ENGAGENCY

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a website manager at a consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ENGAGENCY?

We collaborate with them on multiple projects on a weekly and daily basis. They’re our developer functionality of our marketing team. For this project, we needed help with web design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborate on a weekly and daily basis. They are the developer functionality of our marketing team.

We worked with them on a couple of large projects. One of them was rebranding and rebuilding a subsection of our company. We had 10–15 acquisition sites that we were trying to combine into one creative-looking sub-brand on our website. They helped us develop that plan and build out that site. Along with our team, their team helped build a lot of pages and plug those modules in on Sitecore.

About six months before we launched the site, our creative team developed the design layout and elements and created the brand and a theme for one combined sub-brand. We showed them the outlines of the design and presented a nearly finalized layout of what the site was going to look like. They took that design and gave us feedback on how they thought they could put it together. 

They made a couple of tweaks and figured out the backend changes necessary to bring the design and website to life. It was awesome because they didn’t have any idea what sort of backend modules or fields they needed to build until they saw the finished product. It’s a tough job to build out a site when the creative team is asking you to make it look identical to the designs they made without any knowledge of how it worked on the backend.

Then, they built a schedule to slowly develop the work on the backend and test it. They built a QA site so we could share pages with the client, allowing them to see how the website would work in real time. They built out the site on a separate server so we were able to see and make edits in real time. 

They also worked with us on the launch plan. They deployed the pages and the coding in the Sitecore section where they would be live. Then, they worked with us to consolidate the external sites from acquisitions to make sure we had all the right redirects and codes in place to direct all those external URLs to this new site. During launch day of the site and throughout that week, they were on call 24/7 for bugs, errors, and fixes. They helped us through the entire process including after we launched the site.

What is the team composition?

I worked closely with 3–4 people. They had a 4–10 people at their office who plugged information into the site.

How did you come to work with ENGAGENCY?

At the end of 2017, we partnered with them on launching a blog. My former manager had heard about them and got in contact with them for that project. Since that went extremely well, we continued to reach out to them. It was an obvious decision to use them. They were already fully integrated with our team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from July 2018—January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The clients and our company as a whole have been exceedingly happy with the product. On the day of the website launch, we had the largest amount of website visitors during a 24-hour period. Our sub-brand site is hosted on our company site, so anyone viewing the sub-brand site contributes to the overall views on the main website, which helps us with SEO and our site rankings.

How did ENGAGENCY perform from a project management standpoint?

They did exceptionally well. We didn’t realize how many roadblocks we’d run into during this project. We consolidated 10–15 sites with numerous stakeholders involved and conflicting opinions on designs, and they handled it particularly well. 

We communicated with them daily. They’re tremendously responsive. In addition to our weekly meetings regarding our continuous collaborations on other small projects, we had a separate weekly meeting to discuss our main website projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re not their only client, and yet, it feels like we are. They’re constantly helping and interacting with us. They respond quickly. We have meetings that pop up at a moment's notice and someone calls into the meeting. They’ve also visited our office twice throughout the partnership. It’s impressive to me that they don’t feel like an agency; they feel like an extension of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go for it. Have an idea in mind but be open to what they suggest about the project and how things are laid out on the backend because they’re vastly knowledgeable about how to best field your needs. I recommend using them and trusting them. They really do pull through.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Digital and Performance Marketing for a global consulting firm focused on domains including energy, transportation, health, and digital. I manage all digital properties and communication with clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ENGAGENCY?

Our organization has invested in the Sitecore web development platform for its websites needs. When I came on board about 18 months ago, we were facing a series of challenges to finding the best talent to support our site and transitioning to newer versions of the platform. The company had recently upgraded to the latest version of the Sitecore CMS and completed a new design of the platform. They had also entered into a relationship with a new agency to support the work. I had to figure out whether the partner was able to manage all aspects of the delivery, complete the project on time, and be a solid partner for us moving forward. Over about six months we realized that things weren’t being delivered as needed but that we didn’t have enough capacity internally to take over maintenance of the site ourselves.

