Drupal & WordPress: Strategy, Design & Development
Kanopi Studios designs, builds, and supports websites for clients that want to make an impact.
Clients choose Kanopi because of our deep expertise, our skillful balance between custom and contributed solutions, and our thoughtful approach to being innovative while minimizing technical debt.
Clients stay with Kanopi because of our holistic approach: we support your website at any step in its lifecycle, be it a new build, or making iterative improvements to your existing code base and design.
No matter where you are in the lifecycle of your site, we can meet you there.
Kanopi Studios is a Drupal Association member with several Acquia certified Drupal developers, and for about a decade we were the lead organizers of the Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp). Our knowledgeable staff members are regular speakers at both Drupal and WordPress camps.
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1500 West Georgia, Suite 1300Vancouver, BC V6G 2Z6Canada
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Stanford University, Cohen Veterans Network, University of California, San Francisco Airport, San Francisco Public Library, COIT, First Tee, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Indeed
Covenant House
Covenant House International has helped millions of homeless, runaway, and trafficked youth for more than 40 years. Driven by a mission to treat young people with respect and unconditional love, their online presence is an integral part of the fundraising that enables them to do more good.
The Covenant House team was faced with a need to make iterative updates to their Drupal 8 website in order to keep up with their marketing goals. They also had a larger infrastructure change that would impact the website at an integration level. With an amazing vision, hefty goals, and growing organizational needs, they needed a digital presence that could make a bigger impact online.
With our deep level of support, nimble process, and strategic approach, Kanopi was a natural fit to partner with Covenant House. Taking a relationship-first approach to all our projects, we easily and quickly started working with their team to identify quick wins and achieve long term goals.
Working with their existing code, we made key updates to integrations and the donation process on the site. This process and page is integral to not only the site, but the organization’s overall success. Our improvements resulted in Covenant House breaking the seasonal giving records they’d set internally.
The result was a 42% increase in transactions and a 178% increase in new users.
National Council for the Blind in Ireland (NCBI)
NCBI creates accessible learning and literacy for the nearly 1.3 billion people worldwide who live with some form of distance or near vision impairment. They needed an easy way to make their materials available in online formats to support their goals and vision, and to have the site be AAA compliant, the highest possible compliance.
By working with Kanopi, NCBI was able to make their content available in accessible online formats through the Bookshare project. With features that include searchable text, synchronized text and audio, highlighting, and customizable font size and contrast, NCBI is empowering people with reading barriers with access to new opportunities for learning and literacy.
NCBI now has a AAA compliant site, with 800,000+ titles available to users. This impressive metric was an important measure of success for the team, indicating that they were able to give their audience wide-spread accessibility and access to educational content.
Global Brain Health Institute
GBHI works globally to reduce the impact of dementia, specifically in marginalized communities. But their website didn’t position them as the world-class organization they are; it had minimal design and was outdated. The focus of the site was largely on their Fellowship Program, but it was missing information about the Pilots/Projects they support and it didn’t capture the true story, vision, and purpose driving GBHI’s work.
A lot of their content was documented in downloadable PDF brochures and documents making it less accessible, and that content needed to be migrated to the website and positioned in a way that told the real story.
Kanopi worked with GBHI on content strategy, starting with a full content audit of their existing site. We were able to map their current content to their ideal site map, and then identify the gaps in content. From there we determined where we could pull content from, and where we needed to write and develop brand new copy. We worked closely with the GBHI team — interviewing key people in the organization—to capture information in their words, so we could tell their story. Simultaneously, we helped GBHI get clear on their tone and voice, and develop brand guidelines for the way they write.
Through this process, launched a site that shows hundreds of projects, pilots, and advocacy initiatives, and Bios for their fellows, faculty, and staff. We also launched brand new pages like “Who We Are”, and a “Training” section that explains their fellowship program in full detail.
The new site allows GBHI to educate the public on their wide array of initiatives and celebrate the people behind the work. Their content is now presented in a cohesive way that captures everything they aim to share with the world. They’re able to attract new fellows, collaborators, and supporters.
