Falcon-Software

Could you briefly describe your company?

We’re a high-end audio/video store. We sell expensive stereo equipment, home theaters, and displays.

What is your position?

I’m the general manager.

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Falcon-Software?

Our website was developed, at the time, by one of our staff members who took two night courses at BCIT. I’m sure you can imagine the quality of the site was completely unrelated to the quality of products that we sell. We needed our online presence to be a similar experience to what a person has when they come into our store. We have the most beautiful store in the country with this Mickey Mouse-type website, and it just wasn’t cutting it.

Could you describe the scope of the project? For instance, did it involve custom visual design, backend development, training, or support?

It was all of the above. It was a complete, ground up, website redesign. They handled the entire thing from conception to implementation.

How did you select Falcon-Software as your solution partner?

It was a bit of a fluke because I when I had begun my initial research, I wasn’t even familiar with CMS. I interviewed a couple of companies, and wasn’t overly impressed with their proposals and suggestions. Then, I happened to be speaking to a rep from another company whose product was way over our head. They were dealing with Fortune 500 companies. The rep said, “You know, there’s this company in Victoria called Falcon Software. You should give them a call.”

I then called Falcon-Software and spoke with one of their sales representatives. I found her to be very refreshing and straightforward. She then traveled from Victoria to Vancouver and met with me for several hours. We discussed the project objectives, requirements, and scope. She was able to provide me with a rough estimate, and it began after that.

What CMS was your site built on?

They built it on Kentico.

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

It was roughly $20,000 to $25,000.

When was your website launched?

Version 1 went live in spring of 2011.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

Before we engaged Falcon, we didn’t have any Web analytics or reporting capabilities. We had a basic counter, and it was embarrassing how little traffic we received on our website. Then, once we had them build the website, they introduced us to Google Analytics. We now have considerable traffic that we can monitor and evaluate on a moment’s notice, which is fabulous.

Response from the industry has been tremendous. Even our version 1 website compared to what it is today is nothing. We’re currently working on version 3. The current version is a huge step above what we did in version one.

When working with Falcon-Software, is there anything you would consider unique about them compared to other solution providers that you’ve had in the past?

They’re not a huge company, but they’re also not tiny. They have the capability of a large company, but they behave like a small company. What I mean by that is there hasn’t been anything that I’ve asked or inquired about where they’ve scratched their heads. Questions are answered immediately, and any request I have for a technological addition is considered in earnest. That’s a rare quality to have, to be able to balance those competing elements. Their staff is also fantastic. At the end of the day, what will make a good company is the people that work there. The level of service they provide is outstanding, and I think the price that they charge is more than reasonable.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you think Falcon-Software could improve upon, or are there things you’d do differently as the client before initiating this type of project?

Having been through this process once, as a client, I would definitely do something different. I would be better prepared. I don’t think I was as well prepared as I should have been with our content. As the website designer, they can create framework, but they don’t know what content it is that we want to put on our website. That’s up to us. Once I had the content ready, it took them a very short time to get it organized and uploaded.