Drupal Dev and CMS Implementation for Art Gallery
- Custom Software Development
- $200,000 to $999,999
- June 2016 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"I am a strong advocate for them because of their professionalism and flexibility."
- Other industries
- Toronto, Ontario
- 501-1,000 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Northern Commerce (formerly Digital Echidna) implemented a CMS in Drupal 8 which allows an internal team to export content and manage big data. They’ve also helped with web redesign, API integration and ongoing technical support.
Northern Commerce (formerly Digital Echidna) is generous in providing expertise and teaching internal teams. The online collection they created won the American Art Museum Curators Award for best Digital Publication, and the CMS has eased internal processes. They’re responsive, straightforward and sincere.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the director of digital for The Art Gallery of Ontario. I oversee our web department, media team and photo studio.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?
We needed to create a strategic but efficient way of bringing the collection online. We have various internal portfolio and content-management systems for managing the objects within our gallery’s collection
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Working with Digital Echidna, we have developed a Drupal 8 solution which allows us to export data from the internal collection systems, and allow scholars and the general public to easily browse our works. We have various levels of metadata, and Digital Echidna has developed tools which live alongside collection objects. We have integrated the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) API, which is a standard for bringing objects online in a standard fashion, so that collections can leverage big-data and information-sharing capabilities. Our toolset will support the larger museum and scholarly community. Our goal is to package these items in such a way as to allow other institutions to easily leverage them for bringing their own collections online, without paying for some third-party application.
Digital Echidna has been supporting our web team for the redesign of our website, taking our online collection the rest of the way, and allowing us to upload highlights from our Canadian collection in particular.
Our project is twofold, consisting of a website redesign and the backend tools. We did have a website before, but its framework hadn’t been updated since 2007. There was a host of issues around how it was made; it had no real hierarchy, and everything was managed by editing HTML. There was not a real CMS for it, and the problem we faced internally was that, instead of pushing the technology forward, our web team was tasked with updating web pages.
With Digital Echidna, we leveraged the Drupal 8 platform in order to create a solution which allows us to have complete control over the information on the website. We have a create-once-publish-everywhere system for every piece of information, including museum hours, ticketing, events, courses, and so on. We can display the information across multiple pages on the site, as well as feed that content to in-gallery kiosks and our mobile app.
My in-house team created the designs, and we were also involved with the development itself for both projects. It was a divide-and-conquer process, and as our team became more familiar with Drupal through the mentoring they received from Digital Echidna, they began to take on more and more work, and wean themselves off of outside help.
How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?
We used another vendor for the redesign, but the quality of work and management from that team was poor, and forced us to end the contract. I had worked with several Drupal development shops in the past. I went through an RFP process in making the selection, looking for a few things, including a positive reputation within the Drupal community in Canada. We looked for past clients who could vouch for the quality of the developer’s work. We also wanted a flexible team which could adopt our way of working, and didn’t want to hire a company that would flat-out build a site and walk away, leaving us with the technology. Through the process of redesigning the site and building the tools for our online collection, our in-house resources needed to learn how to maintain and extend the tools we were creating. With both the online creation and redesign, it’s been a collaborative effort, with my team drawing upon Digital Echidna’s resources, helping problem-solve issues.
How much have you invested with Digital Echidna?
The cost has been between $150,000 and $250,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started our first engagement with Digital Echidna in June 2016, released the first prototype for our online collection in November, and they returned for more components in January 2017. We hope to be completed by the end of June.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
The online collection created by Digital Echidna has won the prestigious American Art Museum Curators Award for best Digital Publication. We’ve also received a lot of positive feedback from internal and external users, as well as curators of other museums. There are two museums, one in Toronto and one in Chicago, which have expressed interest in using our solution.
In terms of metrics, our new site has exceeded the retention time of the previous version. The CMS which Digital Echidna helped us develop has improved our internal processes, making things more efficient. People have a proper system for managing and editing things.
How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?
Brad, their project manager, has been one of the best people I’ve worked with. At the start of each engagement, we held an in-person kick-off meeting with Echidna. They’re not based in the same city, but, when they are around, we tend to get together. In terms of regular communication, we have weekly phone calls for the project status. We use tools like Google Docs, Slack and JIRA as a primary form of communication, issue-logging and website documentation. We have a Google spreadsheet which contains the scope of work, and which is used for communicating issues that arise with any of the functionalities we’re trying to develop.
What did you find most impressive about Digital Echidna?
I am a strong advocate for them because of their professionalism and flexibility. I’ve worked with two other Drupal development companies, and many individual developers throughout my career, but Echidna was always straight-up and never smarmy in comparison. With the other providers, there was a lot of push-and-pull and inflexibility around scopes. Even when results didn’t work as we expected them to, we would be stuck with them, unless we wanted to pay more. Echidna has been happy to work with us, and organized-enough around contracts and hours, so that, when things don’t work as expected, they will have the flexibility to pivot and meet our needs. We worked on an hourly basis during the second part of the contract, and Echidna remained on-budget and on-time, instead of wasting our resources.
Are there any areas Digital Echidna could improve?
I don’t think so. I’ve worked with a couple of other Drupal development shops in the past, and had very poor experiences. Echidna has been fantastic, and I highly recommend them to anyone else.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
"The quality of work is great."
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Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They hit all our timelines and stayed on budget."
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"They’re reasonably-priced, although I would appreciate the work being cheaper."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I have recommended Echidna to everyone I know, who was working on Drupal sites.