Palantir.net

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Starwood Retail Partners is the fifth-largest owner of shopping malls in the U.S. As the corporate communications manager, I oversee all of our PR and digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Palantir.net?

Our website was not a top priority when we started this company six years ago. Consequently, the site was a rush job that only provided basic contact information. We needed to transform the site into a valuable resource for our leasing team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used Palantir’s services to build a Drupal website based on a model our web design vendor created. Their team trained us on how to use the Drupal platform, project management, backend support and frontend implementation throughout this project.

What is the team composition?

I worked with five people throughout this project, with two of them being involved in every step of the process.

How did you come to work with Palantir.net?

Our web designer heard great things about Palantir’s expertise in Drupal, so we went with his recommendation. We liked that their team was confident in their skills without being arrogant. One of their high-level employees helped write some of the code for Drupal and even speaks at Drupal conferences. Having someone with that level of experience on their team assured us that they could deliver quality work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $100,000 on this project, and we pay around $400 a month for their ongoing support services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the project in September 2016 and launched the new website in February 2017. They still provide backend support as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A core update to the Drupal system removed our Google Analytics tags, so we were unable to measure the entire year. According to the data that we were able to capture, the traffic has increased significantly and our bounce rate has decreased.

How did Palantir.net perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, their project management was phenomenal. Adjusting to their work pace was difficult, but their thoroughness was ultimately what we needed to tackle this seven-month project. They are very deadline-oriented, which forced us to have everything together on our end. Our tight deadline left no room for error, so we had to provide every single detail about our vision at the beginning of the project. Approving work promptly was another challenge for us because it was hard to make a permanent decision based on a simple wireframe model.

Their team used Jira meticulously as a project management tool. They also held 15-minute calls three days each week discussing what stages they were currently working on, which our personal project management consultant found helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team was extremely helpful in keeping us on track. One of their very talented frontend developers was very instrumental in our learning process. He was always patient if there was a concept that I had trouble understanding. If he didn’t know the answer to one of our questions, he would figure it out by the end of the day. When they were unable to provide a feature wanted to put on the website, he would often come up with a solution that turned out to be better than what asked for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I understand that they work for multiple clients, but it takes too long for our support tickets to be completed. The project manager takes two days to assign the ticket to a developer, which holds up the process. I do have the ability to submit the ticket as "high importance," but it would be nice if medium- and normal-support tickets could be assigned faster.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are going to drill you with questions during the first few meetings, so have a clear concept of everything that you want on your website. Also, know the exact order of importance of major tasks to prevent possible delays.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an independent consultant who’s been working with the MIT Press on a series of projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Palantir.net?

We needed to redesign the primary MIT Press website, which is intended to let users discover and purchase MIT Press books. We had a company create the design and needed a partner who could implement it on the site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I wasn’t around for the beginning of the project, but Palantir did a requirements review and onsite sessions to go over the project strategy. They integrated the Drupal 8 site with the MIT Press API service. The design was beautiful, but we knew it’d be difficult to implement in Drupal. The site isn’t complicated, but integrating it with the MIT Press API was difficult; they had over 13,000 records with numerous variations in the metadata. For example, some content were preorders, others had different supplemental material. Navigating and organizing those variations was a big part of the project.

What is the team composition?

Palantir provided a project manager, tech lead, UI developers, designers, and an architect.

How did you come to work with Palantir.net?

MIT Press had worked with them before, so they came highly recommended. They understood what we wanted to accomplish, and their workstyle was collaborative and proactive. They were honest about the cost and willing to do the work we needed, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in January 2017. The project should launch this month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most of our indicators revolve around the e-commerce and shopping cart side of the site, which wasn’t our focus. We have quite a few different audience types, and Palantir has helped make the website accessible to all of them. They made sure the pathways are clear and prominent, making them easier to navigate, which will hopefully lead to higher conversions and more books being purchased.

Once the e-commerce side is finished, we’ll launch the site. Right now, we’re finetuning the site’s performance and polishing the main elements.

