Enterprise WordPress Development | Managed Hosting
Advanced WordPress Development | Enterprise WordPress Managed Hosting and Support.
Materiell provides a fully-featured cloud dashboard that allows you to manage your WordPress website(s) in high-availability containers on the Google Cloud. Our platform (as a service) makes it easy to manage your WordPress sites in one dashboard while retaining full control of your Google Cloud account. Our experienced cloud infrastructure team manages your GCP resources and makes sure your site(s) runs reliably using self healing, container technology. Features: --Automated backups w/Easy Restore --Dev/Staging/Production Environments --High-Availability Hosting Configuration --Easy Spinup of WordPress Sites --Global CDN --User Management --Automated SSL Certificate Generation --Installation of Custom SSL Certificates --Advanced WordPress-Specific Server Caching
--GSA IT70 Contract Holder, Schedule 132-51 IT Professional Services.
headquarters
other locations
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United States
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United States
Focus
Portfolio
National Housing Conference, Washington, DC | Dr Axe, Memphis, TN | Arlington County Public Schools, Arlington, VA | George Mason University, Fairfax, VA | American Press Institute, Arlington, Virginia | National Science Foundation | Goddard College, Pitkin, Vermont | American University Washington College of Law, Washington, DC | Oliff PLC Attorneys at Law, Alexandria, Virginia | Bond Dealers of America, Washington, DC
American Press Institute
The American Press Institute, founded in 1946 is an educational non-advocacy 501(c)3 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Newspaper Association of America. It aims to help the news media, especially local publishers and newspaper media, advance in the digital age.
Bond Dealers of America
The Washington, D.C.-based trade association that exclusively represents securities dealers and banks whose primary focus is the U.S. fixed income markets.
Goddard College
Goddard College is an accredited private liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, Port Townsend and Seattle, Washington, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Arlington Public Schools
Arlington Public Schools (APS) is a diverse and inclusive school community, committed to academic excellence and integrity. APS provides instruction in a caring, safe and healthy learning environment, responsive to each student, in collaboration with families and the community.
Dr. Axe
In 2008, Dr. Josh Axe – a certified doctor of natural medicine, doctor of chiropractic and clinical nutritionist – started a functional medicine center in Nashville, which grew to become one of the most renowned clinics in the world.
National Housing Conference
A nonprofit membership organization that supports the affordable housing community with nonpartisan advocacy, research, and communications tools to move housing forward.
Reviews
the project
Web Development for International Association
"Materiell was highly responsive and invested in our project’s success."
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 operations for Eagle International Associates. We are a professional organization of insurance defense attorneys and independent adjusters based in the US and Western Europe.
What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?
Our website was dated and no longer meeting our needs. We engaged Materiell to update our site.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We first had a meeting to go over our visions and goals for the website. We looked at sites for competing organizations and assessed what elements might work for us. Materiell then designed a template and implemented it. They sought feedback at each stage.
What is the team composition?
I worked with Deven (Creative Director, Materiell) who designed our site. Jeremy (Project Manager/Developer, Materiell) then led a team to implement the designs and make any changes we needed.
How did you come to work with Materiell?
One of our member firms had used their team and recommended their services to us. I prefer to find firms through personal recommendation, and Materiell came with an excellent reputation.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent between $10,000–$25,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in December 2017, and the website launched in March 2018.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our site is now highly useful to our members and target audience. We can quickly get across important information ranging from our mission to when and where our next seminars will take place.
How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?
The project was painless from start to finish. Jeremy responded quickly and had excellent turnaround times. If the team couldn’t get to a task within two weeks, he told us up front. We never had to chase them for progress updates or deliveries. We communicated through email and conference calls where we could screen share as needed.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Materiell was highly responsive and invested in our project’s success. They explained technical concepts in layperson’s terms that I could easily understand.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, we were extremely pleased with their work. Materiell continues to support us even though the project has officially ended. About six months ago, we ran into an issue with the site. We told Jeremy, and he was right there with a solution.