After the launch of the site, GBHI saw a 30% increase in website visitors as compared to the previous year.
International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)
The International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) exists to help those affected by OCD and related disorders to live productive and full lives. The IOCDF aims to improve access to effective treatment through research and training while fostering a supportive community for those impacted by OCD and the specialists who treat them. They also are fighting to end the stigma surrounding mental health issues more widely.
The IOCDF’s existing resource directory provided a wealth of information about therapists, support groups, programs, and clinics to assist people living with OCD. They wanted to expand their services and make it simple and straightforward for people with OCD to find the support they want and need. The IOCDF wanted to modernize its resource directory, focussing on user needs and improving user experience. In addition, because their old directory was built with ElasticSearch and relied on depreciated code, it wasn’t as sustainable or future-proof as it could be.
Kanopi created a new, dynamic directory that is scalable and includes an entirely updated user journey. From clear filters to an interactive map and provider list, the overall experience helps people living with OCD looking for support to connect with providers more easily. The updated editorial experience empowers the IOCDF team to provide additional resources with ease, as and when needed.
The IOCDF now has an engaging, accessible website that meets the needs of its users. Site visitors can find the support and assistance they need faster than ever before thanks to simplified filtering functionality. They can also access vital information about therapists and programs with just a click of the mouse. The IOCDF team is able to update content quickly and easily, keeping their website current and correct for the people that matter the most to their organization – those living with and affected by OCD.
Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) needed a scalable, sophisticated experience that would look great on any device and be supportive of their varied content. Using Gutenberg in WordPress, Kanopi was able to translate strategy and designs from a design partner into the complex functionality and content strategy needed, resulting in a more sophisticated and versatile system for editors, and an improved experience for site visitors.
Sunnylands
For more than 40 years, Ambassadors Walter and Leonore Annenberg welcomed political, business, educational, and entertainment leaders to Sunnylands, their 200-acre winter home in Rancho Mirage, California. In 2001, the couple established The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands to preserve the estate as a place where world leaders could meet to discuss issues of national and international importance.
Sunnylands’ website, while stunning, was not intuitive in their pathways for their two very important audiences. This caused a higher volume of physical phone calls for simple and foundational information, which led to friction both within the organization and with its relationship to its audience.
By modernizing their visual design with an artistic aesthetic, Sunnylands now has a website that reflects their mission and brand while also catering to the needs of visitors and retreat guests. A refreshed content strategy and tone has helped Sunnylands meet user expectations while letting their impressive history tell the story.
With improved navigation and accessibility, potential retreat guests can quickly find what they need to help Sunnylands secure on-site meetings of global leaders, influencers, and strategic decision-makers, thus saving the internal team time and helping users find what they need much more easily.
Armed with a tailored website growth plan, Sunnylands is well-equipped to continuously enhance its website to meet their users’ and the Foundation’s needs well into the future.
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy cares for trails, facilities, and natural ecosystems in area parks while providing education and community programs. Kanopi created a responsive Drupal site with a unified content structure to connect multiple departments. Additional goals were flexibility, easy maintenance, and a stellar mobile experience for park users on the go. The result? A design that celebrates San Francisco’s natural beauty with a 25% increase overall for all goals and conversions.
COIT Cleaning & Restoration
COIT offers cleaning services as well as 24/7 emergency restoration. Their 100+ locations serve over 12 million homes & businesses across the US and Canada. But their site was a mess with a dated design and poor navigation. Drupal 8 was the perfect choice to clean COIT’s house: it accommodated all the requirements and needed complexity, while allowing for a focus on design. Geolocation, streamlined forms, and management of franchise promotions improves the customer experience.
PBL Works
PBL Works provides training and resources to help teachers facilitate project-based learning, an alternative method that uses real-world scenarios or questions as a basis for long-term projects. They partnered with Kanopi Studios with goals to build a beautiful, flexible new Drupal 8 website that shared success stories, answered common questions, and provided educators with the necessary resources to offer quality, project-based learning for their students.
