Nicasio Design & Development

BACKGROUND

I work for the Organization of Legal Professionals (OLP). We are an association providing legal technology training and certification exams for lawyers, litigation support professionals and paralegals online. OLP has members in 10 countries. I am the president and co-founding member. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We needed to design the front end of an existing website with existing Wild Apricot hosting service in the back end. Wild Apricot offers Web hosting for professional associations.

SOLUTION

Nicasio was recommended to us by Wild Apricot. We decided to contact them and hire them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Nicasio has a highly talented, dedicated, patient, and responsive team. Not only were we pleased with the end product, we would recommend them to anyone. Giving public referrals is something that we rarely do so it indicates the level of our satisfaction.

BACKGROUND

I am a life coach, healer, and retreat leader. I like to connect with people online and create a community for improvement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

I needed a beautiful website to help build a community for my work. The work included Web design and integration between Constant Contact and MailChimp.

SOLUTION

Nicasio created a beautiful website with flawless integration. They also were responsible for Web design along with development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

I am very happy with all they have done. They are very clear about requirements and are very organized. Pricing is very clear without additions or surprises.

The continued, reliable support that I have received from them for the past five years is what really sets them apart from any other group I have ever worked with. They are completely 

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for a commercial real estate and investment management firm.

What is your position?

I’m the chief information officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Nicasio Design and Development?

We recognized that our website was in need of an update. We wanted to allow our clients and their parties better navigate the content and learn more about us. In addition, we have an investment group with outside investors and we wanted to build a convenient portal for them that had The Rockefeller Group logos. We wanted the portal to have a consistent look and feel, too.

SOLUTION

Had you already selected WordPress as your content management system before approaching Nicasio Design and Development, or were they a part of the selection process?

No. They helped us decide to make that decision based on our goals and requirements. A large part of that was the ability of our staff to make updates and input new content whenever they wanted, without having to push it all through our IT department. We needed out team members to have relatively complete autonomy.

Our previous website was built entirely in traditional HTML, which made it difficult to utilize for those without basic knowledge of HTML effectively. This meant that any changes or updates had to be funneled through our small IT department, and it added significant time to our content development and management. That’s why they recommended WordPress for us. Their team convinced us that it’d be the easiest platform for our users to adopt, learn, and use in the long term. At the end of the day, we chose WordPress over Drupal, SharePoint, and Joomla.

How did you select Nicasio Design and Development as your solution partner for this endeavor?

We conducted some initial online research for Web development shops. We made a list of about five or six and sent out some descriptions of our work. We were the most impressed by the proposal submitted by Nicasio, and their estimate was more than reasonable. We invited them to meet our team and demonstrate their capabilities before we sealed the deal. Overall, we were very impressed with what they had to offer.

Could you describe the scope of the project in greater detail?

The WordPress implementation covered almost everything. They drafted all of the initial designs and wireframes for approval. Then, they went ahead and developed the site for us, along with the user portal I was mentioning before. They covered everything except the content development and creative elements. We provided all of that, but the site design and functionality was totally in their ballpark.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?

I’d say about $6,000 to $7,000.

When was the website launched?

The actual implementation was finished in June or July of last year [2013].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or end-user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

I don’t have any statistics or figures. I can tell you that the feedback we get from our customers has been, on the whole, very positive. Many people have complimented us on the new design and the ease of use. The investor portal, which we recently launched, has also received some great feedback. We’ve already seen great adoption rates from our members, so we’re pretty excited to see it used more and more.

When working with Nicasio Design and Development, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

They seemed to know what they’re doing. They’re a very capable bunch. They’re also very responsive to our needs and requests. They track all correspondence through Basecamp, which I think is helpful for maintaining project momentum. Everything is well documented.

In retrospect, are there areas you think they can improve on as a service provider?

I have limited experience with other vendors, so it’s difficult for me to have an accurate assessment of their work compared to others. There isn’t anything I could recommend based on our projects. I’ve been pleased with everything they’ve delivered to us so far.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describing your organization?

I’m an independent consultant. I handle marketing projects for various commercial and public clients. I do a variety of things including Web maintenance, collateral, design, development, and research.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Nicasio Design and Development?