At the time, we were also relaunching our entire global brand. We’re about 5,000 consultants worldwide. We have businesses that work with clients globally. We were going into a global brand refresh at the time and upgrading to the latest version of Sitecore was necessary for the new global brand rollout. We had an urgent task to bring our Sitecore stack up to the highest level with all the featured development needs that come along with launching a brand-new website for a global brand.

When we brought on ENGAGENCY, we had been working with another agency—Slide UX—to identify the real leaps forward we could make for our customers from a user experience standpoint. One of the high-value items we identified was to create an editorial site for our thought leadership content where readers could hear from our experts on a wide range of topics.

We realized we needed more than an average blog that we could install from a library with existing components. We needed a bespoke solution with custom components and an elegant design that could convey the maturity of the content in a detailed way. It also required a fair amount of sophistication in terms of the analytics and curation we wanted to support. It required someone that with intimate knowledge of Sitecore and how it could be used to support what we wanted. That’s what encouraged Slide UX to bring them onto the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with consultation during the design phase for which their Co-founder/VP joined us. They looked closely at the way our Sitecore system had been set up to see what they could leverage in terms of the existing data model and other components of the system. They proposed a detailed development approach to deliver this editorial destination including building out the backend to make the core system more flexible for these types of projects.

The site that they helped us roll out supported a wide range of content preferences. There’s a master layout for the overall brand themes as well as custom landing pages for each of the topics. Content editors are able to curate distinct experiences around each of those topics. Users are able to select from about 15 different discreet content themes that they can curate their experience around including a capability to subscribe to specific topics.

As that project rolled out, they were able to work with us to look at how we wanted those kinds of features and capabilities to integrate with other parts of the site. We moved directly to working on a number of subsequent projects to bring that same type of curation and editorial control to other parts of our website. We’ve carried through the design patterns from the editorial site to our homepage, services, and offerings.

Most recently, they helped us with the concept, detailed design, and delivery of our new careers site. It borrows some of those same topical curations from our thought leadership area but also adds special new topics. When exploring career opportunities with us, potential recruits can find information about people who already do that job for us to identify with and build an affinity for that role. If you’re a creative, technologist, content strategist, or analyst, you can hear from other experts that play that role. You can read their bios and the thought leadership that they put out. All of that was effectively executed for us by ENGAGENCY using some of those same techniques and same design patterns.

We currently have them on an ongoing, dedicated support retainer with some other larger projects that they’re working with us on.

What is the team composition?

We’ve probably engaged with four or five different people over the life of our relationship. There’s usually one person who works with us on scoping and requirements and a pair of developers to help us implement.

How did you come to work with ENGAGENCY?

We had been through a pretty rough vendor experience and were trying to recruit. It became pretty clear that the market for talented Sitecore developers and analysts is very competitive. It was really hard to find people who were up-to-date on the latest Sitecore technology and that applied sound design and development practices. We’d find someone who was a decent developer but didn’t have the right level of knowledge of Sitecore. We struggled for almost a year to find the right team who could help us move forward. We also didn’t want to feel dependent on any one vendor.

We knew we needed a different type of help in relation to Sitecore. I was introduced to them by our strong, trusted partners at Slide UX, who had partnered with them on a number of other projects. From the moment we met, it was very clear that they had a solid ethos for how they developed web applications. They had a real discipline around how they built and tested things. That was a great signal from the start that they would be a strong partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a website that is much faster and more reliable—and that has grown on a number of dimensions. Our traffic has steadily increased from the first project we launched with them through every subsequent one. New visitors continue to increased and time-on-site has more than doubled. All metrics are moving in the right direction.

Alongside the actual featured delivery, they’re always very attentive to help us find ways to optimize performance on the backend. One of the things that struck us right away was that they were thinking about how to focus on delivery while giving us guidance on how to make the site more flexible for the future. They’ve been strong contributors to ensure a very strong, performing site overall. It comes through in the fact that we’re winning more work and being entrusted with bigger projects.

How did ENGAGENCY perform from a project management standpoint?

