Digital Deployment

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a defined benefit pension plan for retirement, disability, and death benefits for members and beneficiaries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Deployment?

We were looking for a new and updated website that would allow our staff to manage content.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally had an old HTML-based website. We were looking into a CMS, and Digital Deployment had a really well done Drupal backend management overlay. We selected them for this project due to this, and they did a fantastic job deploying the new website, working with us on design, and achieving what we were looking for. They also helped us learn how to delegate sections of the website to staff so one person wouldn’t be responsible for the entire website.

We worked with a designer and he got our ideas, then we did a website mockup and prototype before coding it into Drupal.

What is the team dynamic?

There was at least one designer and two backend developers. We worked directly with Mac Clemmens [CEO, Digital Deployment], and with Rocky Martin [Vice President of Sales, Digital Deployment].

How did you come to work with Digital Deployment?

A colleague had worked with Digital Deployment, so we did an RFP and invited them to bid.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $90,000 on site development. We currently pay $975 per month for maintenance and support.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2015, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We do a yearly survey of our membership, and one of the main statements of feedback we receive is how much people love the website. They like how easy it is to use and how quickly they can find things. The staff also appreciates how they can update content as needed, especially in the investments division.

How did Digital Deployment perform from a project management standpoint?

They used a popular project management tool, but I believe they’ve switched. They did a really good job, but it wasn’t effortless. It wasn’t a big project, and it only took about 4-5 months. We had one problem with our project manager, but Digital Deployment was so quick and paid so much attention to our concerns that they were able to find a solution. It’s really nice to see a company that takes the lead and says, “We’ll fix this, don’t worry.” We got the project back on track without a hassle, which is something you don’t see often in most companies.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design team was great to work with. We wanted something that was different because there were websites similar to ours. The design team understood we wanted something more modern than other retirement systems, and they actually accomplished it. We were more than happy with the result. Our other systems actually gained customers by using our website to promote or advertise their services.

One of the most unique things about their implementation into Drupal was the backend management. It was very well done, and the learning curve is very small. They took Drupal from the backend and overlaid it with their own management interface. It was very intuitive and easy to use, and one of the key selling points in choosing Digital Deployment for the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were really getting into the social media aspect of our branding, and had asked them if we could publish an article on the site and have it automatically shared on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. This wasn’t something they were doing at the time, so we had to go into each platform manually to update things. This was something we’d hoped they could help us with, but they weren’t able to.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there

I work with a regional airport, and I am the communications and community outreach coordinator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Deployment?

One of the challenges was that our current website platform was very difficult to navigate. It was very difficult to update information and link things. We needed to redesign the website, but since we are a self-governing body, we needed to make sure we were in compliance with special district and Brown Act compliance issues as well. For this reason, they [Digital Deployment] actually created two separate sides of the site for our organization: a more of a passenger/destination side and then one on the special district side. There are essentially two sites that are linked together.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project management was very impressive. The laid out guidelines, timelines and project phases, and expectations for us. As far as the technology, we did an exercise that they call a “website field trip”, in which we were able to come up with three websites that we really liked, and mention what we liked about them.

We used some video content on our homepage which was really great and exciting. We wanted more of a destination feel to our website because we live in a wonderful destination. We don't want to just be how you get here. We wanted it to communicate we're part of the destination experience and your experience starts the moment you land at the airport. They were really able to help us find out what our message was, and how we aesthetically incorporate all of these different components. Another technology piece that they incorporated was a real-time flight status that was constantly being updated and adjusted. That is on our homepage as well.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a great team in place that was assigned to us that included a project manager, a content migrator, a designer and another team member who handled the streamlined site, or the special district platform, and all of the content migration to this version.

How did you come to work with Digital Deployment?

We looked at three different companies, and like I said, not a lot of people have experience with the special district aspect of the website. It's a completely different set of transparency guidelines that we have to, and want to, adhere to, especially when we're dealing with special projects here at the airport. The public needs to be able to find that information and navigate the site in a way that they can get to it right away.

They have so much experience, and very few website design companies have that feature. When we looked at the two other companies, it was very vague in terms of what we could expect. When we asked for other sites that they had designed and developed, we just really couldn't get a really solid feed. Digital Deployment had a list of references, people that we could call, sample websites that we could go to. Our project was really unique for them, because this is one of their first projects where there was so much design implementation. It really was such a big project to take on. The timeline that we wanted was a quick three-month turnaround, and they were able to deliver on that timeframe.

How much have you invested with Digital Deployment?

It was a $34,000 project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the process with them, in terms of discovery, in January 2017. The project officially started on March 1st, and was completed by June 1st, was our soft launch of the new site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They took a lot of our content and combed through it. They were able to get into our Google analytics account to analyze all the information and apply it to our new site. The content migration was wonderful. I think there was nothing that we asked them for that they said, "No, we can't do that." They would say: "We'll look into that. I think we can do that." They had a can-do attitude.

How did Digital Deployment perform from a project management standpoint?

I was the lead on our project team, which consisted of three people from our organization. They used a teamwork platform where you could see all communications and it linked to our email as well. We were all able to see all of the threads and responses. Their response time was really immediate.

We did a lot of video conferencing with shared screens to adjust the cost because they are in Sacramento. We used Google documents if we needed to edit content. This made it really helpful because content edits were in real time. Everybody could see how the evolution of that came about.

What did you find most impressive about Digital Deployment?

I think it's their personal approach to it. They really made us feel like their entire organization was working on our project.  They're passionate and creative about what they do. We've worked on a lot of other projects where you don't get that really one-on-one attention, and they made the project their own. They totally took responsibility for any challenges that came across and made it right. It was really impressive. I think what stands out to me most is when Mac Clemmens [CEO] came and gave us an initial presentation. He really laid out the whole process in its entirety. No other company did that.

Are there any areas Digital Deployment could improve?

Towards the end, we had a bit of a challenge with some miscommunication on the launch date and information that we were waiting on. They totally turned that around and we launched on our date. Everything was great and the support was wonderful too.