Boldr Strategic Consulting

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases is a nonprofit located in Virginia. I’m the director of digital media.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Balance Interactive?

We wanted to do an overhaul of our website including the frontend and backend. The goal was to make the website more user-friendly and to better lay out the content that we had. There was no information architecture to speak of. There were 15 primary navigation points on the website before doing this redesign, and a lot of it was redundant. We wanted someone to come in and help guide us in the process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had been using a 2007 version of SharePoint as our CMS [content management system]. I had come from a Drupal background and had had a lot of good luck with that so we were looking for a vendor that could help guide us in finding a CMS that was flexible and could grow with us. We were also looking for someone who could help us with our information architecture, user experience, and helping us incorporate our branding on the website. Initially, we were working with the CEO and then were assigned a project manager. There was more staff that was brought in as needed. There was a creative/design resource and also the developer who knew the details of the CMS and knew how to configure it to do what we wanted.

How did you come to work with Balance Interactive?

We reached out to previous vendors we had worked with, and we found Balance Interactive at an ASAE conference. I started talking with Tracy [Owner and CEO, Balance Interactive] there and we decided from that conversation that they’d be good to work with.

Initially, we had identified eight to ten vendors and brought them in for a conversation. Based on those conversations, we narrowed the list to three vendors. We brought those three back for more in-depth conversations about where we wanted to go with the website and what could be done in the future. After the second round of conversations, it was unanimous on our side that Balance Interactive was the vendor that we wanted to choose to move forward.

We are a member-based organization so we have an association management system and we wanted someone familiar specifically with the one we were using which is ACGI’s Association Anywhere. We were looking for someone who could visually get us where we wanted to be. We knew from conversations with Balance Interactive that Drupal was going to be the way to move forward and that they would be able to help us with that.

How much have you invested with Balance Interactive?

We have spent more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Balance Interactive in March 2014, and the site was launched December 2014. We are now in the maintenance phase and having conversations about refreshing the site again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our website has won a couple of awards which reinforces our decision in using Balance Interactive. We’ve noticed from the analytics that it’s a lot easier for people to get to the information they need. We now have only five navigation points that have mega menus underneath them for more information. We’re very pleased with what Balance Interactive did for us, and that’s why we’re excited to continue working with them. This was one of the smoothest website redesign experiences I’ve ever been through.

How did Balance Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager is very attentive to details, and we are in constant contact. She created the timelines, and we worked on that together to hit the deadlines. We communicated about any issues that came up and got them resolved.

What did you find most impressive about Balance Interactive?

The Balance Interactive team was friendly, very responsive, and knowledgeable about Drupal. It was a smooth process.

Are there any areas Balance Interactive could improve?

The only suggestion I made to Balance Interactive when we were done was to have a ticketing system for issues that come up. They are in the process now of getting a system in place to do that.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Balance Interactive?

Ask lots of questions about everything. I think a lot of people are afraid to ask questions. There’s a lot of technical things that were out of my realm, but I surrounded myself with people who could ask the right questions.