Perficient

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for a healthcare company. We’re a group-works customization and supply chain-consulting organization that assists hospitals control the cost of their supplies.

What is your position?

I am the AVP of information technology and operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with BrainJocks?

When we began the project with BrainJocks, we were creating a new portal for enabling communications and collaborations with our consulting clients. We needed a technology partner to actually design and deploy the portal for us.

SOLUTION

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

BrainJocks came in and provided Sitecore modeling, UX/UI [user experience/user interface] design, custom development, deployment, testing, requirements, and supply testing. They were essentially the development arm of the initiative. We had a lead architect assigned to us, too. We guided them through the process, basically ensuring they were conforming to our standards and technical requirements.

How did you select BrainJocks as your solution partner?

BrainJocks had already been selected by our chief architect as our Sitecore partner.

Why did you select Sitecore as your preferred content management system?

I wasn’t involved in that decision. The easy answer is that it aligned with our project requirements. There are a couple of things. The most important were flexibility and relative upkeep cost. We felt confident that Sitecore would be the best way to go after reviewing its performance capabilities. We’d also read several great testimonials about the solution, attesting to its performance.

When was the project completed?

We wrapped up in May of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

No. We didn’t measure results in that way for this project. Anecdotally, our staff has been pleased with the system. Most of our processes were manual before the implementation. We’ve no doubt saved countless work hours with our new system, but I don’t know any exact figures.

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

BrainJocks did a really good job of trying to understand what the business objectives were before proposing any concrete moves. We were challenging them to use some of our technologies and methodologies. I thought they did a good job of aligning themselves with what we were trying to do. It’s uncommon to find technology vendors so open and willing to conform to their clients’ methods and technologies. But, we had very rigid specifications and desires for this project. We only wanted a partner that’d be able to finish the job as we directed.

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

I’d have to spend a lot of time thinking about it, because overall I feel that they performed extraordinarily well.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I recently left my organization in December to take a hiatus. The role that I had when I worked with BrainJocks was the global senior director of marketing and communications for Recall, which is a worldwide information management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with BrainJocks?

One of the biggest challenges we had from a positioning perspective, both internally and externally, was that we had a very poor and inaccessible website. Recall operates in 23 countries worldwide and in 17 different languages. One of the challenges was that we didn’t have a consistent look and feel. We didn’t have a way to offer global content but, at the same time, ensure that we had local relevance to the correct audiences. We were trying to run a global business and have a global brand. At the same time, we had sales managed at the local level across each of the 23 countries. This resulted in some serious growth barriers for us, and we wanted to eliminate them in one fell swoop.

What I really wanted was to build an entirely new, consolidated website. What I really wanted was a site that allowed users to come in, see everything at a very high level, what Recall did, what our services are, and so on. Once they selected their relevant country, they’d then be able to search for specific services and offerings exclusive to that region. It would effectively enable a user to come to our primary site to gather some general information, and allow them to find very detailed, nuanced information that was clearly relevant to them.  

For example, we operate in eleven different countries in Europe. The U.S. was categorized as one region and one country. We clearly needed English for the United States, but we also needed it for each of the eleven European countries we operated in. That was the easy part. The more difficult part was also incorporating native language compatibility for each of the eleven European countries. This one thing was going to be a huge task for us, but also extremely important.

We began this endeavor with a separate vendor that was referred to us by one of our employees. This particular vendor came in and began working alongside us, working on the design and development, and attempting to deal with all of our custom enhancements and configurations. As we moved through the project, it became apparent to us that our vendor was way out of their element. They hadn’t dealt with a project of this size or complexity before, and they were really struggling to deliver effective solutions to us on time and within budget. By the time we were working on building out the backend for our European countries, we realized that they couldn’t incorporate native languages in addition to English. At that point, it was over, and we had to terminate the relationship. That’s when we decided to find another vendor to salvage our project.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the work delivered by BrainJocks?

The core problem that we had was that we had selected Sitecore as our preferred CMS [content management system]. The vendor that we were working with before did not know Sitecore very well. They had designed the site and started programming the site in a way that was not going to be supported. BrainJocks conducted an audit of what was already built and delivered us some pretty rough news. The truth was they had to dismantle the entire thing almost, I would say 80 percent of what had already been done, and then rebuild the site from the ground up.

That’s where we started with them. They came in, and we went right back to the drawing board. It took them about three or four weeks to undo everything that had been done and began to rebuild the site correctly. I was fraught with stress and anxiety as this rolled out because we had stringent requirements and deadlines for the project.

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

It I recall correctly, the implementation and rebuild cost us more than $1 million.

When was your new site relaunched?

They completed it in early January or February of 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the things that we had done from a marketing perspective, but not entirely related to the website, was customer engagement satisfaction surveys. One of the areas that fell short repeatedly was our website usability. This is something that we did on an annual basis. After we transferred to the new site, one of the key metrics for us was making sure that customers understood the various lines of business that the company had to offer, which was previously flat. People usually bought one service. They had no idea that we offered others that might have been relevant to them. Once we relaunched our site, that all changed. We’ve had accounts of users indicating that the site is far easier to use and navigate than before, and that finding relevant information is also a breeze.

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

Yes. The reason why I’m happy to talk to someone about BrainJocks is that there are two unique features about them. First of all, they’re brilliant at what they do. From a technical perspective, they’re incredible. They know Sitecore through and through. Secondly, they’re an extremely creative bunch, especially for a firm that does so well with technical development. They really have both areas covered.

Another important feature is their approach to client relationships. Unquestionably, they are absolutely 100 percent honest and transparent with their clients. They have praiseworthy ethical standards and integrity. It’s difficult to find a vendor with that level of commitment and accountability.

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

I had no issues with them. In marketing, I’ve worked with a ton of vendors both in the creative space and in the technical space. If there is one criticism that I could levy, it would be that I think sometimes they almost downplay their ability. This is an extreme situation. I think you need to keep that in mind. When they first came in, they said, “We can do this.” Once I started working with them and things progressed, Brian, in particular, was just incredibly creative. He’d come up and say, “What if we did this?” We were sort of like, “Why didn’t you open your mouth earlier?” kind of thing. I think again I can’t underscore enough how stressful and intense of a time and situation this was.