Bear Group

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of digital marketing for a humanitarian organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bear Group?

We hired them for a $1.5 million project. It was a CMS migration project from a proprietary CMS to Drupal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The services that Bear Group provided were a complete content audit and website redesign, which was simultaneously done with the migration of the website from one CMS to another. They helped us cut through thousands upon thousands of pages and content. We had over 35,000 pages on the website on top of more than 10,000 orphan landing pages, which didn’t exist on the main website but sat on the CMS and had never been archived. 

The team also helped us develop a content management strategy to determine the most important and best way to attack a project of this magnitude. Overall, they built absolutely everything. Their services also included ongoing support, continued UX improvement, and SEO improvements. 

What is the team composition?

We primarily interacted with Greg (Systems Architect & President) and a project manager who could also do design and development work. Behind the scenes, there were two individuals that assisted with the project. 

How did you come to work with Bear Group?

Initially, we enlisted a different partner. Unfortunately, it became clear that they weren’t aligned with our goals; they weren’t going to meet our timeline. On top of that, they started going way over our budget due to some circumstances. In other words, we had a situation where we needed to quickly find a new partner. 

Then, Bear Group was recommended to me by a colleague, who was fairly new to the organization but had previously worked with them. After interviewing them, the project, timeline, budget, and goals of their group aligned with us perfectly, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost $1.5 million, and that included everything from the ground up. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from May–August 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We increased our content engagement rate by 15%, our average order value by 8%, and our traffic by 5% year-over-year. We also attained a much more refreshed and refined experience on the overarching website and blog, and we improved our e-commerce experience. In terms of navigation, it was much easier for people to use the website. We did a lot of user testing and research, and we met the needs of our users in a much better way because of the redesign.

How did Bear Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was outstanding. We used Basecamp as our project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the top things that stand out to me was their flexibility. We weren’t the easiest client to work with, and our business was very complex because of the number of product offerings we had. Managing those products on the backend was also complex. However, Bear Group’s flexibility was amazing; when things changed, they were able to sway and move with that change. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any.