We reach out to them frequently for ongoing support. If there are maintenance or other issues with the site, we have a dedicated mechanism to reach out to them for help on that. We have them on our 24/7 support mechanism for any kind of Sitecore production support. They’ve become such a great part of our team that we take part in that service.

We also work with them on a project basis. For projects, we have a weekly, virtual stand-up meeting. We talk about where we’re at in the life cycle of the project, if we’re on track, what the latest tasks are that we’re working on, and if we’re still on the timeline. It tends to be an effective mechanism for us. I also sit down every month or so with the Co-founder/VP who manages our account relationship. We look at bigger initiatives and decide if we need to reallocate priorities at a higher level.

Their project management is outstanding. They have a very personal, but also pragmatic, touch. They bring the best talent to the table. They bring people who aren’t afraid to give you hard news. They tell us very quickly what we need to do to correct it. They’re incredible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their very strong customer focus. They’re clearly expert in their domain and in tune with what we want.

Another thing that differentiates them is that they operate in a very agile fashion. We have regular short but effective planning sessions with them. They always hear what we’re trying to promote and what the most critical projects for our business are. They adjust priorities with us as we go. That’s been one of the most refreshing parts of working with them. The other Sitecore agencies that we’ve experienced would talk about the project then go away for six months and come back with something that they’d built. If it was wrong, you then had to focus on how to correct. The ENGAGENCY team stays highly engaged on a regular basis. They keep the results very achievable—small enough that we can get them out, test them, see if it’s what we wanted, and adjust frequently rather than doing everything in such a large chunk that there’s too much room for error.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should just continue to grow and find amazing people like they have.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I strongly encourage you to not be held back by your conceptions of working with a different agency and what they might expect. Talk with them in business terms about what you want to accomplish and you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised at how they can meet your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing director of an advanced materials manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ENGAGENCY?

We had recently gone through a Sitecore upgrade, but our developer botched the job. We were experiencing frequent issues and site shutdowns, so I needed a firm to repair the damage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our site uses standard B2B implementation and includes a number of connections with third-party databases and content sources. ENGAGENCY conducted a thorough audit, evaluating our website according to Sitecore’s standards, and confirmed findings of a previous audit conducted prior to our engagement. They then identified trouble areas in our underlying code and offered suggestions for improvement. They’re now our full-time Sitecore developer.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with a project manager. A core team of three works on my site to improve content or add functionalities, but an extended team of nine is familiar with my project and available if needed.

How did you come to work with ENGAGENCY?

I interviewed three development firms, but was unimpressed by all of them. I called Sitecore in a fit of desperation and they recommended ENGAGENCY. Based on the feedback they provided during the audit, we decided to move forward with them as our full-time developer.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000-$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company is unique in that we don’t have an in-house web developer and rely entirely on our outside partners. While our previous vendor underperformed, we’ve been extremely satisfied with ENGAGENCY’s work. Our internal stakeholders are very pleased, especially our IT team. I love them to the moon and back.

How did ENGAGENCY perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve worked with a number of companies over the years. They all make a lot of promises during the sales pitch, but then underperform. ENGAGENCY, however, is the rare vendor that delivers exactly what they say they’re going to deliver, sometimes more.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re not their only client, but they always make us feel like we’re their top priority. We’ve never had to wait for anything. They truly value the relationship they have with me and my company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have a smooth workflow thanks to excellent communication, so there’s nothing I would improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a healthcare branding and marketing firm working with hospitals and health systems, helping them create patient-centered brand approaches. I am one of three partners in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Engagency?

We had been engaged to work on the website of a hospital in Connecticut. I've been on site with the client in the months leading up to the website launch. She couldn't go down the hallway without getting stopped by someone within the hospital, asking when the next version of the website would be up. The last one was very bad and out of date. It was a project which we knew would be significant and that would require expert development. Our firm manages web design, strategy, and content, but we partner with other groups on the development side. That's where Engagency came in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Engagency built our client's Sitecore page. For every step of the way, we developed a master strategy on how we wanted the site to perform, what type of user experience it should have, what the brand standard was, and what tools needed to be integrated. Engagency locked arms with us and helped our group achieve that vision. There were some interesting moving parts on the site. We wanted to help the client be as on-edge as possible, in terms of patient experience, so the physician directory needed to be very engaging. It had to make it easy for patients to find the right fit. Engagency did a great job of helping us with some very advanced user interface tactics and search capabilities. The client also needed to have an easy, engaging way for people to register for events. We've worked together on a sophisticated calendar tool.I don't know how many developers were assigned to our project. We worked with one or two points of contact from Engagency.