Any advice for potential customers?
Be honest about your needs and be patient with their work. Materiell will deliver an excellent product at the end of your collaboration.
the project
WordPress Web Redesign for Health & Fitness Company
“They had a great eye for detail, and things didn’t fall through the cracks.”
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.
Dr. Axe has a large natural health and wellness site, and also manufactures and sells natural health supplements. I manage e-commerce, site design/development, social media, and some creative functions for the company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?
We wanted to entirely rebuild and redesign our Dr. Axe content site. We didn’t feel that the site accurately reflected the company’s updated brand. We also wanted to optimize performance on the backend.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We hired another outside team that we’d worked with on design and branding in the past to do that side of the project, and they worked closely with Materiell’s staff to align the user experience. They were good partners from the start. The other team completed the design and handed them off to Materiell’s staff, who then built the templates for each area of the site in WordPress.
After we went through the review processes and everything was approved, we worked together to transfer the content. They also rebuilt the information architecture, and the sitemap is completely different than it was now. We were initially hosting on Pagely, and switched over to Pantheon to improve stability. They also worked closely with another outside company that did SEO for us to make sure we were in line with best practices. Since completing the project, they’ve provided maintenance services as well.
What is the team composition?
Susan [Founder & President, Materiell] was involved in the outset, and Jeremy [Project Manager, Materiell] was our primary contact. There were one or two developers that were on most of our calls as well.
How did you come to work with Materiell?
People I work with had interviewed Materiell before I came on, and after speaking with them again we were confident that they would get the work done well and on time. They had a very organized approach, and we appreciated that.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in January of 2016, and we launched the site in the beginning of August.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
After the new site’s launch, we were ranked as the number one natural health site globally. Everyone’s thrilled with the performance, and we’re getting great engagement numbers.
How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?
They were the best team that we’ve ever worked with from a communication and project management standpoint. We had weekly scheduled calls, but we were probably speaking daily leading up the launch. We usually communicated via phone and email.
What did you find most impressive about them?
We were very impressed with their ability to shepherd so many different partners throughout the process. They had a great eye for detail, and things didn’t fall through the cracks. They were very responsive and very easy to work with.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They’ve been great, and that’s why we’ve continued to work with them. There were a few last-minute pivots and changes that pushed the site launch back a bit, mostly on the business side - not on their end. For such a large project though, the process was incredibly smooth overall.
Advice for potential customers?
Make sure you know exactly what you’re looking for prior to the engagement.
the project
Customized Survey Site Developed for Government Agency
“We had nothing but positive interactions with them.”
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 a program officer at my organization, which provides funding for basic research, instrumentation, and computing resources for scientists across the U.S.
What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?
We needed to develop a website for submitting responses to a request for information to inform our future investment plans. We advertised for the scientific community to post their responses on a unique website that adhered to the branding of our organization, and we needed the developers to also collect and transmit that data in a trustworthy way.
What was the scope of their involvement?
The site and data collection were brand new; we had Materiell build it from scratch. They were subcontracted by one of our prime contractors, but we provided Materiell a detailed statement of the work, including all the features we wanted. We chose a domain name together, Materiell purchased it, and then we decided on which platform they would use. The project was a basic survey site with a landing page that explained the purpose, the actual submission page, and generation of a PDF copy of each response that was sent to the participant’s email.
After Materiell built the site, they spend some time providing maintenance and organizing all the data we received.
What is the team dynamic?
There were about four people on their team: a project manager, a designer, a web coder, and someone in charge of the wireframes. The project manager was our direct point of contact, but we could also contact the owner of Materiell.
How did you come to work with Materiell?
They were brought on by our prime contractor, and we approved them to work on the project. We conducted all the oversight and interacted directly with Materiell, though.
What is the status of this engagement?
We awarded them the contract in December 2016, and our final meeting was September of this year.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
This project was extremely successful. We had a robust response rate with extremely well-though-out answers. We’ve already begun analyzing them with our advisory committees, and we’ll be using that analysis as part of the input to plan our future investments.
