Northern Commerce

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Cool Blue Interactive, a digital agency involved in strategy, web design and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

We’ve worked with Digital Echidna as a resource to help us with large projects, as well as some overflow work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with us on a couple of projects, including a very large one that involved thousands of hours of complicated build. It leveraged Drupal 8 as the primary platform or chasse for the website. It’s designed to be very mobile friendly and is essentially a business enterprise solution for our clients.

The work involved everything from helping the customers register for physical classes and physical class spaces, to back office management technologies like timesheet recording for teachers and help with scheduling and announcements across a number of locations and tens of thousands of students.

What is the team composition?

We have three people that have been regular with us for over a year and worked on the large project. That includes a couple of their senior Drupal developers, as well as a senior Drupal architect on our team who is the project leader in terms of system design and architecture.

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

We share a commonality in the Drupal content management space; the Drupal CMS which is an open source CMS. We had discussions and encounters with them at Drupal conferences and other senior management leadership retreats that involved agency teams.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in November 2017, and it is an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve influenced our ability to move the project forward at the speed required for the client’s delivery. They’ve also provided some quality thinking in terms of the system architecture.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

They contribute to our team’s work efforts to the order of probably 40%. They’re really good. The project management aspects of the project are still retained within my firm.

They’re embedded with our teams, attending bi-weekly stand-ups and doing the work in an agile sprint methodology. One of their senior people is assisting in the project leadership. They’re always punctual and with succinct, accurate, and well-delivered communication. They’ve been really effective at using Jira for project management, Slack, and other tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a sense of mission and we get a real feeling that they’re invested in our ultimate success, which isn’t always the case in relationships like this. All of Digital Echidna’s team membera—a couple, in particular—have demonstrated real concern for getting it right and documenting everything intensively.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything but good things to say about them on the delivery side. From the top down, from the leadership of the organization throughout the team, they say what they can do and do what they say.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A good general rule is to have honest and open conversations about the scope of work, the readiness to start a project, and realistic expectations. A lot of people do long and intense projects like ours and so you need to know there are some unknowns. Have open and honest conversations with the team to define a really good scope of work with everyone on the same page. It will help prevent any surprises later on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a senior living company in Canada. I'm the national director of sales and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

We hired them to manage our website. We were dissatisfied with our previous provider and needed a change.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do site maintenance for us and for the properties under our umbrella. Each property has a mini website within our larger site, and Echidna set up a support line and email contact for our residences to submit update or change requests. The most common changes are usually to pricing or to add newsletters to individual sites.

Echidna also supports our larger site and any requests we have. As new properties come online, they follow templates to create new pages for them. They added a developments page for news within our network, as well as a corporate blog section. They also make design suggestions for the site and the tabs within it. A different agency does our social media digital marketing, but Echidna collaborates with them on our social media presence and SEO.

What is the team composition?

We've had a team of three different people on this project.

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

They started working with our H.R. department initially. We were considering other provides as well, but decided to work with them based on referrals and the existing relationship with our company. They were extremely knowledgeable and could accomplish the scale of work we had in mind for them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000 CAD (approximately $113,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We switched to their services around January 2017. The partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All our constituent homes are satisfied with their work. Their response times are good, and they always finish projects within prescribed deadlines. The properties who use them for their updates and maintenance are all pleased with them.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge and response times set them apart from our previous provider. They get things right the first time and fix mistakes before they become an issue.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No; the work they do for us is very good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be communicative and open with them, and speak with the owner to clarify what you’re looking for. He is a good listener and delegator, and he’ll make sure his team understands what you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of communications and marketing at SUNY Morrisville, which is also known as Morrisville State College. We’re a public higher education institution with about 3,000 students, and we offer about 75 bachelors and associate degree programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

We had just developed new visual branding and needed help in refreshing our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially approached Digital Echidna with the plan of redesigning our website. However, we ended up building a new website on a Drupal 8 platform. They migrated content from our previous site to the new one, developed the backend functionalities, and established the forward facing presentation of our institution.

They helped us update to more efficient backend functionalities. For example, they helped us identify a partner to host our website off-campus with 24/7 support, which virtually eliminated site downtime. Additionally, the framework they developed included a CMS so that people throughout campus could contribute to the site and update existing content. That helped us to expand our institutional capacity for maintaining our website beyond our small web services team.

