Could you now describe the scope of the project? For instance, did it invole custom visual design, backend development, training, support, etc.?
What they did is they provided the company website, which is the external user facing website. We have a team for a product catalog implemented, and also pulled that into Sitecore. Sitecore is what we’re using for our CMS platform right now. There is no integration at this point with ERP systems or anything, but we are integrated with Salesforce, so they did provide that service.
For the most part, it’s a standard website. There wasn’t anything too advanced. However, our product data structure got a little complicated, because we do things a little differently here with our data. Overall, the majority of the work has been backend development. They handled minor design work but the frontend isn't the most complex.
What CMS powered your previous website?
We were using Ektron.
What was the rationale behind your transition from Ektron to Sitecore?
A couple of things. Ektron, first of all, had not been updated since 2006 and, because of that, we were having a lot of problems. At that point we looked at possibly upgrading Ektron instead of going somewhere else. A couple of factors drove us toward Sitecore. One, Ektron, I know, is going through some financial issues, so we were a little leery about continuing with them in that respect. Sitecore has really caught our attention because it had nothing but accolades from other people and other companies that we've talked to. This was about two years ago. Sitecore is the bright, shining, up-and-coming CMS platform that wasn’t too highly priced, and was going to fulfill our needs going forward into the future.
How did you select Layer One Media as your solution partner?
The way that we got a hold of them was through Sitecore. We talked with Sitecore first as far as who their authorized vendors were. We had about five different companies, I believe, that we interviewed at that time, and we had them in for several rounds. A lot of them provided a scope of work or a statement of work. It came down to Layer One and one other potential vendor. At that time, the big determining factor was the price point. Layer One was extremely reasonable. The quality of work seemed on par with other companies that were charging quite a bit more. It made the most sense for us to go with Layer One.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?
All said and done, I’d probably say between $300,000 and $400,000.
When was this implementation completed?
We launched, I believe, on October 14, 2013. And there's still ongoing work with them.
Due to their services and new frontend features, the conversion rate increased considerably. The site rarely crashes and pages load at faster speeds, boosting SEO. Organized, the team was able to work independently when needed for the effort, gaining the client’s trust in their abilities.