How did Palantir.net perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re fantastic at project management. They’re organized, which is important since there are various silos for this project. We have a different team working on the e-commerce portion and another for the internal MIT work.

Even with all the different teams, our project manager made sure nothing fell through the cracks. He always asked the right questions and made sure we knew what the next steps were. We used Jira, an agile board, scrum, email, and Slack to communicate and track progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I admire their culture. Every person we've worked with has been unfailingly positive, even when faced with difficult problems. They’re transparent with their clients and want to work as a team to make the best product possible. That’s the difference between a great project and a subpar one. They’re positive, open, and incredibly collaborative.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we never had any trouble.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Believe the estimates they give you. Palantir knows what they’re doing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the senior director of digital marketing at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation's top-ranked hospitals according to US News and World Report. We have about 50,000 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Palantir?

We needed help with the design and UX of our website as we were about to migrate platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Palantir helped with the frontend, design, and usability aspects of our website migration of over 12,000 pages of content. They developed a strategy after interviewing some of our stakeholders and then laid out a framework for our website. The style guide they created described how content would be displayed in a way that was user- and mobile-friendly.

They also spent time researching the various personas of users of our website, so we could prioritize the work that needed to be done. This included two user testing scenarios, including one with visitors at our main campus and another online, using technology that allowed us to record user reactions. Based on their research, they designed mockups and wireframes of the new site using Sketch and a few other design tools.

What is the team composition?

We mostly worked with three people: an account manager, designer, and project manager/web strategist.

How did you come to work with Palantir?

We found Palantir through an online search and liked that they were both great designers and had previous experience working on another healthcare company's website. Because they weren't experts in the platform we were using, Sitecore, we decided to work with them based on their strengths as designers and hire a second vendor for the backend migration.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested in the range of $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2015 and launched the first phase of the site in December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've had great results from their work, including increased traffic, search engine visibility, and enhanced usability. Last year, we reached over 100 million visitors for the first time, a more than 10% increase in traffic. Users are visiting more pages and spending more time on the website overall.

We've also won web design awards, including a gold award for best site design for a healthcare system, which is directly attributable to their efforts. It was the first time we've ever won an award like that.

Their user testing scenarios provided a lot of valuable insight, which helped inform the overall design and challenge our previous assumptions about our users. After the site launched, our CMO observed a significant decrease in complaints and phone calls from users and caregivers having trouble navigating the site, which is one of the best outcomes we could've had.

How did Palantir perform from a project management standpoint?

They stayed on schedule and kept things moving without any surprises. Anytime I had a concern, they were flexible and provided data for why they'd chosen to go in a certain direction. The style guide they worked on was accessible to us online as they worked through it, and we used Trello and Skype to manage communications.

They also worked very well with our other technology partner helping with the site migration, collaborating with their team without any major stumbling blocks or finger-pointing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate how much they put the user first when they approached design. Their user testing phase provided invaluable insights and they conducted them with great professionalism. In addition to understanding our goals, they provided feedback when they felt necessary to ensure the best possible outcomes. They challenged our assumptions and backed them up with data.

They delivered a design that will serve us well for many years to come. As we want to make additional enhancements, they've put us in a position that will make it much easier to do so.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They've made adjustments where we've needed them to.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on what your requirements are and specific about the results you want to achieve. Having those requirements to refer throughout a website redesign or migration is critical.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Main Line Health is a health care provider with a series of acute care hospitals, health centers, a physician's group, a rehab hospital, and a drug and alcohol rehab facility.

I'm the head of digital marketing. I lead an internal web development team that currently works on the Sitecore platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Palantir.net?

We wanted to rebuild our site from the ground up. The previous design had been in place for a long time. There really hadn't been any substantial user testing done on it really much in the way of consistent user research. Outside of Google Analytics, we didn't really have a lot of data that indicated the effectiveness of the design; we knew it needed to be updated. At the time, we had a separate desktop and mobile site. We needed to switch to a responsive platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our project was really divided into two different parts: the research and design phase and then the implementation phase. At the time we were looking for a partner for the first phase. We brought in Palantir.net to complete the first half of our project. They conducted the initial user research and built the mood boards, wireframes, and mockups that would then be converted into Sitecore templates. We would pass their completed designs to another vendor to implement on the platform.

