ITW Consulting

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of enterprise architecture at Allstream. We’re a telecommunications company providing a range of services and IT solutions to financial institutions and public companies in both the US and Canada.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITW Consulting?

ITW has developed a number of web portals and internal systems for us over the last fours years.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their first engagement centered around migrating our site from one platform to another under a very short timeframe. In addition to our public website, they’ve also created a new billing portal we plan to launch at the beginning of 2018. These were built with a combination of Java, SQL, and Apache Cassandra.

These are consumer-facing, but they’ve also worked on internal projects. They integrated our ECL backend architecture and organized the system that feeds data to our salesforce.

What is the team composition?

We work with 2 or 3 of their team members at any given point. Igor [Shekaroff, IT & Marketing Consultant, ITW] is especially helpful.

How did you come to work with ITW Consulting?

As a Canadian provider, we wanted to make sure we worked with a Canadian vendor. We also wanted a local company that could work with us on-site. We interviewed over six candidates, but ultimately chose ITW because of their personal approach. They’re a boutique shop, and we felt we shared a certain chemistry that would allow us to work together on a daily basis.

We also wanted a vendor with the technical abilities to deliver within a short timeframe. Through our process of selection, we wanted to make sure we partnered with someone capable of both frontend and backend work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent under $300,000 on the latest portal development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015 and our relationship is ongoing. We’re waiting until the new year to launch the latest project.

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

They've exceeded all our expectations from a UI/UX perspective. In terms of technical development, we typically go back and forth with feedback to ensure our priorities align. This is true for any partnership, and the benefit of having their team on-site to outline a project. I would say ITW routinely exceeds 80% satisfaction.

How did ITW Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Their strong project management is one of the reasons we prefer working with them. They start from a concept perspective and then map out how the frontend will look. From here, projects are clearly outlined, documented, and scheduled through milestones.

Like most vendors, ITW includes a buffer in their scheduling, should delays occur. We have our own internal timelines and sometimes push them to take a more aggressive development approach. Still, they’ve managed to deliver each time we’ve asked them to speed up a project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their graphic designers are great. They're able to take decades-old websites and apply a modern, innovative finish. They also have incredible talent when it comes to data architecture. Their expertise in mapping, transformation, and conversion is key for us. Having a clean design is nice, but it’s worthless without strong architecture to drive data between us and our customers.

Our teams also get along very well. Igor, in particular, has a very hands-on approach. His knowledge of UI/UX and backend systems gives him the ability to stitch entire solutions together. He makes magic happen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's room for improvement with any vendor. ITW seems to overemphasize perfection. They strive to give 150% at all times, even if I sometimes prefer completing an imperfect rough draft that we fine-tune later. I don’t expect to achieve a perfect solution on the first pass.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the President of Steel Fire Equipment, a manufacturer and wholesaler of life safety products. We focus on the fire equipment distributor and industrial supply markets. 

What challenge were you trying to address with ITW?

We had an outdated website and wanted something that was leading edge, so we contracted ITW to build a new website for us. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a completely new mobile friendly website that could be easily updated and showed relevant marketing material in different formats, including video. The website has a replacement parts section, which allows customers to choose a specific model and view all the relevant replacement items for it. That is a unique feature, which is quite complicated. They also did SEO [Search Engine Optimization] for us to ensure the site was searchable. Their work was mostly focused on the frontend.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with one project manager, who was our main point of contact, a developer, a database manager, and a content manager.

How did you come to work with them?

I had been in contact with them before and remembered them, so I found them through a search of local web designers.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

The project happened in May 2015 – May 2016. 

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

People like the fact that its mobile friendly. We get significantly more quality requests for products and quotes through our website. Even our regular customers use it after hours to look something up and send us a request for quotes. In addition, we get valid distributor requests. 

They tested the site fairly hard, so there were no security issues after the launch. 

How did they perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're very responsive: they usually respond within 12 hours or faster when it's something critical. I can reach them by email, cell phone or call their office.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing that initially drew us to their business plan was that they allowed a significant time for discovery. They spent a lot of time trying to get to know our business – who we're and what we do – unlike other vendors for whom it was not a real focus.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm not a big fan of conference calls, especially when we're discussing critical design features or architecture. I would prefer to have more in-person meetings. When I couldn't visualize what they were talking about, it was resolved quickly in a meeting.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a B2B company that designs, manufactures, and distributes hose fittings and valves for a variety of industries, including truck and trailer, gas, plumbing, and automotive. I am the director of marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITW Consulting?

We needed a company to build a new website for us. We weren’t happy with the look or functionality of our existing site, which was from the frontier days of websites for B2B companies and didn’t work very well with our business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the third iteration of our website, which is by far the best we’ve ever had. They helped with the design vision, and helped us find useful tools from other industries that we could use for our purposes. They created a clean, fast way for customers to search our catalog of 15,000 products, each with detailed technical data, schematics, and application information. They set milestones, and we go over each one until I am 100% happy with each point. The database that was built for the website is extremely complex.

The site does have an e-commerce aspect, which we’ve partially suppressed. We don’t want to take customers away from the businesses and wholesalers we do business with. There is no basket feature on our site, but customers can get price quotes and search inventory.