How did you come to work with Engagency?

Our particular client is a member of a larger network of hospitals across the country that use Sitecore as their exclusive platform. We knew that we needed to work with not only an excellent development firm but with a shop which knew Sitecore in and out. This is why we chose Engagency. We did our own research, looking at reviews, possibly ones on clutch.co. We had a couple of conversations with developers which had the potential for a good fit.

How much have you invested with Engagency?

The total cost of our web project with Engagency was under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've had a 9-month engagement with Engagency. The site was launched earlier in 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to help the client become one of the first hospitals in their large network to launch on a new Sitecore CMS. It was important for us to get things right the first time, but we didn't have any examples to go with. The site was really cutting-edge. In terms of incidental feedback, our client has received high compliments from the internal audience of physicians and clinical professionals. The site is now leveraged in order to help with patient care and education.

We're actively tracking all conversions from the website, whether they be calendar events or physician searches. There is also a product called My Virtual Care integrated into the website. All elements have had a good response so far.

How did Engagency perform from a project management standpoint?

Our team had an on-site kick-off with theirs, much of it revolving around big feature planning and getting to know one another. Everything else was done remotely. I think that Engagency's team used Basecamp, mainly.

What did you find most impressive about Engagency?

Oftentimes, when working with developers, we've had to trade quality of development for service, good project management, and communication, and vice versa. I felt like Engagency provided the best of these areas. Our development team was constantly pleased with what Engagency was producing. From a project management standpoint, Engagency over delivered. We think a lot of Engagency and I'd really like to get another project together.

Are there any areas Engagency could improve?

None. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a wholesale distributor in the wireless communications space. Our company has an annual revenue of 150 million dollars. We deal with everything from building out cell towers for subcarriers like Verizon and AT&T, to distributing mobile device accessories like speakers, headsets, and cases. Companies contact us for wireless networking services for hotels, arenas, stadiums, government entities, and so on. I am the director of applications development for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Engagency?

We started a process for vetting what was going on in our Sitecore environment. We purchased the platform a couple of years ago because of a push from our marketing department. The marketing department brought in a consultant for the task, but we needed another group to provide a fair and honest assessment of our system. We basically needed an expert audit. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Engagency was brought in to perform a health check on our Sitecore environment, give us a scorecard for issues and concerns, and take those findings to an action plan. We were not only looking for application and code vetting but also had Engagency do a technical database and application architecture review. We also had significant discussions about managed services as well as leveraging support from them. This hasn't been enacted yet. We have worked directly with only two consultants from Engagency's team, but there may have been more people in the backend. One of them was in charge of building and delivering the report.

How did you come to work with Engagency?

We were very keen on what the deliverable for this vetting agency would look like, and Engagency offered the cleanest results at the most reasonable prices. We felt that the format and content of the examples provided by Engagency blew the competition away.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Engagency in May 2016. The project was supposed to take 2 weeks, but we've had some connection issues so it was completed in 1 month instead. We received good results in the end. The price was never changed, even though Engagency worked additional hours in order to build our document. We plan to use Engagency for an additional assessment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a technical standpoint, we've appreciated the results of Engagency's evaluation. The explanation was sufficiently in-depth to allow planning for our system's migration from one company to another. Now that we have technical ownership of the platform, we can put a plan in action for it. We appreciated how the grading assessment was done; it had the form of a letter grade, which was easy to understand. Engagency highlighted high, medium, and low-risk areas, making suggestions on what we should address. We couldn't approach these issues right now, but the information will be used over the next couple of months.