What is the team composition?

They provided a dedicated account manager and project manager, as well as a design lead that we worked with throughout the entire project. The same people collaborated with us since the first steps all the way through the launch. While they likely used other resources behind the scenes, we primarily conferred with those three people.

How did you come to work with Palantir.net?

In the initial phase of the project, we didn’t know which platform we would use to implement our site, whether it be Sitecore, Adobe, or Drupal. We wanted someone that had experience with one of those platforms.

We had seen Palantir.net’s Drupal work with other organizations in the healthcare space, and we liked their work. Although this was their first non-Drupal project, we were confident in their skills. Any team that could deliver their quality of Drupal work could easily translate that to Sitecore.

Furthermore, we also liked that they'd done substantial work outside of healthcare. We didn't want to go with a vendor that was just recreating the same site over and over again.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work lasted between January 2015–October 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their strategic design choices have vastly improved user engagement on our platform. We’ve seen a substantial spike in our online appointment requests as well as our physician profile views. In the previous site, the profiles were shown inconsistently or, in some cases, not shown. The new design features them clearly. As a result, profile interaction has increased by approximately 158%.

We’ve also noticed a substantial increase in mobile users. Having a responsive site with the full functionalities of the entire platform was a big usability improvement. Solid design choices encouraged mobile users to stay and browse the site.

How did Palantir.net perform from a project management standpoint?

Within the first few weeks, they evaluated the project and established a timeline that spanned about six months. They met all of their deadlines and held weekly update calls to report the project status. In terms of communication, we enjoyed working with the three project leaders because we didn’t have to worry about contacting too many people; it was a streamlined interaction.

Moreover, we appreciated their ability to navigate our internal teams. We’re a large, complex organization with a lot of stakeholders. As such, they needed to interact with a lot of different groups throughout the organization, presenting the same information numerous times. They also needed to synthesize feedback from a lot of important people. They overcame that challenge with great success.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When considering potential vendors, one of the things that we found attractive about Palantir.net was that their developers weren’t just developing on Drupal; they were also contributing to Drupal core and other open-source modules. When choosing a vendor, we felt it was really important to find a team that wasn’t just using the platform but was also invested in it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From our engagement, there's nothing that comes to mind. Everything went smoothly. We would have liked to pursue a post-launch engagement for additional usability testing, but that was beyond the initial scope.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s essential for clients to uphold their part in defining the project scope before engaging Palantir.net. While they successfully interacted with our internal stakeholders, we could have been more time-efficient if we had streamlined our internal communication. It was definitely no fault of theirs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of communications at Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan and nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. We look at economic, environmental, energy, and natural resource issues.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Palantir.net?

Our web platform had information architecture challenges that affected its performance. As a result, we wanted a Drupal migration and complete redesign. The latter needed to organize content – papers and blogposts – in a user-friendly manner and project our identity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We did some work beforehand, specifically for content organization. They focused on information architecture for top-level navigation. Palantir also redesigned the website and integrated our blog from its external site onto Drupal.

What is the team composition?

I interacted with five people. Three resources were active throughout the process; the other two members worked as needed.

How did you come to work with Palantir.net?

We put out an RFP through the Acquia Partner Program. Palantir had the most comprehensive response to the document’s specifications. Their presentation was similarly thoughtful; it articulated a unique business strategy based on shared goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in February 2014 and ended in February 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Time on the site increased and bounce rates decreased. The backend has remained stable since the launch.

How did Palantir.net perform from a project management standpoint?

Transparency was a notable strength. They were candid about progress as well as setbacks. Throughout the process, Palantir remained open to re-prioritizing processes. We used daily scrums, Google Hangouts, and Redmine.