Reviews
the project
Website & Mobile App Development for Sheriff's Office
"Overall, their team was collaborative, creative, and resourceful."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the director of communications at the San Francisco sheriff’s office. I manage all of the external communications to our stakeholders, which ranges from people that use our services, that come and go from our jails, their families and friends, people in public safety and law enforcement, government stakeholders, justice partners, and in general, the public of San Francisco.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We didn’t have a functioning website. The only feature that worked well was the search for people in custody. Nothing else on our site communicated what our department does, and the information wasn’t delivered in a user-friendly format. The content was also not written in an accessible way.
We were trying to bring the website up to modern standards, increasing the accessibility and making it mobile-responsive.
What was the scope of their involvement?
The team at Kanopi Studios developed a mobile-responsive website from scratch. They did all of the research, created the wireframes, and presented the idea. I had a stakeholder committee that reviewed all of their presentations. They also provided a copywriter halfway through the process to assist me with the writing. Along with having an accessible design, the website can be translated using Google Translate.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
Our Department of Technology and the city & county of San Francisco had approved 12 vendors, which we issued an RFQ to. We received four responses from vendors who submitted proposals. After the four vendors came in to present their ideas, we scored them as a group.
I had a committee of different people in our department that were invested in the website, and we evaluated them based on that. Kanopi Studios came out with the highest score.
How much have you invested with them?
The project cost $325,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We selected them in December 2018. After the contract process that lasted several months, we started working with them in May 2019.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The team at Kanopi Studios was very experienced. They were realistic while remaining creative. The research that they presented was comprehensive and thorough.
It was an adjustment to work with a distributed agency because I had never done that before. There was a bit of ramp-up time for me to feel comfortable, which I appreciated. I ended up feeling completely comfortable. They also drew on a variety of people across the US and Canada that brought different skills to the table.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management style was excellent.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I thought their team was extremely professional. They also have a lot of experience with the city and county of San Francisco. Overall, their team was collaborative, creative, and resourceful.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Not anything that comes to mind.
the project
Website Development and Maintenance for Environmental Foundation
“They're always trying to find the solutions that will make us happy.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the communications director at Goldman Environmental Prize. We seek to honor and support grassroots environmental activists around the world to help protect the environment and inspire others to do the same.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We needed a vendor to develop a new website for us.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Kanopi Studios built our current website in WordPress, managing both design and development. We’re particularly busy in spring, so we're doing a lot of updates on our website. Kanopi Studios implements all the changes and develops new templates and solutions for us. They also help us resolve bugs and improve the interface between our home page, a press page, and profile pages.
What is the team composition?
We work with a project manager and two or three other members of their team.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
The relationship had started before I joined the company.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started with them in October 2014, and the partnership is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The website looks very professional, which is important for our business. If we have an urgent issue, Kanopi Studios resolves it as soon as possible. They have a system for marking the urgency of the projects, which has been working very well. In addition, they're able to come up with solutions that are creative and unique. I don't have the technical expertise, so I appreciate having a partner who is able to think through things and make recommendations.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
They're very responsive and great communicators. We use Teamwork to keep track of the projects and we also use email and phone to stay in touch.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They're always trying to find the solutions that will make us happy. They're willing to work with us, even when we have our moments of stress.
Are there any areas they could improve?
In a perfect world, they'd have more developers. However, they're very responsive, especially when it comes to urgent projects, so we haven't had any issues.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be clear, transparent, and consistent in communication. Also, make sure you have a good relationship with your project manager. We found a monthly video call to be very helpful as well.
the project
Web Dev for Telecom Company
"Kanopi Studios gets results; they know what they're doing."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the director of marketing for a telecommunications provider.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We were trying to find a solution to build out our website in a more efficient and user-friendly manner. We wanted to enhance the speed and usability of the site in general, in hopes that this would increase conversions.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Kanopi Studios is providing web development and content services. They work in Drupal. They modify some of the content on the website and rearrange it so that it’s more usable and better accessible by my end users. Everything else, I left up to them. I hand them the keys and let them drive the project.