How did Engagency perform from a project management standpoint?

Our collaboration with Engagency was more informal, which we've appreciated. Project management tools would be useful for bigger projects, but we didn't want to have a 6–8-week collaboration with a lot of weight on top. Engagency proposed having a 2-week run and possibly reworking the document based on our satisfaction. Engagency matched what we could withstand in order to deliver a quality product.

What did you find most impressive about Engagency?

I was surprised with the fact that Engagency was able to do this type of analysis at such a fast pace. I was also impressed with the personal touch from our contact. Engagency never pressured us into a deal and adapted the bid to our needs. This helped us decide to take the project further with Engagency, now that the situation has changed. Engagency was also good at listening to our challenges and offered to help with the interview process for certain resources we needed. Our experience with them has led me to believe that Engagency has many good relationships with other customers.

Are there any areas Engagency could improve?

I don't have enough experience yet in order to give an answer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau. We market the destination of Tunica as a whole.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am the social media manager, and I handle all website activity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ENGAGENCY?

We had hired a firm previously that sold us on this platform [Sitecore] when we redid our website, about 18 weeks ago. With that previous company, we found out that they did not know how to use Sitecore and were learning along with us on how to use it, which in turn was costing us more money. We needed someone that was more knowledgeable with the platform and could help us improve our site in an efficient manner. There was a local company here that suggested that we find a partner like ENGAGENCY to help us finish building our site.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They have been responsible for conducting a website audit at the beginning to see what needed fixing so the website would perform better. They work on marketing campaigns with us to ensure that the website landing pages are built properly, any forms are built so people can enter contests. They work with me on a daily basis to help me send out newsletters. Any time I have an issue on the website, they help me figure out what's going on with it. Every aspect of what we do digitally and on our website, they have a hand in it with me.

They have also trained me on the use of the platform. Every time that I have an issue with something I can't do with my limited knowledge, they always send me instructions, so I know how to do it in the future without having to contact them each time.

Having transitioned from the previous provider to ENGAGENCY, I now love Sitecore. Previously, I thought it was awful. I didn't know how we were going to function with it in having a workable website. Now that we have ENGAGENCY, it's completely different. We are just now being able to understand all the functions that Sitecore offers us, and that's because of ENGAGENCY, and being able to do marketing plans around what the platform allows us to do.

How did you come to work with ENGAGENCY?

A consultant we had hired had found them for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was about $110,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship is ongoing. We're even looking for someone to help us on the digital side for more marketing, and they have offered and been interviewing the people we're interviewing. They know that they're going to have to work hand-in-hand, so they've started to interview the people we're talking to, making sure that they're going to be a correct fit for both of us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have monthly reporting that we do. Our Google Analytics show that the website has more monthly users, more new visitors, and that the time on site is longer due to the things that they've helped me design to keep people going through the marketing funnel. But, that's really about it.

They keep us up to date, so when the newest updates come out they update us on what those are and train us. Sitecore 8 has come out, we're about to transition to that. They let me know the new marketing features that are available on it, train us, and show us what we can do to improve our business practices.

What distinguishes ENGAGENCY from other providers?

We use a platform called Mantis, where I can put in any bugs or anything that I have and prioritize them. They respond immediately for high-priority things. They always give me an answer when I ask for help. It's never, "Oh, we forgot about this" or "We're not quite sure." If they're not sure, they make sure they find out the answer for me and let me know.

We have biweekly calls to go over, touch base, and make sure that they're doing what I need and to discuss my hours that I've used. They're very clear on all that on the reporting. If I'm over hours, they want to make sure that I know that, so we can sit down as a group and discuss what needs to be done immediately and what we can hold off on until the next budgeting cycle comes through. ENGAGENCY is very open with communication, letting me know what's going on, and the speed of work is great.

Is there anything ENGAGENCY could have improved or done differently?

Honestly, since I've had such horrible people in the past, they're a dream to me. I honestly don't have anything to say about that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We’re a business-to-business (B2B) video conferencing provider. We offer cloud-based services as well as the actual endpoint products, like cameras and the auxiliary devices that would go into a conference room.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were attempting to address when you first approach ENGAGENCY?