During development, we requested changes that affected some timeframes. But any delays were our problem, not the team’s.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were savvy communicators. The team was very unified; members knew the project from every angle.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As a dispersed team, they relied on web-based meetings and remote communication. That setup reflected industry trends, but it also requires us to be comfortable with the arrangement. But given their environment, we didn’t have any critiques.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We spent a lot of time thinking about our needs and developing clear expectations. That preparation made deliveries easier to execute. However, they can guide clients through that initial process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a public higher education institution.

What is your position?

I am the service director for collaboration and Web content services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Palantir?

We looked at getting Palantir to help us build a Drupal platform. We hadn't had a Drupal platform at all or any kind of content management system, so we were looking to build the platform so that we can move our legacy websites into it.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They were involved in the technical development, and there was also some design aspect to their work as well. They were also involved in training our staff on how to use the Drupal platform.

How did you come to work with Palantir?

We released an RFP [request for proposal] to determine what shops we should go with. We had a list of requirements that we were looking to accomplish with this Drupal platform. We had a series of vendors respond to our RFP. From there, we reviewed each vendor and which proposal came close to what we were looking for, and what would be the best fit and best company to work with.

One of the key factors in our decision was that they had to have a good working relationship with Acquia, which is our hosting vendor. If something didn't work out, we didn't want someone to blame the hosting. We wanted to make sure that they could work together to solve a problem that we have.

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

It cost about half a million dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We launched our sites in March 2014 and we kept them on afterwards to provide us with maintenance and support. Starting from 2015 onward, we really didn't need any of their services. What they built was great. We didn't need to call them back to fix anything. We've been using the same platform that was built from the get-go.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've launched a total of 525 sites. To give you a perspective, our legacy system had maybe 300 sites at most. What this means is that we moved all of our legacy system sites from the Oracle tool to Drupal. Because of the success of the project, there are other units, other colleges, other departments on campus that want to do what we did. They're coming in droves to this enterprise platform because these other entities were managing their own sites. They didn't want to have to manage the patching security of each individual station, so they decided to abandon that and migrate their sites into our platform, based on what Palantir did.

After launch, there were some issues that we discovered, but we were able to either try to work around or try to fix those later on ourselves. We remain confident in the stability of the system in the long term.

How did Palantir perform from a project management standpoint?

I was satisfied with their responsiveness, and Palantir was able to deliver the project on time and within budget. They used an Agile development methodology and did sprints every two weeks, which helped us to understand what was being delivered. Every two weeks, they did a review and showed us what they built, so we could see if it was on target or not, and then they demoed what they built. If it was not correct, then we would go back and re-evaluate what needed to be corrected. We used Redmine as a project management tool.

What distinguishes Palantir from other providers?

They are actually the first vendors I've used for Drupal, so I don't know of any other groups to compare them to. They're similar to other vendors in that they use the Agile methodology, which helps customers like myself to see what they're delivering week to week and whether or not they're on target. That helps us understand whether they're meeting our goals, and whether our goals can be accomplished.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

Yes. We closed our sites on Acquia, and we learned later on that if Palantir would have developed their sites on the Acquia platform, a lot of the nuances in the demo would have been fixed or would have been cleared out. Because everything was built locally on their desktop, and then they tried to upload it to the Acquia hosting platform, there were errors. An improvement for future customers that work with Acquia or any hosting company would be to work on the hosting platform to help with the smoothness of any of the issues that they may have encountered locally.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We provide K through 12 [kindergarten through 12th grade] STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] curriculum and professional development to teachers, which include programs in computer science, biomedical science, and engineering at the high school level, and a multi-disciplinary program at the middle school and elementary school levels. We’re present in all 50 states and in more than 6,500 schools. We have a wide network of corporate partners who really help from a content development standpoint on our curriculum side as well as recruiting our students and providing job opportunities to the students as they leave 12th grade and go on to college and career.

What is your position?

I am the senior vice president and chief communications officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address when you first approached Palantir.net?