The website looked extremely professional, and had our company’s branding on it. We had an email address for complaints, comments, or questions, but we didn’t receive a single complaint. We received 136 responses with over 360 authors from around the country, which is a big number for this kind of survey.
How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?
We had weekly phone calls with Materiell during the development phase, and they provided regular prototype testing. We also maintained contact via email, and our prime contractor was always involved in those conversations. Materiell had a well-defined schedule of development and testing milestones, and accomplished each one at the agreed date.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The owner and our project manager were willing to accommodate to our needs, and they resolved most of our questions or problems that arose. They responded quickly to inquiries and gave us all the code and products that they created. We had nothing but positive interactions with them, and it was an excellent experience.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They have a standard approach they’re used to implementing, but a few features were not ideal for our project, so it took a bit of iterating with them on these items to finalize a solution that met our specific needs.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I recommend having a well-described statement of work. Keeping things simple and well-planned is likely to help any customer succeed.
the project
WordPress Redevelopment for Law Firm
"Materiell has gone above and beyond in being partners with us."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Please describe your organization.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was founded in 1963 at the request of president Kennedy, who brought 250 lawyers to the White House in order to help address the issue of discrimination in America through the rule of law. Our projects today include voting rights, educational opportunities, employment discrimination, as well as housing and community development.
We continue to work 50 years later with the remaining issues of discrimination, which have taken a different form since 1963. We also focus on modern-day civil rights, advocacy and legislative fixes. We have a robust public policy project that is aimed at addressing these issues from a legislative perspective. Our new president started working with us in January 2016. We’ve since launched several initiatives aimed at reentry for formerly incarcerated persons. We are in an election year, so our election protection program is also very active. Another subgroup running within our organization is a national parental readiness and empowerment program.
What are your responsibilities, please
I am in charge of executive communications, media relations, digital communications, brand reputation management and internal communications within the organization.
What business challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?
We needed to redevelop our website.
Please describe the scope of their involvement.
Materiell consulted with us to understand what we needed and presented several design options. But they simply didn’t disappear after the site went live. Instead they have offered ongoing support, well beyond the monthly scope of work retained for hosting and assistance. Materiell has gone above and beyond in being partners with us. It never felt like the collaboration was a box-checking process. It has been an ongoing partnership.
Materiell is not actively involved in digital marketing, but they do offer advice and guidance on industry best practices. We are a non-profit organization and don’t have members per se, but it was good to receive SEO guidance on what would influence people to become repeat visitors. Materiell was instrumental in doing the right tagging for optimization purposes, helping us think through how we should tag content based on relevance.
We haven’t developed any mobile applications using Materiell.
How did you come to work with Materiell?
We met with three companies, inviting them to provide proposals for our project, outlining what they saw as the full scope of work and timeline. From the three, Materiell emerged as the most cost-effective and capable. We selected Materiell based on the unanimous decision of the review committee, which included myself and three other employees—our technology coordinator, our strategic campaign manager for one of our largest program areas and another communications professional. All three agencies were obviously qualified, but the fact that Materiell was a small, local, woman-owned firm mattered to us.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
The total cost of the development with Materiell has been $30,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We have an ongoing relationship with Materiell.
Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?
Our website is very professional and presents a lot of information quite clearly. It’s easy to navigate and doesn’t require constantly searching for content. We do have a search button, but Materiell was effective in working with us in order to migrate information from the old site, thinking forward about how it should be organized and presented to end-users.
Materiell was consultative in making sure that industry standards and best practices were met, while also incorporating some of our unique wishes. From color pallet selection, to font color, to deciding on whether to use promo boxes, sliders or rotating images, Materiell gave us examples not only from their own work, but from other sites they liked. They were great in helping us figure out how things should appear.
We did some tweaking before launching the site, working closely with Materiell in order to ensure that it would work as expected in terms of easy navigation. We received great instructions and guidance in terms of photo selections and other multimedia components that would keep the site compelling and fresh. Beyond the design, Materiell gave us some great best practice tips on making sure that the site would be used in the best possible way and would gain traffic and traction for the organization.