We have undergone several website iterations, all on the Sitecore platform, in the last five years. For this last iteration, we did a complete overhaul of our site. I met Jason [Perry, President and CEO of ENGAGENCY] in the context of asking him if he wanted to bid on our redesign. They came to the table, and let us know that taking a site from scratch and building it was not their forte. I appreciated the candor, and we came back to them once the site was up and running. Their specialty is in support and maintenance of the site, making it even better, and adding new features. They’re more of a long-term partner able to manage, support, and improve the Sitecore platform.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the actual scope of their involvement?

We started at ground zero, with the same platform yet a brand new codebase. When we brought in ENGAGENCY, it was right after we had launched the new site. We had outsourced the design and development to another agency, but we brought in ENGAGENCY to maintain the site from that point forward. So, once we had a brand new site, they came in and were able to provide emergency support, ongoing maintenance to fix any bugs, and to serve as an extension of our Web development team.

How did you come to choose ENGAGENCY as your partner?

I think I went to the Sitecore website and looked at their recommended partners. I called them and met with them, and that was probably two and a half years ago.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this engagement?

We invest between $3,500 and $6,000 a month, depending on our needs.

When did you start working with ENGAGENCY, and is the relationship ongoing?

I’ve known Jason for about two and half years. Initially, they just worked on bits and pieces of a project. We put them on a monthly retainer in August 2014, and that’s been ongoing. We started out small, and now we’re toward the upper end of that $6,000 mark.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

The feedback that we’ve received from our stakeholders who were having a constant dialogue with ENGAGENCY has always been fantastic. The progress, trajectory, and the timeline were extremely positive. They worked with our internal team members, and there were definitely no negatives when it came to using ENGAGENCY versus internal teams. It was just as transparent to them that ENGAGENCY actually work for us full time as opposed to being a true agency that was working on our behalf.

From my personal experience, every time I sat in on status calls to check in, they were extremely receptive to any feedback we offered, and would accommodate any needs we had in a timely manner. If I asked to see a progression of our timeline, so let’s say we buy 30 hours a month from them. I want to see on these status calls where we are relative to that time, and then I wanted to see what actually consumed that time. By the time we got on the next call, they had it done. They’ve always been responsive and very timely with their deliveries. Nothing has ever been delayed on their end. If there’s a delay, it’s always been on our end. In my experience, that level of service and reliability is rare.

When working with ENGAGENCY, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

There’s one main differentiator, and that’s what they pride themselves on. It is that they are going to be your support entity for the long term. They don’t want to build your site from scratch. They want to maintain it after it’s built and help your business grow effectively into it. I think that’s where a lot of companies have a huge need, and where it gets very expensive to maintain that type of support with the agency that built your original website. The more they brand themselves to have this differentiator, I think it’s extremely valuable to companies like mine, who are looking for a better and more efficient way to manage the site without bringing on tons of in-house resources. Otherwise, having the new site might not have been the best investment.

Another factor is the cost. We bid out using ENGAGENCY versus the agency who had built the site, and ENGAGENCY came in almost $12,000 cheaper. There are multiple instances where they have been much more affordable and much more efficient with their time. Their ability to get things done rapidly is much more evident when compared to the other, larger development agency that isn’t as responsive, and it seems like there’s always a delay on some end.

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

I don’t see any areas to improve. Their biggest thing is just making sure they can articulate their differentiator from a marketing perspective. Like I said, they don’t build sites from scratch. They are a support team that specializes with Sitecore. Any and all needs related to maintaining a successful and efficient website using Sitecore can be fulfilled using ENGAGENCY.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

Have an extremely strong project manager internally, be crystal clear on scope, and set the duration of the expected timeline. Those are the only recommendations I have.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

I work for Unum. We’re a benefits provider offering products like long-term and short-term disability, life insurance products, and accident insurance.

What is your position?

Director. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were moving our corporate website into the Sitecore content management system and were looking for a Sitecore-certified partner that had a lot of experience doing that to help with the transition from the old way of managing the site.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the rationale behind selecting Sitecore as your preferred CMS solution?