We had an extremely word-heavy, confusing, and outdated website. There was a ton of text, not much imagery, and it was hard to navigate and find what you needed. Our website did not match our brand whatsoever. It was completely off and didn’t capture any of the excitement and innovation we stand for. We needed a complete overhaul, a simplification of messaging, an addition of a lot more visual imagery, and some flexibility to have our presence be a lot more visual than it was beforehand.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the actual scope of work assigned to them?

Although we’d had the wireframes developed previously, we had taken so long between that development and when we actually created the site, so Palantir really had to take those and almost validate them all over again, and make a fair number of changes. We’re a fast-growing organization, and we were changing a lot at that time, so they really had to redo 50 percent or so of the work just to get back up to the point where we currently were. They did go through a bit of an abbreviated discovery process. So, we didn’t just hand them the project and tell them to build it, there was definitely more involvement on their end from a discovery perspective.

They provided training to our marketing and communications team on how to maintain and add content to the site. From a purely technical standpoint, we did not receive any formal training from them. We actually have some talented developers in-house who have a lot of experience, so that wasn’t needed. We decided to use Drupal because we have used it in the past. Also, the flexibility of what is possible with it after you have it up and running, I think the developers have a lot of comfort with it.

How did you come to choose Palantir.net as your partner?

We’re a Drupal house, we have Drupal developers, and we’re really focused on finding an organization that was focused and had a lot of experience in Drupal. We interviewed three or four different companies. We had the wireframes developed by another great Drupal company and liked them, but the cost of continuing with their development services was just outside of our budget. So, we were looking for a high-quality option that was more affordable, so we could get that same quality for a better price.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this engagement?

It was from $140,000 to $170,000.

Is your relationship ongoing, or is the work concluded?

We completed the bulk of the work last January [2015]. We’ve maintained an ongoing services agreement for quick corrections and enhancements. We don’t use them for anything too significant because we do have developers in-house, but we do use them to accelerate some of the small projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

From a visitor and use standpoint, we saw almost 100 percent increase. I wouldn’t attribute all of that to the site, as we’ve grown as an organization, too. We saw about a 62 percent increase in traffic and page views, and about 40 percent in unique visitors, between the month prior to launch and a month after launch. Month to month, we’re looking at about 60,000 visits per month in January the year prior, and then we saw slightly less than 200,000 the following year.

We got fantastic feedback. I would say any improvements to be made were those that were enhancements beyond where we wanted to be. From the old website to the current version, we have received great feedback from internal and external stakeholders. One of our foundation partners reached out and wanted to find out who had done our website because they’re looking at redoing theirs, too. So, we’re excited about the possibility of theirs looking somewhat similar. Our network of teachers and administrators also had some good feedback. Some members of our sales team use the website as a presentation aid, and use it to flip through different programs as they talk to someone at a school, which never would have happened with the old site.

When working with Palantir.net, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach, development methodology or the way in which they manage their client relationships?

They were extremely precise about the tradeoffs they shared, and the level of detail and attention to the project plan I thought was phenomenal. With other vendors, in general, you don’t see that level of precision and detail. It ended up making a much more effective strategy because you knew exactly what was happening when. There were no surprises along the way. We really appreciated that level of clarity.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

I don’t have anything unique to Palantir, to be honest. With any outside partner or vendor, it’s important to understand budget and goals, what’s the product you want to get out the door, and make your expectations clear.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

[We are] an academic unit of [a major] university.

What is your position?

I’m the director of communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were attempting to address when you first approached Palantir.net?

They were first involved as the development partner for the creation of a new website for the [academic unit]. It was not clear to people that we [the unit] had degree programs. It offers undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate degrees in international peace studies, and we needed a website that reflected that. Another firm designed the visual elements, but we wanted it built in Drupal so Palantir built the functional backend. It was redeveloped a few years later when we wanted to upgrade it. Also, just last year, we finished a website with them, which is a geekier site, about peace agreement data, which Palantir both designed and developed for us. So, there were three different engagements overall.

SOLUTION

Could you describe in detail the actual scope of work assigned to them?

They did primarily design and development. The first two projects were marketing websites, so there wasn’t anything specialized. They did provide a user manual, but our staff picked it up quickly and didn’t need any high-level training. They were very good at the instructional part of it. We also have an ongoing maintenance agreement with them, which is very helpful.