We’d never had a blog on our site before working with Materiell. They helped us walk through how it would look, how social media should be incorporated on the site, where the donate button should be placed and so on.
The backend support and training we received was fantastic. If I can use the site, which is in WordPress, then anyone can. It’s not so technical as to discourage a person with no coding skills.
How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?
Materiell used Basecamp in order to make sure that everything went according to schedule. They made sure to check in, even when we didn’t provide material, according to deadlines. Materiell guided and managed our timeline and gave us nudges when necessary.
What distinguishes Materiell from other providers?
At the end of last year, we had a slow period in terms of finances. Materiell stepped up and helped us provide a holiday luncheon for the staff. I mention this because the relationship with Materiell didn’t feel as if it was only about money. They showed a heart, which meant a lot for us as a client.
Is there anything Materiell could have improved or done differently?
I can’t think of anything. Materiell has provided top-notch performance from the beginning.
RATINGS
the project
WordPress Redevelopment for Global Education Initiative
"Materiell has a great business sense... They really go out of their way to understand your objectives before they build a solution."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your organization.
The Ford Program-Global Education Initiative [GEI Project] is an international donor of MultiMedia STEM Education Materials to close public school education gaps, K-12->College-Career. The Ford Program-GEI Project's donations are made directly to governments and countries for the benefit of all their public school teachers and students, K-12->College-Career.
What is your position?
I'm the president and chief executive officer.
What business challenge were you trying to address with Materiell
During the past 20 years of operations, we have worked with numerous technology companies trying to leverage them as resources to complete mission critical work. The grand majority of these companies have overpromised and underdelivered. Our very first engagement together revolved around salvaging a partially built site developed by a different vendor. We were so dissatisfied with the previous vendor and their performance that we decided to terminate the contract and find another partner.
Please describe the scope of their involvement.
Materiell was responsible for developing new WordPress code, repairing existing code that was defective, and updating our four independent microsites. Under normal circumstances, Materiell would have been involved in every aspect of the implementation from strategy to design and development and then implementation, but in this case, they were primarily redeveloping the codebase and implementing our various sites with improved performance speeds. They performed so well given these difficult circumstances that we decided to expand their involvement to include ongoing maintenance and support. Now they serve as our exclusive technology partner.
How did you come to work with Materiell
They were recommended to me. I reached out to Susan [CEO & Founder at Materiell] and had to basically convince them to take on our project because it was such a mess.
Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback from their involvement?
Because our project work is covered under non-disclosure agreements, I cannot share any specific metrics. I can tell you that the board of directors here and myself have all remained thoroughly impressed by Materiell and their performance. They bring serious technical chops to the table, a proactive and creative approach to solutions engineering, and excellent project management skills. Unlike so many other vendors we had used in the past, Materiell was consistently able to deliver all of their assigned work on time, sometimes early, and definitely within the specified budgets. That's not something you can expect in a normal IT project.
Is there anything else that distinguishes Materiell from other providers?
They have a great business sense. Too often these technology partners focus entirely on the functional side of things, the actual features, and bugs, but then neglect the big picture stuff like usability and intuitive design. Materiell doesn't do that. They really go out of their way to understand your objectives before they build a solution. They really grasp how users interact with online content and ensure that everything is fluid, almost seamless.
Could you share any tips for buyers without much experience managing IT projects?
It's extremely important to be involved with your technology partner. It's essential that your requirements make sense to them from a business logic perspective because they will need that understanding to guide their development, otherwise, you're liable to receive a developed product that users won't want to use or simply won't be able to. Providing structured feedback is key. Materiell is great at incorporating stakeholder feedback into their design and development process.
the project
WordPress Development & Print Design for Boutique Law Firm
"I would put them in a class above most other design firms."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Please describe your company.
