Horizontal Integration

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We're a Fortune 17 company in the health and wellness field providing health insurance and wellness services and products.

What is your position?

I’m the senior director of global employer branding and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We’ve worked with Horizontal Integration coming up on six years now. At the time that we first engaged them for this, we were already leveraging them as a vendor for contract contingent labor services.

The reason we approached them specifically for technology development solutions was because we had no careers website. All we were doing was sending candidates right into the applicant tracking system, and not providing any information about who we are, who might be a fit for us, who might not be, and what are all of our available opportunities were. That was the impetus for approaching them.

A colleague of mine in IT [information technology] worked with me to vet a number of potential vendors. The reason we went with Horizontal Integration was because they understood marketing strategy, and how to leverage technology to support and realize the strategy and vision.

SOLUTION

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

They provided us with all of those things. We provided the vision. Literally, it can be boiled down to that. They are my strategic marketing technology partners. They’re not just order takers. They can do that, but they bring so much more value to their clients. Horizontal Integration brings to the table creative thoughts and ideas about how to shape and guide our vision.  

On the deployment side, the actual scope involved requirements gathering, wireframing, design, backend development, implementation, usability testing, ongoing enhancements and support, and training.

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

I don’t know that I’m entirely comfortable releasing that, but what I would tell you is that it’s involved multiple, global websites serving a Fortune 17 Company. The scale of these projects was more than significant in terms of the resources they required.  

When was the most recent website launched?

The most recent launch would have been this past year [2013]. One of the sites we expanded, we had launched it initially for North America, and then we expanded the usage into the rest of the world. They helped that expansion because we’re ready as an organization for that. That would be in the most recent.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a brand impression perspective, our use of technology in this area and support of the strategy has definitely positively impacted our brand reputation. We receive positive commentary all the time. We constantly get rated in the Top 20 of Careers Website all around the world and Top 25 for mobile all around the world. It’s a highly respected piece of work for those familiar with it.

On a more objective basis, our traffic has multiplied by 10 times since we launched the first initiative with them, the first careers website five years ago, which is notable. It’s not like we started off on a small base, because we’re a large company. It would be easy to say we increased 10 times if we only had 100 visitors, but we’re talking about going from a million users to 10 million users.

How do you think Horizontal Integration performed on the projects?

You’ve probably gotten a good sense of my impression already. What I was saying is that I’m lucky to work with some really, really good vendor partners. There’s a very high bar to begin with, yet Horizontal Integration is one of my top two partners I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. They bring more to the table than your run of the mill solution partner. They’re not just order takers. They bring extensive acumen and awareness of best practices, of strategy, of business, and of technology, to the forefront.  

They’re also very forthright. They don’t nickel and dime you. They have always hit their timelines. If we’ve missed a deadline, it’s because we have done something. There are times that they hop on calls with systems that we’re integrating with merely to share their expertise. It’s not that they’re going to benefit from it and be able to charge us. They look at partnerships holistically rather than one-off transactions. I thoroughly enjoy working with them.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you think they could improve upon, or are there things you might do differently as the client before initiating these types of projects?

No, because the other thing I would say about them is that they’re very straightforward about capabilities outside their wheelhouse. They don’t pretend to have certain skill sets simply to appease their clients and have more billable hours. That’s not always the case with technology vendors. There are a lot of cases in which the vendor will simply agree to formulate a solution that they have minimal experience in. We’ve never had that issue with Horizontal Integration.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

I work for Starkey Hearing Technologies. We manufacture hearing aid devices and ear protection for consumers.

What is your position?

I’m the director of digital and consumer marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the project with Horizontal Integration?

We had a number of sites, both international and domestic, that were HTML-based. None of them were connected to each other. As an organization, we have a number of large categories that share similar products, but they don’t have the same core brand. We had to reconsider and consolidate the management of our four large consumer sites. In addition to that, we have our professional sites, our B2B sites and lead generation sites. Everything was disconnected. There was no synergy. We conducted research around what CMS we might want to explore, and Sitecore became our top choice.

SOLUTION

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

Horizontal Integration worked with us from the very beginning in terms of determining exactly what we needed for our websites. We then worked with them on information architecture. We explored a number of different approaches to IA, including traditional interfaces as well as parallax interfaces. They were instrumental in helping us work through that phase. We wanted a state of the art solution, but not to such a degree that we would risk alienating our own consumers. Then, they helped us map out what that site experience would look like. We’ve already developed that and we’re now in the process of linking our branded content. Lastly, they’ve completed a significant amount of backend development and systems integration for Sitecore, which has been the real meat of the last project.

Why did you select Sitecore as your CMS?

The core reason was simply the ease of use. We have a number of marketing representatives that are responsible for content upkeep and editing across 300 customer sites. We wanted to be able to allow people that were not necessarily technologists to make changes and edit content. They have a lot of flexibility with their marketing tools, and that is certainly a capability that’s growing for them. They were seen as a leader in the area. There are a number of large companies here that highly recommend Sitecore, too. We’ve been quite pleased.

How did you select Horizontal Integration as your solution partner?

By that point, we had narrowed it down to a number of vendors. We asked them conduct a demo so we could examine their capabilities. I’d also had some prior experience with them before to my coming onto the project. I’ve known the folks at Horizontal for a bit. I brought them into the fold. They presented their thoughts for our business, and what they thought made sense. They made their recommendations, and we liked what they had in mind. We felt very comfortable initiating the project with them.

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

I’m trying to remember exactly what it was. I believe our initial work was somewhere around $250,000, but our overall relationship with this partner has definitely exceeded $700,000.

When was the Sitecore implementation completed?

The Sitecore implementation and website launch was in the beginning of December of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t be extremely specific, but I can tell you that engagement with the site is up considerably. We have tested the site through focus groups and through third parties. We’ve received great user feedback at this point. Given that it’s just launched, we’re just now beginning to utilize the analytics behind our content. When we launched HearingAid.com – that’s our lead generation site – we saw a dramatic increase from the prior site in terms of people coming in, filling out a form, and requesting more information.

Do you remain confident that Sitecore was the correct CMS for you?

Yes, I think it definitely was. We’re pleased with its performance. It was easy for the team to get their heads around it and actually utilize its capabilities. The only challenge is finding extraneous resources for Sitecore. We’ve already hired some internally. Our decision has been to bring in .NET developers and train them in Sitecore, because finding Sitecore developers can be extremely difficult.

When working with Horizontal Integration, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to some of their competitors?

I would say as a group, they are incredibly accountable. I’ve worked in the interactive world and digital space for a long time. They do what they say they’re going to do. They deliver. They will do absolutely whatever it takes without nickel and diming you to ensure your success. If we ran into a roadblock or if the project took a slight turn, they were very accommodating. They’re extremely accountable. They’re certainly not the least expensive in town, but they’re also not the most expensive. When you look at our investment with them compared to spinning our wheels with other partners in the past, it’s a relationship that we will absolutely continue to maintain.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you believe they could improve upon, or are there things you might do differently as the client before initiating this type of project?

As a client, we always look back and think: “What could we have done differently?” For us, it’s been about those aforementioned additional resources. Once the implementation was complete, we knew we’d be rolling out new functionality over time. We had hesitations about ongoing support with another vendor, and we really wanted complete authority on our site maintenance. It probably would have been easier to transition into Sitecore if we’d already begun searching for developers as it was rolling out. We perhaps underestimated the difficulties associated with obtaining the extra resources we were going to need.