We approached the frontend design aspect of the site knowing that our primary audience would be prospective students. Digital Echidna helped us evaluate that audience, as well as our other stakeholders (i.e. current students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, public officials, and community members) to design and organize the website in a way that would appeal to every user.

Additionally, they provided us with wireframes, SEO planning, and readability and accessibility testing. Because of our previous work, they didn’t have to create much original work in terms of visual branding, but they helped us set up the right framework for the site.

They expanded our capabilities, and over the past few months have introduced new features and planned extensions to the site.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with Erin (Project Manager, Digital Echidna).

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

Our work with Digital Echidna was part of a multi-phase project. We had worked with previous vendors to understand our competitive marketplace, as well as better communicate our personality through messaging and branding work. When we released the RFP for this phase of the project, we were aware of these previous vendors and how they could potentially help us but were most impressed with Digital Echidna’s proposal. They demonstrated expertise with the Drupal platform and showcased qualifications and confidence that helped us throughout the entire project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $100,000–$125,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October 2017–July 2018. Since launching the website in July, we’ve worked together on a maintenance basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While I think it will take more time to identify the impact of the website, we have seen our primary audience—perspective students—respond positively. Initial analytics show that the new website has improved our UX. Users can navigate the site intuitively, and we believe that it will improve the way we communicate.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

We had regular meetings, which they quickly provided minutes for, and they were flexible when we need to change the project or meeting schedule. They were receptive to any question we had, and we usually reached out over phone or email if issues occurred. They were committed to helping us achieve our goals.

Specifically, Erin was fantastic to work with. She was committed to the project and helped us resolve issues that came up. She was communicative and exceeded our expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Especially with large projects, everyone anticipates that it may take longer or cost more than originally planned, but Digital Echidna did everything they could to stay on track. We really appreciated that they were thorough and provided us with detailed planning. They were dependable, flexible, and met all of our expectations. They were responsive when we ran into challenges, and resolved all of our concerns.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were a good partner to work with, but as we approached the close of the project, we were left with the impression that a few of the members were eager to move forward with different work. However, Erin quickly mitigated any issues.

We did our best to outline our expectations, but there will always be unforeseeable hurdles that drive the project off course a bit. Some people at Digital Echidna—such as our project manager—understood that better than others. I would suggest that they try to maintain their sense of urgency throughout the entire project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at Sifton Properties, a land development, and property management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

Communication between our corporate office and branch locations was challenging because we didn’t have a central platform that facilitated widespread information. We tried using more traditional methods like email blasts and posters, but they seemed to get lost in the clutter. The best solution was finding a company that could develop an intranet system that allows our entire company to share news and engage with one another.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We weren’t entirely sure of which tools we wanted to include on the platform, so we relied on Digital Echidna to define the scope. We quickly discovered that 80% of what we needed had already been developed on their EchidNET tool, which they used to create intranet systems for past clients.

The pre-packaged tools had a lot of social features that we wanted to include on the platform. There’s a classified section that allows our employees to sell and purchase items with one another securely. Users can share business ideas with upper management through the idea box, and they can like and comment on concepts from other employees.  Our marketing department also uses the built-in forum to advertise company gatherings and community events.

Our custom developments were more centered on sharing company news and documents internally. Digital Echidna built a news messenger, a directory, and a file-sharing system that replaced our old shared folder structure. We’re also able to share internal promotion opportunities with employees and show them the unique perks that our various locations have to offer. There’s also a welcoming section for new hires and easy navigation to our social media accounts.

What is the team composition?

There was a designated project manager who oversaw the development team.

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

We have been aware of the company for some time, and they have grown exponentially and gained local recognition over the years, so we felt that they were worth visiting when this project came along. The quality of their work was in a different league from some of their competitors, and their prices were competitive. Additionally, they had already done similar projects on a larger scale, so we trusted that they could guide us.

How much have you invested with them?