Our organization is a law firm focusing on estate and trust planning and administration, as well as elder law. We have seven lawyers and another 12 staff members. We've been in Arlington, Virginia, since 1989.
What is your position?
I am one of the principals.
Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address with Materiell?
We had a website, which we felt was outdated and needed to be refreshed. It was no longer meeting our needs as a company. We view ourselves as an industry leader, and we wanted a website that was aligned with that viewpoint. When people visit our site, we wanted them to feel like they were dealing with a firm that was on top of their game. We were also trying to make our image more consistent with our print material, and we wanted it all to be done by one design firm.
Most of our business comes to us through word-of-mouth from other professionals, so we weren't looking to generate business through the website. Most of the people visiting our site had probably already had our name from another source and were coming there to check us out. When they hit our site, we wanted the initial impression to be that this is a company that they would want to do their estate planning with.
Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?
Materiell did the initial design of the website. They started out by focusing on the home page. To us, that was key because that was the first impression people would get. We gave them some colors we were interested in using, and some information about the feeling we wanted to convey. They showed us different designs, and there was one in particular that we both really liked. The graphics they came up with took a lot of time, and it was a collaborative process on all of our parts. We went back and forth until we got to the visual presentation that we all agreed on, along with the basic layout of the home page.
We then moved into developing the other pages for the website. Again, the Materiell was responsible for the layout and design, and they wrote the content for our biography page using the raw information we gave them about each lawyer. We were responsible for generating the content for the various practice areas. They also did the photography, and we worked together to ensure that the photographs were consistent with the feel of the website.
In addition, they did the layout for our brochure, letterhead, envelopes, and business cards. There was a lot of back and forth on that. The whole process took about a year because we're not the fastest movers in the world, but they were very patient and flexible with us.
How did you come to choose Materiell?
We obtained referrals from different sources, including our own IT [information technology] people, and we also did some online research. As I recall, it was one of the lawyers in the firm who identified them through online research. We made a list of any firm that we thought might be worth looking at, and then we started contacting them and doing a pre-interview. We whittled the list down to about three firms, and we asked those firms to come in and meet with us. After meeting with them and receiving their proposals, we selected Materiell.
Their portfolio looked very polished and very cutting edge. Everything they did suggested quality. We initially met with one of their principals, and she came across as someone who was technically very capable and competent, experienced, and understood what we wanted to accomplish. So, the key deciding factors were their professionalism, technical expertise, business competence, the quality of their portfolio and their understanding of what we wanted.
Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?
I'm sorry, but that information is confidential.
When was this project concluded?
The website was launched in December 2014.
Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?
They provided instruction around how to track the data, as well as make edits to the site; however, I have not looked at that information as we are not really using the site to increase traffic. At some point, I probably will look at the numbers but, from our perspective, we achieved what we wanted, so the numbers are sort of secondary.
When the site was first launched, we noticed a few bugs. We brought those to their attention, and they quickly resolved those issues. To my knowledge, we have not received any negative feedback from users. I have, however, received considerable positive feedback, the most recent coming from our printer. He does a lot of work for different law firms, and he was really impressed by the design of the site as well as the print materials. I've had clients say that they like the site and found it easy to use.
I was more than satisfied with their project management. In fact, we probably called on them more than we were entitled to under the contract, and they didn't bill us for it. I was very appreciative of that. They met all their deadlines, and they didn't go over budget.
When working with Materiell, is there anything that you'd consider unique about their practice?
I would put them in a class above most other design firms. I think they strive to be at the top of their game. They seek to deliver an excellent product with high customer satisfaction. They don't want to produce work that is sub-par or is only somewhat good. If their name goes on it, they want it to look good, and I don't know that all firms are like that. Every project that I saw in their portfolio is high quality, top notch, and well thought out. I think what distinguishes them is that they strive for a level of quality that is beyond that of most other firms.
What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?
I would advise people to deal with the person I dealt with, if possible. I had good success working with her.
the project
WordPress Implementation and Online Strategy Management Consulting Firm
"They delivered a creative design and an implementation that was just remarkable."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Please describe your organization.