The entire backend was rewritten or upgraded into newer language, and is modified to keep up with cutting edge technology. They are developing apps for mobile, tablets, and various computer operating systems.

What is the team composition?

I work specifically with two people: our project manager and our designer. The team was bigger than that, but I interacted personally with them.

How did you come to work with ITW Consulting?

We’ve had a long relationship with them. I first met their president at least 13 years ago. We were working with another company, and I expressed my frustration at the lack of innovation among web design companies at that time. They were the first company that took the time to understand our business and industry, and use that information to maximize the functionality for our customers.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $50,000 on this project

What is the status of this engagement?

We started work on the new site in January 2013. The whole process took less than a year to complete.

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

They were the first company to come up with a solution that worked well and didn’t cost a fortune. The website itself is very effective, and we’ve added a lot to it. We built a portal into the backend that allows customers to check available stock to purchase. Our mobile version is widely accepted as the best in the industry. We’ve got a good SEO program, and our hits are way up. Since our online properties are so useful, we’ve reduced the volume of our printed catalogs from 25,000 a year to about 5,000. In the first year, that reduction alone was worth the cost of the website.

The new site has also been a great boost to our presence in the States. We started as a purely Canadian company, but we opened a head office in the States about 15–20 years ago. Our ability to track leads there has increased significantly since we upped our online presence.

How did ITW Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

I had very specific design ideas, but they did a better job than what I had in mind. We worked within a team viewer on specific projects, and they signed off on items as they were completed.

Their response and return is fantastic, especially compared to other web companies we’ve worked with. I never have to wait more than half an hour if I have a concern, and they’ve given us options to manage our own backend. The ability to make modifications in-house saves us a lot of time and money.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took the time to learn about our products, our industry, and the kind of business we run. They didn’t try to apply cookie-cutter logic, and wanted to be sure they provided the best fit for our customers. We have a shared vision, and they can make suggestions based upon their understanding of us. They’ve been extremely attentive, and whenever we come up with a sudden change, their ideas and solutions are brilliant. They’re always there when we need them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of franchise sales for Boston’s Pizza Restaurant and Sports Bar in the United States.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITW Consulting?

We needed to mirror more with our Canadian counterparts as our franchise sales website wasn’t user-friendly. It was a bit disconnected from the consumer website. The testimonials on our site were outdated, while the Canadian franchise had cutting edge testimonials from franchisees.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firstly, we went through the exercise of rebranding to be more in line with Canada in our mission statement and tagline. We saw the Canadian franchise’s website and it was very appealing, informative, and easy to navigate. It was obvious why someone would want to look at that site and inquire about the franchise cost.

We knew we wanted the storefront of one of our most recent prototypes on the face of our marketing materials in order to mirror the panels for our trade show booth. 

Before we did this site, we didn’t have a website solely for franchise prospects. All we had was a consumer website with a link for franchising. It wasn’t easy to navigate so a lot of people missed out on the franchising link. For this project, we created a domain linked to our consumer website.

What is the team dynamic?

Both Alex and Igor Shekaroff, the owners, were directly involved in every single piece of communication from start to end, including our website, trade show panels, deliverables, brochures, and hotel brochures. There was a specific scope for the project on their intranet that we were given access to. If the project was stalled or we had a very tight deadline, they were able to meet it.

How did you come to work with ITW Consulting?

We knew they were the ones who had worked on the Canadian site. We discussed the project with them until we agreed on a price point and got the project going. I don’t know how the Canadian franchise had found them. They had done over $200,000 of work for Boston’s Pizza Canada by the time we reached out to them. That gave them credibility for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent under $15,000. Our previous team had a VP of marketing who could not find any way to do the rebranding for under $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2015 and ended in July this year.

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

Not only did the work increase web inquiries, but we were also voted the 11th best franchise owner website. We received that award at the IFE [International Franchise Expo] in June. To go from not being known to being acknowledged among the 200 best franchises speaks volumes about the work they delivered.

They delivered a compelling message. Anybody that is very neutral and doesn’t have any interest in the restaurant business can look at the data on our site.

We’re 100% satisfied. However, just because the website is gorgeous doesn’t mean you’re going to have a group of millionaires with years of experience running multiple restaurants knocking at your door. We still have modest results no matter how good the website is. We are looking for a needle in the haystack when we’re looking for good franchisees. If it was a cheaper restaurant to build, we would probably have 1,000 leads a month coming to the website.

How did ITW Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They beat every deadline and every change we had to make, their responsiveness was amazing. The owners had a stake in that to make sure our deadlines were met at all times. Everything they did was spectacular, including the interactive map. They’re incredibly proactive, creative, resourceful, and professional. They did all the work with an extremely reasonable budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When you’re working with a company that’s doing their job, you get what you pay for. Very often you don’t get what you want. When you have both owners involved and offering their personal phone number and making themselves accessible 24/7, you feel like you’re the most important person and project even though you know they have other clients. That speaks volumes.

I would recommend them to any franchise around the world that’s trying to build their website. Communication is the key; they set up expectations and meet them. They work with our deadlines, budget, and are personally involved.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing bad to say about them.