Their Echidnet tool can cost anywhere from $50,000 and $100,000, depending on the customizations. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We commenced the project in January 2018 and launched the platform in July 2018. They help us develop new tools as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re in the process of getting our employees connected and acclimated to the new company intranet. Despite many obstacles, only 23% of our staff have yet to log on the platform. Of those who have been able to get access, 40% use the system regularly; this is great considering half of our personnel don’t work at a desk. Most users spend an average of 10 minutes browsing the site and all of its features. The classifieds section generated more than 700 views in August alone. An overwhelming 80% of survey respondents have given positive feedback on the platform and its revolutionary features, while 20% have admitted that they’re going to take a while to get adjusted. Overall, we’re pleased with the work that Digital Echidna has produced for us. They delivered on all of their promises and then some.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a sense that they would be wonderful at project management, and they lived up to our expectations. They invested a significant amount of time and resources on weekly meetings and status updates to ensure that the project moved along quickly. We managed to build a robust intranet in six months with credit to their transparent and frequent communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Digital Echidna’s team is enjoyable to work with, but they were also professional and knowledgeable about their work. Their greatest strength lies in project management. They coached us throughout the entire process and assured us that our efforts were sufficient. The level of excitement and dedication they had for the project never faded; they’re still heavily invested in enhancing the platform to accommodate our changing business needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our experience working with them was exceedingly positive, but we did have trouble conceptualizing the custom features. In some instances, they were unable to provide a mock-up for us to review, so we didn’t get to see what we were paying for until the custom work was in the final stages of development. Some custom functionality ended up being discarded because it wasn't the best approach to the ever-evolving direction of the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We recommend getting to know as much about the company as you can before signing a contract. Digital Echidna gave us the opportunity to meet their entire team and view their past work, which many of their competitors were unwilling to do. We also suggest having an in-house project manager to work alongside their team. While their organizational skills are phenomenal, it was a great asset to have designated points of contact on both sides to avoid miscommunication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the information officer at The Agency for Co-operative Housing. We administer the federally-run co-ops in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and PEI in agreement with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

Our previous website was nearly 10 years old. It was noticeably static, text-heavy and often suffered from broken hyperlinks due to its design. The messaging was focused more on who we are and what we do, and less on providing our client co-ops with valuable resources and information. This information was generally kept on a separate website, which required a password to access. Basically, we were in dire need of an upgrade; we wanted the new platform to have a fresh design, modern feel and updated purpose. In addition to upgrading the site’s look and feel, we wanted to optimize the platform for all our users, and transform it into a repository of resources and information.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

With the addition of captivating images, fonts, and color schemes, the new website is more visually appealing than the old, text-heavy site. We wanted to encourage users to spend time on our website, so Digital Echidna made our home page interactive. Users can navigate our blueprint for success, or refresh any page to get a new fun fact. 

The new CMS also allows us to make content changes without assistance and resolved the past issues with broken hyperlinks. We were able to move our resources from behind a log in, to the new site, ensuring easy and universal access. Our new search function is incredibly thorough, and Digital Echidna’s guidance in identifying the proper content types, requirements, and taxonomies mean users can generate results quickly and efficiently. Now that the site has launched, we are in the three-month phase where they are on-call to fix any bugs or make last-minute changes.

What is the team composition?

I served as the unofficial project manager, and worked closely with a team comprised of Agency staff.

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

I wasn’t heavily involved in the procurement process, but to my understanding, it was a typical bidding process. We posted a request for proposals on our website and received at least 10 bids. They were reviewed and evaluated based on their ability to address the issues presented in our listing without merely regurgitating our phrasing. Digital Echidna stood out because they demonstrated their knowledge by detailing how they could help us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $200,000 to develop the new site. The price also covers the support and maintenance performed during the post-launch period.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had our first meeting in October 2017 and the website launched during the first week of June 2018. They currently provide ongoing maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re working on compiling a report measuring the new site’s performance. We’ve only received positive feedback from sector partners, federations, and internal staff so far.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

Developing a new website proved to be a formidable task. Our team often looked to Digital Echidna for direction and input. They were fantastic leaders in guiding us through the project from beginning to end. While our team started off with a project manager, a series of events led to me assuming this role. Digital helped me to keep our team on schedule and moving forward. I was impressed with their ability to manage and communicate with us efficiently through weekly meetings and regular phone and email correspondence. They were very responsive to our questions and were always receptive to our needs and feedback.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Working with Digital Echidna was an iterative process, which led to great results. Our vision was imprecise when we started working on the project, but through feedback and communication, they provided ample opportunity to fine-tune our goals. They never dismissed our suggestions and always found a way to balance our tastes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The formal documentation of the project management process could be updated regularly and consistently, especially when working with teams like our own who rely on their methods. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Current clients should work on maintaining transparent communication. Future clients should have at least some content available to input into the CMS either before starting the project or early on in the development phase. Digital Echidna can provide gorgeous filler content but having your own will help you determine which designs and formats work for you and which may need revisiting. Our content was not available until later in the process, and this resulted in several delays.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president and founder of Kre'Adiv house, a marketing and advertising firm. We represent anywhere between 2-10 clients depending on the time of year. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northern Commerce?