What is the team composition?
We work with 5–6 people. Our project lead is the main point of communication. The technical team members join the calls on a regular basis and support the project as needed. I expect the total number will grow as we move into the next phase.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
An employee at my previous job introduced me to them. I met with Anne (CEO/Founder, Kanopi Studios), who outlined what they could do for us in a succinct and engaging manner. I brought them on, and they delivered on everything that they said they would. Because of that positive experience, I told my new boss that we should use them for web design.
What is the status of this engagement?
Work started in late May 2019 and the engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Kanopi Studios didn't come in and try to maximize their dollars. From day one, they work to maximize their value. I trust them implicitly. They do very thorough technical audits, and they’re excellent at prioritizing the results. They separate minor issues with the website that can be put at the end of the queue from the ones that need to be repaired tomorrow. They focus their energies on high-impact, high-result tactics.
They came to my current company and have performed just as well as they did for the previous company. I have a different project manager and technical lead, which speaks to the consistency of their process and approach. I highly recommend Kanopi Studios.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management team is great. They do a weekly video call with us, and we can always tell that they’re giving us their undivided attention. Kanopi Studios’ project managers are almost overwhelmingly efficient. My challenge is keeping up with their process. Notes, next steps, or tasks from the meeting are documented and pushed out quickly.
Overall, they do a really good job of communication through weekly calls, emails, project updates, and Slack. The personal touch and super-efficient workflow have made this partnership a really good experience for us.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Kanopi Studios gets results; they know what they're doing.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Nothing's come up yet in our current engagement. I also can't think of one instance in my prior engagement where we had to wait for them or had any issues.
the project
Drupal Development for Boutique Fitness Studio
“Their quick response and sense of urgency to our needs set them apart–they were unbelievable.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the owner of Pelo Fitness, a boutique fitness studio chain with two locations in San Francisco, Calif.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We weren't happy with our previous developers, so were were looking for a new vendor ASAP as we started having some security issues with the site.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Kanopi Studios provided immediate, emergency security patching for our website on Drupal. They also continue to provide ongoing maintenance and additional development work for the site as needed. We may engage them for some web design services in the near future as well.
What is the team composition?
We worked with two people primarily.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
We found them on Drupal.org and were drawn to their website. We liked the fact that they're an all-female company and felt they were honest in their approach to the work we needed done.
How much have you invested with them?
We probably invested less than $10,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked with them from May–July 2018.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
When we called Kanopi Studios for immediate help, they were able to quickly patch up holes in our online security. Their quick response and sense of urgency to our needs set them apart–they were unbelievable.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
They were fantastic overall. We had great success communicating to their team via video conferencing, and they were able to answer every question we had. They also worked quickly and were very efficient with their time, so we got a great value overall.
What did you find most impressive about them?
We'd worked with three providers before Kanopi Studios, but none of the relationships went as smoothly as it did with them. They're easy to communicate with, making concepts easy for us to understand and remaining accessible to us throughout the engagement. They're also very reasonably priced for a US-based company.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No. They were great all around.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
No, because my relationship with Kanopi Studios was so easy.
the project
Drupal Migration for Professional Graduate School
“They produced what they promised and did so on time.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the senior IT director for a professional graduate school. We offer an interdisciplinary program that combines elements of computer science, social science, law policy, and economics to teach students how to improve IT systems. Our studies include analyzing the impact of advanced technology on both the individual and society as a whole.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We’d been using Drupal as our CMS for over 10 years before that version neared its end-of-life. Therefore, we had to migrate our system to the new version. However, we amassed a variety of custom modules and thousands of content pieces throughout the prior decade. As a result, the migration’s scale and a proposed website redesign proved more than our internal resources could handle at once. We hired Kanopi Studios to accomplish this project for us.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Kanopi Studios analyzed all of our content and developed a plan to migrate those files to the new version of Drupal. They had to recreate the functionalities we had in place by integrating the off-the-shelf modules that come with Drupal. If a replacement module wasn’t available, they were required to create the unique code themselves. This process included designing and developing a new backend that’s capable of storing all of our content. Once they executed the migration, they completely redesigned our website’s frontend. Ultimately, they delivered a responsive site that works well on all devices.