How did you come to choose Palantir.net as your partner?

I had already engaged the design firm and told them I wanted to use Drupal. They then recommended Palantir because they were known to specialize in Drupal development. We didn’t really consider anyone else.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for these engagements?

It was a couple hundred thousand dollars.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

We were the only unit of the university that used Drupal, and I think anecdotally it has been a success story in that a lot of people have asked us about Drupal as a result, or wanted to see how we went about using it. It has been extremely successful and we’ve been very happy with it. Drupal might have been more than we needed with those first two websites, but we really liked it. For the database, we really wanted to use it. I think it brought us into a new era in terms of what we could do with data for a research website. It was easy to make the case that we wanted to use Palantir and Drupal for the database website.

On our end, there are a lot of academics who don’t necessarily understand the nuances of the mechanics of the site or how it works, and they were great at translating things. They were committed to the mission of the site, which was important to people because it’s a nonprofit. They were committed to making this last project work, and they were very responsive to our needs throughout the engagements. There were a lot of complicated Google Hangouts in which six people needed to weigh in, and that worked well. They used Basecamp for project management, which really kept things on track.

When working with Palantir.net, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

I think they have a great vibe. It’s comfortable to talk to their people. They’re very personable and very approachable. We had one issue with a design that we weren’t crazy about, it didn’t seem like the designer was quite in sync with what we were hoping for. They dealt with that well, understood our concern, and worked it out behind the scenes somehow with the designer. I thought they were quite responsive, and I always felt comfortable talking to them.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

I can’t think of anything specific. Definitely have your objectives well defined before beginning development. That would be my only general piece of advice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We’re a small college in South Dakota, with an undergraduate enrollment of around 1,800 students. 

What is your position?

I am the director of online communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address when you first approached Palantir.net?

We had three items, specifically. We were looking to migrate from Drupal 6.x to version 7. We wanted a responsive website that could be viewed on all different devices. Thirdly, we wanted to be more focused on student recruitment, that being a top goal for the college.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the actual scope of work assigned to them?

They did all the functional development work and the migration of the platform to Drupal 7, and they worked with us on the visual redesign, too. We loved their designer. He had some good ideas on how to portray the content and make it attractive to our target audiences. We offered the strategic guidance and made sure they had access to the information they needed.

How did you come to choose Palantir.net as your partner?

We spoke with Acquia, which is the organization responsible for creating Drupal, and they suggested five or six different service providers. We wanted someone who was extremely well versed with Drupal, and Palantir really rose to the top when we looked at all the different experience levels of the companies. They also had a solid amount of experience working with educational institutes like ours, so it made sense to bring them on board.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this engagement?

It was between $200,000 and $1 million.

When was the work completed?

The new site was launched July 15, 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

Everything we’ve got is anecdotal, but professors, students, and particularly prospective students and their parents, have all expressed that they really like the new site. We feel like it’s working for us. I think our academic brand is much better reflected through the new site.

We were satisfied with the project management, too. There were a few hiccups along the way, but we had built in extra time at the end, so it ended up working out just fine. We were all committed to making sure it was functioning as we needed when we signed off, and that happened. It was very good.

When working with Palantir.net, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

The Agile design process they used worked very well for our project. It takes a lot more oversight and more involvement from the client side, but I think the product is much better this way.

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

We were introduced to the project team, who traveled here to Sioux Falls and worked with our staff for several days. At some point very early, it seemed that those people pretty much fell off the team, and we got other developers involved. There were a number of us here who would have preferred to see that same team follow us through to the very end, even though I know that’s not always possible. We didn’t bring it to their attention at the time, it didn’t really feel like we had the ability to do that.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

This probably true for any project, but it’s good to spell out exactly what you are looking for before you begin building anything. It felt like there were some assumptions made on our part about the mobile readiness of certain things in the design. So, I would recommend always testing the different capabilities that you hope to find in the final version because sometimes those things get forgotten.