We needed web development support for a client’s digital platform and overall marketing and advertising strategy. Their needs exceeded our capacity as a boutique agency, so we hired Northern Commerce as a partner to help manage that project. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northern Commerce built two distinct WordPress sites for our franchise client’s operations in Canada and the U.S. Each platform has built-in customizations and is integrated with Google Maps. My team can make minor edits and changes, but we task them with any substantial programming for new features. 

For almost five years now, Northern Commerce has been buying and managing our paid digital advertising including Google AdWords and social media. As the client liaison, I focus our priorities for each location while they target overarching strategy. In collaboration, we create content and push the brand in new directions. We generated almost 1,000 extra pages of copy to showcase product offerings. 

An integrated system runs our call tracking partner’s services through the site. It produces metrics for specific ads and links that help us track progress. All this data migrates into the management system that the sensors use at each location. Northern Commerce sends us detailed reports that break down these results. They use SEO techniques and build add-ons to improve our organic footprint and support online sales. 

What is the team composition? 

Anywhere from 5-15 resources from Northern Commerce have worked on our project at a time. There are two distinct teams for web development and digital marketing. They also assigned us a lead project manager, and I contact specific people based on the topic we need to discuss. 

How did you come to work with Northern Commerce?

We had gotten to know Northern Commerce when they were a different, smaller company. Our first project was experimenting with a basic iPad app. They programmed code for the creative house where I worked previously.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost totaled between $250,000–$500,000. We pay a monthly retainer for management and SEO services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project started in October 2013. Northern Commerce is still providing ongoing development work for our website. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Northern Commerce’s digital marketing has increased our trackable online leads, inquiries, and new business between 10%–20% annually. We've seen close to double-digit growth for the past 5-6 years. Both organic and paid web traffic has consistently improved. 

We've received an excellent ROI on cost per click. Even if the price increased in individual years, it's definitely gone down as an overall trend. Our conversion rates have also increased, which makes these ads more valuable and useful.

We use many different marketing methods for this client, but Northern Commerce's services account for about 35% of our annual spend. They’ve continued to fine-tune our strategy and coach my team on content creation and SEO techniques to bolster our organic search results. 

How did Northern Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven't experienced any issues at all. I send an e-mail whenever I need something, and someone from Northern Commerce will follow up and take care of my request. They complete changes, fixes, and updates very quickly and send us monthly reports.  

Northern Commerce offers flexible scheduling rather than fixed meetings. I can reach out to them to set up an appointment based on our agenda. Instead, we discuss reports and new client needs. They send quotes based on specific projects before we decide to move ahead. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Northern Commerce has worked hard to help us grow. Managing marketing for a franchise organization is a difficult challenge. Overall, I've been impressed with the team growth we've throughout our partnership. They've been highly responsive and rapidly complete our requests. 

Even though they've grown substantially in our time together and I know they have much bigger clients than us now, we’ve always felt taken care of.  They provide a consistently reliable service. I've done my due diligence and have never found a team that comes close to what Northern Commerce offers. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Northern Commerce is professional, effective, and collaborative. The team is easy to meet with and communicates well. They’ll offer useful ideas and take feedback well pointed in new directions. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CTO of Life Design Analysis, a financial planning software dedicated to the insurance space. The platform aggregates all life-insurance rates from across Canada, helps advisors compare them, and produces a visual report at the end.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northern Commerce?

I had designed and developed a prototype for our software solution, but I’m not a classically-trained programmer, so it became a bootstrapped sort of solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used them for everything from development and maintenance, to digital marketing—ads and remarketing—logo development, and branding.

They were involved from the prototyping stage, taking the product from my Excel macro all the way to what it is today—a national bilingual service in Canada and the U.S. They turned it into a full enterprise solution. The main feature is aggregating rates from across Canada. We work with various APIs and languages like XML, and the whole site is coded in PHP.