What is the team composition?
We worked with an assigned project manager, 2–3 developers, a UX resource, and a designer. Different parts of the project required different expertise, but we interacted with roughly six people over the course of the engagement.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
We sent out an RFP and got responses from multiple vendors. Upon reviewing the proposals, Kanopi Studios stood apart from the other candidates by having the most experience with Drupal. In addition to a reasonable asking price, they provided a detailed solution that accurately addressed our problem.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $130,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our involvement with them took place from April–October 2016.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Kanopi Studios successfully migrated our Drupal platform while preserving all the content that we’ve built up over the years. They worked hard to achieve a responsive design that works well on both mobile and large desktop displays.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
As with any project of this size, we had to stay on top of everything and spend the extra time to keep communication clear. The project manager was responsive and kept us informed regarding their progress. They gave us accounts on Teamwork Projects so we could track different aspects of the engagement and communicate with them. They met the promised delivery dates, so we’re happy with their overall performance.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their expert knowledge of Drupal facilitated a quick and effective migration. They also helped modernize our software development process. By utilizing Git source code control and a series of other tools that enabled us to do automated deployments, we were able to develop an updated software pipeline.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t have any significant recommendations.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I find that a lot of clients underestimate the effort that’s required from them to ensure a project is completed on time. It’s important to have an honest conversation at the start of the engagement to outline the responsibilities of both parties.
the project
Website Management & Dev for Literary Organization
“They're attentive to all our needs.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
We are an organization dedicated to writing and literary expression. We support writers and readers both in the United States and internationally. I'm the director of communications.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We maintain a website that does a lot of things for us. It's an advocacy website, a news hub, and a resource for our users. We found it needed some improvements, and we hired Kanopi to help us with maintenance, security updates, and sitewide changes to drive more traffic, improve conversions, and provide more information to our users.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We have them on a monthly retainer. They provide all the services I mentioned on an ongoing basis. They do development work on our WordPress platform. The first order of business was a full site audit. They went through all our backend code, and they made notes about things that were working well and outlined places we could improve.
What is the team composition?
We have a dedicated project manager and a technical lead. As needed, we also work with other developers and specialists.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
We did an RFP and considered three different vendors for this contract. Kanopi's expertise in WordPress, their focus on client engagement, and my previous experience with them were all deciding factors in choosing them as our partner.
How much have you invested with them?
So far, we've spent less than $10,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We just started working with them at the beginning of October 2019. That monthly retainer is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our team is very happy with them. So far, they've delivered all the improvements we've requested, and they troubleshoot very quickly. We've faced a few problems with forms and security issues, and they're helping resolve all those existing issues. Their solutions are clever, and they help us save money. They're attentive to all our needs.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
They're highly responsive, and they stick to deadlines. We always know when a project is running ahead or running behind. We work with them through video conference, Teamwork, and Slack.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They're a partnership organization that is really committed to our needs. They help us think through our needs and high-level goals, they're friendly and fun to work with, and they really feel like a part of our team.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They're excellent, and there's nothing I can think of that they should improve.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Know what kind of relationship you want to have. Don't hold back with them, and be clear about your goals. We talk to them about everything, and they're as ambitious as we are. See them as a partner and follow their guidance.
the project
Website Maintenance for Travel & Tourism Business
“It’s obvious that they make client satisfaction their number one goal.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the marketing director of a company in the travel and tourism industry.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
When I first started my position, I inherited a Drupal site that needed a lot of changes. The original Drupal agency I hired didn’t deliver up to par. Eventually, we tasked Kanopi Studios to help with ongoing site maintenance and improvements.
What was the scope of their involvement?
The site is based on Drupal Commerce and had a backlog of broken parts left over from our past engagement. Kanopi Studios came in to fix the issues before implementing new features and optimizing our site.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with five people, including a project manager and about four developers.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
I used Clutch to research Drupal agencies and found Kanopi Studios. They were also recommended to me by a professional contact, so I decided to reach out to them and had a good experience.
