COLAB

ThompsonMcMullan’s previous website did what a lot of websites do: it listed information about the firm and its services. All of the information was correct. And the website was complete in its coverage of the firm and its services, but the sum of all these parts did not communicate a full picture of ThompsonMcMullan.

Initially, ThompsonMcMullan reached out to COLAB with some modest ideas to improve the site, but we felt strongly there was tremendous potential to make a much greater impact by bringing their unique story and brand to life. ThompsonMcMullan is so much more than a collection of people and services. They have very strong values and deep commitments to their clients, colleagues, and communities. In a word, they care … A LOT. Their values are so fundamental to the work they do, you get a palpable sense of their import when you speak with anyone from the firm. They are a special group of people, and the impact of their values is felt immediately. So we asked, why shouldn’t the website do the same?

VACU had an existing branch locator on its website, but it didn’t deliver a level of customer experience in line with VACU’s high standards. VACU wanted to offer a best-in-class experience, comparable to other best-in-class service industry companies. It wanted a branch and ATM locator that was modern, worked on all devices, and presented a complete mapping of branch and ATM locations, all delivered quickly and seamlessly.

VACU partnered with COLAB to deliver a solution efficiently and with the highest standards of reliability and security. COLAB had extensive experience providing map-based solutions for enterprise-level clients, such as the Virginia Lottery, and numerous other banks.

BoMc had a website, but they hadn’t invested a lot of time or attention to it over the years. As they grew in size, they developed a greater appreciation for the role the website played in forming impressions of the firm. Law firms rely on client recommendations, references, and word-of-mouth for new client acquisition far more than internet search or advertising; however a law firm’s website is still a critical factor in forming first impressions with prospective clients. Before they call or send an email, prospective clients are informing themselves about the firm through the website. The firm’s website has tremendous power to shape clients’ perceptions about its professionalism, reliability, and personality. BoMc had a website, but it didn’t have a website that truly reflected everything the firm had become over the past several years.

Legal services can seem staid and conservative, but that wasn’t genuinely BoMc’s vibe. They work with Fortune 500 companies and high-tech start-ups. Their team is comprised of musicians and marathoners. They’re a cool, vibrant group of people. Given their clientele, as well as the legal talent they need to recruit, it was imperative for the site to feel technologically modern, both in design and function. COLAB designed a visual experience to reflect the reality of who BoMc is, balancing the vibrancy of their personality with strong sense of intellectual rigor, professionalism, and reliability. The website looks bright and smart, diverse and well-balanced — just like the Bookoff McAndrews team.

CodeVA had an existing website but they weren’t meeting the goals they had with the traffic they were drawing to the site. When potential sponsors saw the website, they weren’t compelled to support CodeVA. The website didn’t communicate the legitimacy, efficacy, and seriousness of CodeVA’s efforts. In other words, they weren’t being taken seriously by corporate partners essential to support their mission. CodeVA was involved in a range of efforts to promote computer science activity, including education, training, and lobbying — however, those efforts weren’t tied together in clear messaging on the website, such that visitors could understand their broader mission and objectives.

ChenMed was in the process of migrating their internal systems to Workday, a large enterprise software platform that can streamline finance, HR, and planning functions ChenMed was particularly interested in leveraging some of the human resources features of Workday, namely employee data, such as locations, job functions, hiring, job postings, etc. They wanted to utilize Workday as a centralized resource for distributing physician information and job postings to the appropriate local websites in the ChenMed family of sites. They also wanted to coordinate role-based sales and marketing functions for their distributed staff. They hoped integrating Workday into their websites would open these possibilities.

The integration of Workday with Drupal 8 has created a very powerful platform for ChenMed and its facilities. They have tremendous control over the flow of centralized data to their website and fine-grained controls for permissioning who has access to each website. This functionality is critical for their business operations, especially for a company that has a centralized headquarters and distributed facilities across the country.

As a result of this integration, ChenMed has achieved higher levels of operational efficiency and consistency across the organization. Each site in their ecosystem operates in the same way, using the same tools and the same data, providing improved usability and comprehension for staff and site visitors. The shared platform also makes training and site operation much more efficient, in addition to lowering costs of maintenance and upgrade.

Sports Backers needed a conference website for Movement Makers that reflected the energy, activation, and movement of both Sports Backers’ mission and the conference’s purpose. Given this was going to be an annual event and 2017 was the first of many, it was likely that the conference would grow and evolve over time. The site needed to be both flexible and scalable.

The Movement Makers conference was a completely new endeavor for Sports Backers. There wasn’t an existing website, source of content, or even much of a brand or identity to work from. Everything would need to be invented as we worked.

The most critical content components of the site were the agenda (i.e. schedule of speakers), promoting the speakers themselves (photos, bios, etc.), locations of events, and sponsorships (showcasing the companies sponsoring the event). Speakers drive attendance at these conferences, so it’s very important present and promote them appropriately. COLAB built the speakers section with the flexibility of future growth and evolution in mind. For example, the conference may have three keynote speakers this year and five or ten next year, depending on how the conference grows. COLAB built the site in WordPress to handle layout changes effectively without needed to redesign the site from year to year.

Sports Backers is a well known athletic organization within the greater Richmond area. Their goal is to transform Richmond into one of the nations most physically active communities. Sports Backers came to COLAB for a new, interactive website that is compatible on all devices. This was especially challenging due to the complexity of different events and “sub-events”, training teams, and community involvement.

Sports Backers is a valued partner of COLAB’s, engaging in multiple projects since the Sports Backers site. We work together regularly not only digitally but within the Richmond community as well.

Most sporting and special event policies are small, inexpensive policies. All sporting events and other large gatherings should have an event insurance policy. That being the case, there is potentially a large volume of policies an insurance agency could issue; however underwriting these policies is not a very efficient use of an insurance agent’s time.

When an agent asks a customer all of the required questions and generates the insurance certificate, it takes a considerable amount of time, but not a lot of specific industry expertise. 

COLAB quickly understood how digital technology could efficiently solve this business problem for Frazier Insurance, and provide an immediate return on their investment. It was the kind of solution COLAB provides for many of its clients — turning a business problem into an opportunity for growth and productivity.

Essentially, Frazier needed a form that customers could fill out by answering a series of questions about their event. Depending on their answers, the form would apply a predefined logic to adjust future questions based on the answers already provided (just as an agent would). After the customer completes all of the required questions, the app performs several calculations based on the answers to generate an insurance quote, which the app presents to the customer. If the customer wishes to purchase the policy, they simply agree to purchase it and provide their credit card information in the secured, encrypted form. Once the charge is approved, the app delivers the policy certificate as a PDF document to the customer’s phone, tablet, or computer, and their event is covered!

The app makes purchasing special event insurance quick, simple, and easily accessible for all of Frazier’s customers — they can literally purchase a policy from their home any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, whether the agency’s offices are open or not. It’s great for Frazier as well, because the process is fully automated and requires no support from an agent — a tremendous boost to their operational efficiency and an immediate return on their investment.