We needed to build the e-commerce side of it—billing, checkout, and converting trial users to paid ones. They did great work on advertising the site, creating awareness around it, and, most importantly, taking in and getting money from customers.

They also work on digital mailer ads, Google Ads retargeting, and SEO. They’ve also helped us develop our blog and some of our content.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three dedicated developers, and with five people on the marketing side. We’ve probably worked regularly with 15–20 members of their team.

How did you come to work with Northern Commerce?

I did a Google search and came across their page. I was specifically looking for people in the London, Ontario area. Northern had worked with a lot of large partners, and they had a nice portfolio. They had a combination of marketing and full-stack developers, which was a great fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost so far has been around $500,000 CAD (approximately $380,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around January 2014 and the prototype went live in July of that year. They continue to provide development and marketing work for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went through a conversion rate optimization and website rebranding in our first year, following Northern’s leadership. We saw 1,000% growth that year, and, since then, we’ve had 300% growth, year-over-year. We’ve continued to invest in the platform and build it out with them, and the results have been phenomenal. Being able to grow the company and provide new features equates to a good relationship.

They’re top-notch in terms of the processes used for anything from project management to code reviews. Northern has a team of incredibly talented people and they find the things I haven’t thought of. It’s beneficial to work with people smarter than yourself.

How did Northern Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed extremely well and they're easy to work with from a project management standpoint. They haven't missed a deadline so far, and they’re always organized in terms of expectations and deliverables.

They stay on point and they have great tools, but they work in the style of the client. I wanted to be more hands-on with the development team and the project managers, and they accommodated that style.

We’re both fairly local, so much of the work is done in-person or through email. We also use different project management tools, including Basecamp and a home-built one from Northern, which is quite useful in tracking projects, keeping everyone on the same page, and inviting different team members. We can use the tool to remain organized and keep a log of everyone’s thoughts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the products that come from them is impressive. Our customers always reference us as providing a beautiful, top-notch product, and a lot of that is the result of working with Northern. They stand out for the polish of the product, the thoughtfulness beforehand, and surfacing issues before they even come up, through proper project management.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always areas to improve, but they’re constantly enhancing their internal resources through training. They have a forward-thinking dev team.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’d highly recommend them to anyone, but the client needs to be prepared to spend more money with Northern. After getting a budget, we always want to develop more and more. I’m excited to build new products because they always turn out successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Pulp and Press. Our cold-press juice company has been producing raw, fresh, organic juice for five years. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northern Commerce?

Our initial challenge was to create an online presence for our e-commerce site. Northern Commerce has done extensive work for us since we began this effort.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northern Commerce helps us with all of our branding work. They take the lead on wireframing and create imagery on-site using multiple photographers. Once we present an idea, the project manager will assign tasks to the relevant teammates. We hold meetings along the way to gauge progress and prioritize next steps. Once things have moved far enough along, they bring me in to work hands-on with content production. I work with the senior members of Northern Commerce to give approvals and indicate what improvement.

Northern Commerce is continuing to help us grow through all our social networks. We’re focused on attracting new customers and incentivizing existing ones. They’ve held contests and worked on geotargeting our user base on avenues like Facebook. Previously, customers had to call or email us to place an order. Northern designed and developed a Shopify e-commerce platform to make purchasing products much more accessible. Integration with an ERP system lets us access essential details like shipping information to process orders faster.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with about 10–20 resources in total. It’s been a team effort; almost everyone from Northern Commerce has engaged with our project to varying degrees. A typical plan includes project managers and resources working underneath them. I have a central point of contact for my questions and input. She assigns tasks to the appropriate developers and designers from there.

How did you come to work with Northern Commerce?

My business partner at the time’s wife had worked with Northern Commerce previously. They were so pleased with the work that he suggested approaching the team about furthering our company’s brand.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $350,000–$400,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Northern Commerce in November 2013 and officially launched our company in January 2014. Our collaboration is ongoing. They’re doing similar work for all the other lines we’re starting to launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Northern Commerce is very much a part of our success over our past five years in business. We launched the new Shopify site they built in 2018. Our sales went up year over year from 50,000 to an estimated one million. This statistic sticks out to me the most.

Northern Commerce is second to none in terms of quality. They take all the guesswork out of the equation. We’ve had a tremendous amount of lead generations on social media this year, and it’s all due to their work. I couldn’t imagine achieving these results without their team.
 