How much have you invested with them?
So far, we’ve spent about $80,000, although, with the COVID-19 situation, we’re not spending nearly as much as we were before.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve worked with them since February 2019.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our site was a tremendous source of headaches until we found Kanopi Studios. They have a clear ability to deliver, and we’ve yet to give them a problem that they haven’t solved quickly. That’s just unheard of on our side. It’s obvious that they make client satisfaction their number one goal.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
The project management has been top-notch. They’re extremely responsive — if there’s a particularly urgent concern that comes up, they always step up to the plate to get things done. In terms of communication tools, we use Teamwork to manage their tasks.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The quality of the project management and dev work are my favorite parts of working with them — not to mention how friendly they are.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, nothing specific comes to mind.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Do your research first and check out their team. Before we committed to the engagement, they let us talk to one of their developers rather than a sales person. That allowed our software developer to discuss our project specs with them and get a sense of their capabilities.
the project
Ongoing Web Dev Maintenance for University Program Website
"They're really friendly and easy to work with."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the communications specialist for a program called advancing new standards in reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios ?
Initially, we were just interested in support and ongoing maintenance on our Drupal website.
What was the scope of their involvement?
A previous vendor had built our site unsuccessfully, so when we first stared working with Kanopi they found a lot of errors in coding, and brought us up to speed. We had some issues getting ready for the modernization of the site. They did a whole tech audit, and reviewed everything that was going on in the backend of the site and improved the functionality. Now we're looking to them to redesign our website and bring it up to date.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios ?
We did an RFP, and viewed a bunch of other companies, and they were just the best. They were recommended to us by our department's communication manager and I knew they had worked with some other groups around UCSF and they were known for their Drupal expertise.
How much have you invested with them?
We've invested $20,000 – $25,000. Our budget for the redesign will be $50,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began working together in October 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They're really easy to work with, they're intuitive, and sometimes recognize problems before we recognize them. They're really great with working within our budget, so if there's a larger project they'll prioritize things.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
We manage everything through teamwork. We don't have a lot raging fires that need to be tended to, but when we do we typically problem solve within a couple of hours.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They're really friendly and easy to work with.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I'm a complete superfan. I'm really happy with the work they've been doing. Even if you don't have a background in design, you can still work with them without any problems.
the project
Drupal Dev & SEO Services for Higher Education Institution
"I’m extremely thrilled by the level of excellence that they’ve provided."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the associate chair for finance and administration at one of the top healthcare and academic institutions in California.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
Our website was out of date and didn’t reflect on the platform that we needed to be on. We hired Kanopi Studios to do multiple tasks: website development, branding, and updating the platform to comply with the university requirements.
What was the scope of their involvement?
It started with a meeting with Anne (CEO) and Tanya (Sales Executive) to outline the scope of work. We went over what our goals for the website were in terms of bringing it up to date. We also wanted to bring in the different stakeholders and faculty to ask what they wanted to see on the website. That way, we could incorporate their feedback into the development project.
We were then assigned a project manager, Tim (Director of Project Success). They moved us to Drupal 8, which is the platform we needed to use. They resolved the ease of navigating and the inconsistency in design which had come from different faculty members that previously created their own websites. Kanopi Studios took all of those platforms under one site and unified the look and template.
SEO and data analytics were also conducted to help us pop up on searches — the second task after the initial web development. Kanopi Studios is currently working with other units on two other projects that I got them involved with. These require branding, more extensive web development, outreach, and surveys.
What is the team composition?
Besides Anne, Tanya, and Tim, we’ve also worked with Jim (Drupal Engineering Manager) and Randy (UI Strategist & Designer).
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
I had identified Kanopi Studios as one of the vendors we wanted to work with and went through a bidding process.
How much have you invested with them?