We’re a Washington-area firm working primarily with trade associations. We focus on accelerating capacity to strengthen their competitive position, motivate additional member participation, and drive sustained revenue growth. We have been operating for three years, and we work with associations in the greater Washington area as well as around the country. We also work with professional societies.
The focus of our practice includes strategic member engagement as well as competitive and growth positioning. We attack all of these issues through research, strategy, and marketing. We have products and services within each of those specializations to drive the outcomes of increased member engagement, participation, competitive positioning, and revenue growth.
What is your position?
I’m the founder, president, and chief executive officer.
Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address when you first approached CMS Advertising Group?
We needed to build a relationship with quite a number of association consultants, many of which are highly experienced and bring lots of talent and strong reputations to their associations. Our having solid research was important in identifying the uniqueness of each association and building those relationships. We needed to identify the right positioning that would call the right attention, create the right considerations, and allow us to have the right conversations with CEOs, consultants, and senior-level managers at these associations. We needed to show how we might work with them and accelerate their competitive position and member engagement. This was a huge challenge three years ago, especially in the cases where there were long-standing relationships, and we were still coming out of the recession. The first introduction that prospective clients, especially in the association community, have to us is our website. They’re looking for new solutions, and they have to have it done in a way that engages their thinking, a way that doesn’t look like the same old thing they’ve been seeing from our competitors.
Could you describe the actual scope of work assigned to them?
Our concern was not only the technical design of our website, but it was about communicating a clear business strategy. This is clearly a cherished partner relationship. In addition to having the CMS Ad Group work on our website, I included them in my strategy on my email campaign development, promotional marketing, and material development strategy.
Can you provide a ballpark estimate for the size of this engagement?
I’m sorry, that information is confidential. What I can say is that this was a strategic, important, and necessary investment. It’s definitely not an inconsiderable amount.
What is the status of the project?
Our relationship started two years ago and remains ongoing.
In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?
In 2014, my business literally doubled during the prior two years and, in 2015, I’m expecting it to double again. My Web traffic is increasing, and I’m getting inbound conversations from outside the Washington area, including the New York area. Now that there is a clear call to action on the site, it’s a lot easier to navigate. People are finding it more intuitive. They’re finding the background on my firm insightful, and they clearly want to know more about what we do.
From a project management perspective, they delivered a creative design and an implementation that was just remarkable. The site is now impressive, distinct, and unique. They delivered on time and on budget.
When working with CMS Advertising Group, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?
They work hard at understanding your business, your market, and your competitive challenges. They want to know about your uniqueness, your strengths, and even what your potential weaknesses are. You get an extensive document on the front-end that begins the relationship, and then they do research on their own to understand your current positioning. Their work is impressive. They went beyond the call of duty to make sure that we were happy with the work product. They not only met, but also far exceeded our expectations.
What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?
Be enthusiastic about engaging in a dialogue with these professionals because they really know their business, and they’re invested in you fully. Let it take the time it needs to take. Don’t try to hurry them along, because their creativeness, research, and business savvy are going to get you where you want and need to go. Don’t be looking at it as a website. Be looking at it as an extension of your firm, as your window to the world. They are your partners who will give you the best shot to achieve the success you want.
the project
Custom Development and Migration Early Childhood Education Company
"We had zero issues with deadlines, budget, or defects in the code the delivered."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Please describe your organization.
I was the lead for Teaching Strategies during this project. Teaching Strategies provides print and online resources for early childhood educators. CMS Ad Group did three projects for Teaching Strategies: 2014 migration of website to WordPress and implement new site design; 2014 build out of an ecommerce solution (this has not been implemented due to issues internal to the company); and a 2015 build out of a Parralax page builder and new home page and navigation.
What was your position?
I was formerly the online marketing manager.
Could you describe the business challenge that you were attempting to address when you first approached CMS Advertising Group?