I can cheat on that question a little bit and say that it was a solution that we already had in-house. That made it a little bit easier. But, we did a full evaluation of Sitecore and other CMS solutions because we wanted to make sure that it was the right fit for us. We compared it to most of the other big-name players in the space and came to the conclusion that Sitecore did a really good job of managing content for the public Web deployment.

We have another CMS that we use for our internal systems. As an example, some of the other systems tried to solve for every type of possible content management need, and we felt like Sitecore was a little bit more specific, not that it only has feeds for public websites, but that it certainly had the right out of the box setup to accomplish that objective. We gravitated toward Sitecore due to its customizability and flexibility. It made sense for us and, as I'd mentioned, it was already in-house. 

How did you select ENGAGENCY as your solution partner?

If I remember correctly, it was actually Sitecore that gave us a list of their certified partners, and that’s how we found ENGAGENCY. They also happened to be right in Chattanooga, and that was helpful, being able to meet them face to face. From the beginning of the project to the end, having them able to come onsite or us being able to go to them worked out quite well.

Again, we looked at some other Sitecore partners, but we were really impressed with some of the work done by ENGAGENCY. 

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

It’s between a $250,000 and $500,000 project.

When was the new website site launched?

September 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?

The response we’ve had from our typical audiences has been very positive. They very much like the changes to the site, how it works and feels. But, the thing that probably speaks the loudest to us is that our total site traffic has gone up tremendously, and as a corollary, our bounce rates have gone down quite a bit.

One of the more telling ones, in terms of the improvement we made through the gauge is that searches are down. I think we had somewhere around 7,000 searches per month prior and, after the redesign, we were looking at 2,000 searches per month. This would imply that our navigation is much more intuitive and accessible than before. 

When working with ENGAGENCY, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other vendors with which you’ve worked?

One thing I truly appreciated was their conformance with industry best practices. They were always able to approach things with an insightful yet realistic standpoint. But, we also have some experts in the field of Web development and have some specific ideas about how we want to accomplish certain things. Whenever we had a vision, they’d immediately line up with what they had done before and what they’d recommended. They were very open to listening. I felt like we had a strong relationship in which we could work through the details, and then all agree on half of the things. Sometimes, we did it the way they wanted, and other times, they did it the way we wanted, but there was no frustration on their end. At the end of the day, they were trying to give us what we wanted and make sure that it worked. I think that’s exactly what we ended up with. We got what we wanted, and it worked right. 

In retrospect, do you remain confident that the Sitecore CMS will continue to meet your business needs into the foreseeable future?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, there’s a lot of conversations about extending the use of Sitecore. It’s going to grow. We’re very pleased with that decision.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We are a credit union in the financial industry.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

ENGAGENCY is a business relationship that has helped with us with our online marketing efforts, in particular, our website.

SOLUTION

Could you then describe the scope of the work that they’ve delivered?

We started with a clean slate, and we worked with them to develop a website and do website enhancements. A full scope of projects. There was significant frontend and backend work done for us, and we've used them for modifications and support, too.

With what platforms are they assisting you?

It’s the Sitecore CMS solution. 

How did you select ENGAGENCY as your solution partner?

I was not a part of that process, so I can’t speak to it with any great detail. But, I know that there was a process that was used to identify them as a group that specialized in the Sitecore tool, and they were part of a short list that we devised. But, I was not actually a part of that selection process. 

Do you recall on what platform your previous website was operating?

I do not. I know we switched to Sitecore when we developed our new website. It’s been a few years back.

Do you recall the rationale for deciding to transition from the previous content management system to Sitecore?

It was a new site and, with Sitecore, we were really looking for more control and a more robust tool to do some of the things that we were looking to do with our website. 

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

I don’t think we spent more than $100,000, but probably from $50,000 to $100,000.

When was this website launched?

This was probably three to four years ago [2010-2011].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics or metrics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work ENGAGENCY has delivered?