When I first met them, this was probably three or four years ago. One of my clients wanted to migrate their existing website to a WordPress platform. They wanted to keep the same design. They were not looking to do a redesign at that time. They just needed to migrate their content because their existing webhosting vendor closed shop. They decided that it was a better idea to change the platform as well as the hosting plan. I searched for various vendors throughout the United States. I’m based in California, and so is my client. I asked an associate for a recommendation and Nicasio Design was one company that was listed as an expert with WordPress. I contacted them and described my project in as much detail as I could. Nicasio came up with a solid plan, so I decided to go with them.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

There was some custom development but no design. It was literally converting the website from the existing platform to WordPress. They reconfigured the system on the backend and handled the testing before relaunch. It was a relatively smooth project all around.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?

I don’t remember the cost. It was a very competitive quote, for sure. I got quotes from several vendors and, obviously, we decided to go with them. As a relatively blind estimate, I would say it was probably within the $10,000 range.

When was the project completed?

We finished this almost four years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The nature of the project doesn’t really lend itself to metrics or figures. As a migration project, the only real indicators are integrity of content and identical usability. Both of those things occurred just fine. As I’d mentioned, the project went very smoothly. No issues emerged. Nicasio put the necessary time and effort into it in order to ensure a successful migration.

When working with Nicasio Design and Development, is there anything you’d consider special or unique about their approach or methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

They have a couple of things that I really like and appreciate. For example, they use Basecamp with their client projects. It’s a great project management tool. It’s a very simple way to communicate with the team as opposed to just one person. Felix is the person who is the main contact for Nicasio on projects. He usually sets up a Basecamp project. That way, we communicate with the team that is directly involved with this particular project, instead of having to email people. That kind of management really helps maintain organization throughout the deployment process. They’re also just very easy, very approachable, and very knowledgeable.

In retrospect, are there areas you think that they could improve on as a service provider?

I don’t know that it reflects on the whole company. There are times when some people on their team are more responsive than others, but I suppose that’s normal organizational behavior. I have to say they’re good. I was impressed with their WordPress knowledge and their quick turnaround time with our assignments.  

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

It’s a vacation rental property management company. The company itself is in Honduras.

What’s your position?

I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you began the relationship with Nicasio Design and Development?

We’d decided to enhance our digital presence to help grow the brand. We wanted to generate awareness, create demand, and grow the business. We needed a completely redesigned and redeveloped website that’d be able to serve as the platform for that growth. Having an easy backend system and the ability for nontechnical users to easily access, create, and manage content was critical.

SOLUTION

Had you already selected WordPress before approaching Nicasio Design and Development?

Yes, we had. We selected WordPress because some of our staff was already familiar with the system, and because we knew how simple it was for new users to learn how to us it. We wanted something that our users could become competent with within a very short timeframe, and WordPress is perfect for that kind of thing.

How did you select Nicasio Design and Development as your solution partner for this endeavor?

If I recall correctly, we conducted some online research with Google. We searched for some local WordPress designers, and Nicasio was one of the vendors that came up. I sent a small description of our work to Nicasio, and they came back with a pretty convincing proposal. The estimate that we got was also within our price range, which was an important factor.  

Could you describe the scope of this project?

It was custom design and development in essence. They came up the wireframes. We talked about my requirements and then they did the wireframe design and we went back and forth on a few things. They also handled the pretesting and enhancements before launch. They provided us with some great documentation for the platform, which our users find invaluable.

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

It cost between $15,000 and $20,000 in total.

When was your site launched?

We launched in the summer of 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback you’ve received from users that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

The feedback I’ve gotten from folks has been very positive. I have a mixed clientele and a lot of folks who aren’t that Web savvy; we factored that into the design, trying to make the site extremely easy to navigate and understand. I’ve gotten a lot of anecdotal feedback. I haven’t attempted to solicit any other kind of feedback. I’ve been very happy with their work overall, in particular the customer service, after the fact.

When working with Nicasio Design and Development, is there anything that you’d consider unique or special about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

To be honest, I don’t have enough experience with other vendors to weigh in on that. This was essentially my first technology project.

In retrospect, are there areas you think Nicasio Design and Development could improve on as a service provider?

No. Not really. They’re a very small shop, and I’m a very small business, and so it was a good fit in that regard. Our work styles aligned very well, and I appreciated how accessible and responsive they were to our needs. That level of customer service and attention is what I look for in a good business partner.