Please describe the scope of their involvement.
Aside from Scruffs.com, they've made three other websites for us. One of those is called VanVault, a site for a storage box that fits in the back of a van, designed for high-end tools that a tradesman might have.
Defender Power is a site that should be going live within a day, more or less. It's for a lighting solution for building sites, which we manufacture, including power solutions, generators, and so on.
Another website is Punk Power Accessories, centering on accessories for power tools, such as drill bits, miter, and circular saw blades, and so on. All of these sites were built using Magento. We designed the visual elements in-house and delivered the collateral to iWeb and then they implemented the front-end.
One example of what they worked on is our locator tool. If a customer prefers to visit our distributors instead of buying items online, they can type in their unique postal code, retrieve all the shops in the area that sell our products by proximity and then get directions. We were very happy with that particular feature because we knew it was going to be important for a subsegment of our customers, especially those that do research online but prefer to inspect the product in-person before deciding on the purchase.
Another example is the graphical imagery located on our competition page. People would submit their entries via social media, and we would implement that onto the page. iWeb implemented the ability for us to add content as we required. Both examples are custom pieces of work that they did for us.
Many of the visual elements of the site were designed in-house. We have a design team for that. iWeb was in charge of the coding and, at the same time, gave us feedback on what could be done better from a usability layout perspective. That was very advantageous.
The team working on our site consisted of two to three developers. The developers assigned to us were selected by iWeb, based on individual skill set and what each one was doing. We interacted with the developers all the time, and with Neil [Broughton, technical director at iWeb] himself, more than once a day on average.
The Magento platform was selected as a joint decision. iWeb recommended it as their solution of choice, and we considered it the right platform for our business.
How did you come to work with iWeb?
They were found before I started working for the company. We have a longstanding relationship with them in web development.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
The total for the three sites they've worked for us recently is between $15,000 and $20,000. We work with them on a project-by-project basis. They offer us fixed prices, and we have a monthly retainer. There can also be ad hoc work for which they charge us separately. They're very flexible in that sense.
What is the status of this engagement?
We're always working with them on different projects. We're currently assessing one of our websites, Scruffs.com, looking at different verticals and potential redesign. Once we've decided on those, we'll ask them to quote us a price.
The team has a great team with a diverse array of resources. iWeb is an ideal long-term partner, with great accuracy and adherence to deadlines. They use an in-house project management tool to keep all projects on task and adapt to their audience’s technical level.