How did Northern Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

Northern Commerce’s communication is fantastic, and their project management is second to none. We correspond using phone and email along with weekly face-to-face meetings at the office. They provide regular updates on keyword movement, but they’re also happy to explain anything I ask about in-between.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have extensive experience with everything digital marketing, and their creativity is unbelievable. It’s not surprising that Northern Commerce wins awards every year.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are none that  I know of. I’ve only ever worked with Northern Commerce, but the fact that they regularly win awards truly makes me feel I’ve made the right decision.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you’re aiming for growth alongside a collaborative and creative team, Northern Commerce is the company you want to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital strategy at Laurentian University.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

We were redesigning the website, but didn’t have the in-house resources to complete specific tasks in a certain time period. We decided to outsource part of the overhaul to leverage third-party resources and expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our in-house team upgraded the university’s primary institutional site to have better permission controls and content migration. Digital Echidna created a permission layers solution for our 120 university authors.

What is the team composition?

We worked with an account representative and a technical specialist.

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

I met them through a postsecondary education web conference. I knew they were the best Canadian firm for Drupal, having worked with similar education organizations.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately 10,000 CAD ($7,600 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between March–May 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our internal web community’s user engagement levels increased. The new permissions solution allowed us to decrease the amount of tickets for the larger overhaul project. Consequently, we saved considerable time while increasing capacity across the university for our decentralized web authors.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

The updates were timely and deliverables met the scope requirements. Overall, they managed the project very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From a technical perspective, I’d to be hard-pressed to find a better organization. I appreciated their expertise and forthrightness; the team was upfront about difficulties and cost estimates.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more proactive with post-completion follow-up. That’s certainly not a criticism, because they did reach out and help with a few issues. However, the team could have checked in at a week and month via phone, as opposed to email. Phone calls enable real-time advice and more in-depth conversations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a professor at a Canadian university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Echidna?

I was awarded a grant, and the contract was for an open-sourced online textbook on the topic of the French language, indigenous literature, and culture in Canada. When we wrote the grant application, I had a digital developer identified, but that individual changed positions and was no longer available to do the work. I needed someone in a rush to build the CMS for me in order to get my PDF textual information built into an online format along with art and digital quizzes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had never built an online textbook, but I had a concept in my mind that the textbook would function much like an online course that could be used by high school teachers or college professors to inform themselves or their students about the subject matter. I envisioned an eight-module course, and each course would contain a written reading guide, a bibliography, an online multiple choice quiz based on that reading guide, as well as multimedia components such as videos and audio files that could make the material more interesting for a younger audience. They walked me through the entire process and outlined not only what my budget would allow but also what they could make the site do and what it would look like and feel like. The finished site is built with a Drupal 8 CMS using a book module.

We had strict parameters for what we had to do but also things we couldn't do. The site had to be compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act so that it can be used with text readers, and it had to be platform agnostic and work on cell phones and most other devices. It also could not include any third-party content, meaning it had to be written by myself or other authors and artists named in the grant application. Digital Echidna’s recommendation was to have our multimedia linked to YouTube. That third-party content developed for me isn’t hosted on the CMS, but it exists on YouTube. Digital Echidna also coordinated for the site to be hosted on a separate server as it worked with the granting organization to establish a proper repository to house the site.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two project managers at Digital Echidna.

How did you come to work with Digital Echidna?

My husband was familiar with their work from his own job, so he gave them a strong recommendation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2017 through May 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The reviews from the people I have shared the link with have been incredibly positive. I've had strong feedback from people at universities around the country. I’ve gotten positive responses to how the website looks, how it functions, and how easy it is to use. They took what I had in my head and translated that into an online resource that works exactly as I hoped it would.

How did Digital Echidna perform from a project management standpoint?

They walked me through the project in a way that was sensitive to my needs as a newcomer to this kind of project. They listened to my feedback and allowed me to contribute my ideas to how the process should work. They gave me regular updates as to what we had accomplished and what still needed to be done. They provided frequent and clear feedback, and they met every timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were respectful of the content and understood the importance of the project within the academic community. I believed my project was in competent hands from the beginning. At the end, they trained me to use the CMS so that I could make additions or changes. Overall, they managed to do quite a lot with the small budget I had to work with.