We have spent around the $200,000 range.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started in September 2019. The website development wrapped up in December 2020, but they are working on two new projects with other units.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
When the website was launched in December, everyone was excited and happy about the final product. The faculty was satisfied with the presentation and the look. The unified design of our website definitely makes it cleaner and more professional. When external clients and donors visit the website, they can now see everything in one place: the people involved in the center, the research they’re doing, and their activities.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
Kanopi Studios keeps us accountable. They have a project management site where we can log in and see what’s happening, how far along we are in the task, and who is handling it.
Tim, the project manager, is very professional and experienced. He has been consistent in the three projects he’s worked on. He keeps us on track in terms of timelines and weekly meetings, checks in about the project, and gives and gathers updates. The communication is superb.
I’ve worked with other vendors before, and it didn’t go as well as it did with Kanopi Studios. They were even gracious enough to attend our faculty meetings and hear the feedback directly. Their ability to pivot, make changes, and adjust to our needs is what makes the project very successful.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Everyone I’ve worked with is very professional, timely, and responsive. They do an excellent job and have deep expertise. Each member brings something to the table that makes them work amazingly well together.
They don’t overpromise; they’ve let us know upfront what they can and cannot accomplish or what does and doesn’t work, which is really helpful. They’re committed to the timeline and communicate any delays.
Are there any areas they could improve?
There is nothing they could improve on. I’m extremely thrilled by the level of excellence that they’ve provided.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Trust that Kanopi Studios knows what they’re doing. They will help you and guide you through your vision. As long as you communicate what you want, the team will make it happen.
the project
Drupal Development and Maintenance for a Mental Health Education Website
“We met with a lot of teams, but they were the best— and it's shown.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Mind Your Brain is a company focused on developing courses and information for mental health professionals. Our organization is largely based around the work of Dr. Dan Siegel, a world-renowned author and speaker with a Harvard medical degree. I'm a consultant on the marketing and product development area.
What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?
We were looking for a firm to help us with our website, which is built on the Drupal platform. At the baseline, we needed month-to-month maintenance and minor feature upgrades. We also hired them for the more significant updates and changes we need to make.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Kanopi Studios provides monthly maintenance and base support. This level of service mainly revolves around minor frontend tweaks, security and module updates, and bug fixes.
Some of the larger projects they've done have ranged from adding new features to updating how we handled aspects of the site on the backend.
Recently, they created a functionality we've termed an "all-access pass." This feature allows users to purchase access to our entire library, rather than buying individual courses.
What is the team composition?
Our main points of contact are a project manager and a Drupal developer. A few others from Kanopi Studios work for our business in the background.
How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?
When we decided to move on from our previous developer, we conducted a thorough review process and considered several different firms. Kanopi Studios came highly recommended. We met with them a few times to talk through their experience and methodology. They were a good fit for us.
How much have you invested with them?
We've spent between $10,000–$50,000 so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in the middle of 2017 and have an ongoing partnership.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
To assess Kanopi Studios, we look at the overall health of our business including more general web metrics. They make sure everything is working the way we want it to. The work that they're providing our company is up to our standards.
How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
Kanopi Studios keeps everything very well-managed. They're always on top of tasks and are skilled communicators. They keep our team appraised of progress.
What did you find most impressive about them?
From a technical standpoint, Kanopi Studios has a tremendous knowledge of Drupal. Along with their internal developers, the team is well-connected and plays a significant role within the larger Drupal developer community. They have quite an extensive reach in that space, and their fingers are always on the pulse of new trends.
They're very helpful when it comes to fixing a new problem or considering how to add new features. If they haven't done a task before themselves, they invariably know someone with the necessary skill set who can quickly provide answers.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I really can't think of any. I've worked with many different firms over the years in a variety of roles, and Kanopi Studios performs very well. They're skilled and efficient. They communicate effectively and have maintained stability within the team they assigned us. We've had a positive experience so far.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Trust your first impression when you first meet Kanopi Studios. We met with a lot of teams, but they were the best— and it's shown.
The team at Kanopi Studios delivered an accessible, mobile-responsive web platform. Their experienced team balanced being realistic and creative. Their collaborative approach supplemented their professional management style.