t share statistics, but I can say that we’ve had positive reactions from the internal team. We continued a steady state of visitors, and didn’t have hiccups in terms of search engine optimization or management, or with our Ad Words program. We have a tough audience in our Vancouver team, which is responsible for our Simba connectivity business.
How did Imarc perform from a project management standpoint?
This is an area where we had considerable back-and-forth. Due to the way in which we needed to work, it took us a while to find our sweet spot with Imarc. We were successful in getting the site live in a timely fashion, and working out any kinks. The senior management, and all the way through to the most junior member of the team, bent over backwards to make this happen.
What did you find most impressive about Imarc?
There are a couple of factors which stand out in my mind, based on my 2 experiences with Imarc, which would make me choose them again for an extensive project. Firstly, the capabilities the have in-house: the caliber of the people and the breadth of skillsets. Secondly, Imarc’s ability to represent data-based opinions and recommendations, while still being malleable in terms of coming to a decision that makes sense for the intended outcome, relative to the brand they’re working with, all within the notion of best practices.
Are there any areas Imarc could improve?
I have a small team, with only 2 people working on this project: myself and the digital marketer. The area which could have received the most improvement was project management. We needed proactive assistance, and worked it out as we progressed.
RATINGS
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Quality
4.0Service & Deliverables
"No matter who someone is and how good they are, there’s always room for improvement. The outcome is appropriate for what we were looking for, and Imarc was thorough in their approach to quality."
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Schedule
3.0On time / deadlines
"I could be unfair in giving a black-and-white answer, given the dynamics and fluidity of our project. Imarc was very good in certain aspects, and less so in others."
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Cost
4.0Value / within estimates
"For the most part, Imarc was spot-on with estimates, where there weren’t scope change. Of the 3 organizations I contacted, they were in the middle in terms of price."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
