Please describe the scope of their work.
Lform has helped us primarily with the website design and development. They’ve helped us with our branding and our logo; that’s a new logo on the website. They helped us with some messaging, as well as designing PowerPoint slides, so we have a whole new look and feel there. They’ve helped me with some other things with respect to some documentation and so forth. But, their primary mission was to build us a new website.
What was your process for selecting Lform to work with?
The way I found that original company was by doing a capabilities study. I had five agencies come in to pitch their sales talent and their presentation of creative talent. I did the same thing here in 2012 and invited my existing company to come in and present. One or two of my colleagues here had some colleagues in the industry, and I asked them to invite them to present. We did a search online, and we wanted a company that was in Manhattan or New Jersey to work with. I came across Lform in my search, and so did my intern. We had them in as a group of five, and I could see right away that they were quirky. Ian was detail-oriented and had a business savvy and acumen that would help me.
I knew directionally what I wanted in a website, but I wanted the website company to make it look better, give it a 21st century feel and a bit of a "wow" effect. It's an update, with the imaging, marketing, and messaging and not just to be an order taker, but to provide me with some consultative advice.
We conducted the five-company test, and we put proposals in for all. The prices ranged from $15,000 to $35,000. We ended up selecting Lform to work with.
When was the latest milestone completed for that work?
I just did a conference call to discuss refreshing our home page slides. I'll turn to Lform and say that we need to develop five rotating slides. I'll ask them for a price and tell them what I’m looking for, the same look and feel, probably with two bold lines, two supporting messaging lines, and then some images. They’ll give me a price. They always work within price, within deadline; communication is always open within business hours. Everything is very sturdy there. They’re a tight-run agency. You can sense from Ian [Loew, Lform Design’s owner] that he's a no-nonsense kind of fellow, and that’s how he runs the business, in a sense.
We're a public company, so I have to put out press releases and our CEO is pretty exacting about announcements and so forth. They have a tool, a management system that I use called the [Admincal]. I could go into my website right now and post news, post a press release, edit copy, put up new documents or collateral, put up new images, all without them being involved. Right now, right here, I can do that. I’m not the most Web-savvy guy in the world, or the most technical guy. It's a pretty easy thing to work with: You log in and there’s a directory. If you want to change your events, you click on it. It says "Add New" and you click on the wheel and it brings you to whatever event you have. It's almost like a Word document. Do you want to delete it, change it, or add an image? To me, that’s an intangible value.
Lastly, I like their mannerism. I’m a demanding guy. If I’m going to write you a check, if I’m going to put a vendor through scrutiny and I choose you, there’s some good news and bad news. You’ve got my business, but it comes with a certain level of demand and expectation. That, I hold very high because I didn’t have to choose you. I chose you because you proved to me that you had that capability. Lform has never let me down.
I use WordPress to edit my blog. Lform added that and did a nice job. I manage that through WordPress. The rest of the site is in a Web management system, and it's easy to use and update.
I use the tool on the left that I can use to put in a video, an event, or news. If I click Events, it brings me to a list of all my events. I click New and it brings me to an intuitive document to fill out. If I go to Industries and want to add, change, or edit what's up there, such as a guideline or compliance change, I can just change it.
Companies like IBM, CA, and Oracle typically run their Twitter feed on the side of their websites. Part of my challenge as the VP of marketing is that I have to get feedback from a lot of people: VPs, CEOs, the board, and investors. That column is designed to be like our Twitter feed. Since we don’t have that many significant tweets, we changed it to be our announcement area. Some days I like it; some days I hate it.
I wanted a clean, white background, and I wanted something with an Apple look and feel, a nice, smooth technology feel. We have a lot of little things going on because we're a thread, we're a piece of something. We don’t make a single product. We fit into healthcare, government, and mobility. We tried to lay it out in the best way we could with Ian's direction and hard work. We felt very happy with where we landed.
Lform easily adapted to a changing scope and could always be reached. They continually provided progress reports and actively collaborated throughout the engagement. The new site has more features and information but is much easier to navigate, both as a user and admin.