One of the big stats is member feedback and the changes that we made with the new site. We got some very positive feedback that the site was more user friendly, and that we were meeting more of the members’ and customers’ needs. It was an ease of use and one of the biggest parts of the feedback was not receiving any negative feedback, which in itself is a success.

When working with ENGAGENCY, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other vendors with which you’ve worked?

I like a tool that they have, in terms of meeting their customer service standards. They’ve got a tool that is an online tool that we work through that tool, and they are extremely responsive to our needs, be it for immediate troubleshooting or simple site changes. That’s 24/7. It just wasn’t a week or two ago that I had to reach out to them during the weekend for assistance and, within a very short amount of time, on a Saturday morning, I got a phone call from one of the folks from ENGAGENCY.

In retrospect, are there areas that you think they could improve upon, or are there things you'd do differently as the client before approaching this type of project?

No. I feel confident in their ability to work as a relationship with the credit union. I wouldn’t hesitate to do additional projects with them.

Do you remain confident that the Sitecore CMS platform will continue to meet your business needs into the foreseeable future?

Yes. I think that tool has a lot of capacity, especially for where we are as an organization utilizing the tool. We know that it’s capable of a lot more than we’re actually utilizing, but it’s nice to know that those opportunities are there so that, in the future, with future growth we can grow into the tool instead of growing out of the tool.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

I work at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

What is your position?

My role is I manage the Web department. I'm the Information Technology manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge(s) you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with ENGAGENCY?

We have in-house Sitecore developers. We have too much work to do, so there were some items that came up that weren’t in our top priorities, but the internal client was willing to put forth some money to have someone else work on that. I managed that relationship and we brought on ENGAGENCY to help with some of those items.

This was for Sitecore platform you were already using?

Yes.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work they’ve actually done for you?

It was just like working on some sub-layouts, maybe like some widgets that we had that we wanted to develop, these little content items here and there that needed programming. It was this sharp .NET development with Sitecore to support our website. We also used them a couple of years ago to help us do a Sitecore upgrade.

How did you choose ENGAGENCY as your solution partner?

I believe they were referred to us by Rackspace. So, we started a conversation with them. One thing led to another and we were confident they could deliver what we needed. 

Do you recall what the reasoning was behind the selection of Sitecore as your content management system rather than some of its other competitor products?

Yes. We wanted something that ran on the Microsoft stack. Our developers are experienced with .NET and we wanted the flexibility of the Sitecore solution. It has a lot of potential for special configuration and customization. 

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

Yes. I think it’s been around $10,000.

When was the most recent project completed with them?

Last year. I’d say July of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics or metrics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work ENGAGENCY has delivered?

Their most recent work was quite good. One of my developers worked with one of their developers, so we’re in contact with them, and they used our project management software to stay in touch. If they submitted a code to us, and we wanted it cleaned up a little bit more or want them to fall in line with how we code, we could send it back, and they were really quick about getting back on that.

I think that the first project we had with them, there was some misunderstanding of what we thought they would be bringing, as a part of the process. Once we had an understanding things went forward quite smoothly. But, for the upgrade, we thought they were going to test it a little bit more and that didn’t happen. So, there were a lot of things in the end that fell back on us. But, we’ve talked about that, and how we could improve it for next time.

When working with ENGAGENCY, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other vendors you’ve worked with?

I really like the way they talk with you. They really take the time to develop a close business relationship. A big difference is the way that they don’t come in, do work at the minimum level and then leave. There are conversations going on the whole time about our satisfaction with their deliverables. We worked with some other contractors for stuff like this, and it was a mess. You could tell they weren’t really looking to maintain the relationship with you after a certain point. ENGAGECY actively seeks that kind of relationship, and we've appreciated their approach all around. 

In retrospect, are there areas you think they could improve upon, or are there things you'd do differently as the client before approaching this type of project?

Yes. Clarifying all aspects of the project, even through testing and what’s expected. Just making sure that the scope of everything is really clarified. Addressing any and all assumptions is key to the success of any project. 

Do you feel confident that Sitecore will continue to meet your business needs into the foreseeable future?

Yes.