The original goal was to migrate our website over to WordPress. We wanted to get out of our older proprietary content management system because it was becoming too expensive to maintain and support. Our secondary goal was to move our bookshop out of a proprietary backend and onto WooCommerce. That part is still in process. Internal issues delayed us, but they are working on it now.
Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?
Our own staff did all the design work in-house. CMS Ad Group created the websites based on designs that they were given. They basically implemented the frontend for us (and in the case of the 2015 Parallax tour homepage, they built a back-end tool). On all projects, they advised us on what the mobile experience should look like. They also trained us how to use WordPress effectively.
How did you come to choose CMS Ad Group as your partner?
We bid the first project out and got three different bids. They were lower than anyone else with the highest quality proposal, so it made sense to go with them.
Would you provide a general cost estimate for this engagement?
It was around $30,000 to $50,000 for each of the three projects.
When was the work completed?
In January 2014, they delivered a WordPress site redesigned and then, in March 2014, delivered a WooCommerce back-end for the online e-commerce bookshop. Then, in January 2015, they delivered a custom built online Parallax tour generator. They also have a retainer to do work on ongoing site improvements.
In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?
Switching to WordPress allowed Teaching Strategies to shift what had been a manager and associate job into two associates and eliminate a full-time management position. So it increased efficiency by a huge margin. Design changes resulted in average visits to key product pages improving by 40%. Having control of the backend by the migration to WordPress increased organic traffic by a factor of three. That was the 2014 design. And then in 2015 they did a really cool e-mail sign up in the footer that integrated it with Marketo. That garnered about five times an increase in signups for email for the company. Overall, we have been very impressed with their performance.
Are you satisfied with their performance from a project management perspective?
Yes! They’re great. We had zero issues with deadlines, budget or defects in the code the delivered.
When working with CMS Ad Group, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach and/or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?
Teaching Strategies is incredibly fussy about their visual design. In some ways, we were not easy clients because of our incredible attention to detail. CMS Ad Group was fantastic. They delivered everything on time. In one instance, we delivered our designs very late and they worked over the Christmas holiday to deliver on time.
In retrospect, are there areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?
The only criticism I would have is that they really want to please their clients. They’re very customer service focused and sometimes they might not be bold enough with their opinions. But, everything they’ve done they’ve delivered on time and has been great.
the project
WordPress Implementation Innovation and Journalism Nonprofit Research Center
“They’re always quite prompt with responses and information.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Could you briefly describe your organization?
I work for a nonprofit organization. We work with news organizations and journalists on journalism innovation issues. We help them find more sustainable business models, better ways of telling stories, and sort of solving problems at a consultative way.
What is your position?
I’m the deputy director.
Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with CMS Advertising Group?
We had a very old, unmaintained, and poorly designed website that we’d inherited from an older organization. We were looking to do a complete rebuild. We needed a fresh design and new platform for our company website. We needed something that was dynamic yet simple on the backend, so that way our staff could make changes and updates when necessary, without needing to go through IT.
How did you select CMS Advertising Group as your solution partner for this endeavor?
We worked with some referrals and searched online for vendors that had built sites that we liked and were familiar with. We crafted a short list from that and held some interviews with some local vendors. One of the things that we liked about CMS Ad Group was that they’re here in our immediate area. They’re in Northern Virginia where we are. That was a big contributing factor because we knew the project was going to be extensive, and having their developers able to work onsite with us was going to be key.
Had you selected WordPress as your preferred platform before approaching CMS Advertising Group?
I would say we were 90 percent sure that WordPress was going to be the best solution for us, but we did sort of talk through different possibilities with each vendor to see if they suggested another CMS. When we discussed our requirements and goals for the project, CMS Ad Group agreed that WordPress would likely be the best platform for us. It was also their forte, so we had a feeling we’d be in good hands going with them as our implementation partner.
Could you describe the scope of the project?
The scope was pretty extensive. We did a completely new design, which included a new logo, sort of brand and color scheme, and an overall design of the website layout and navigation. All of that was designed from scratch. We didn’t bring anything over from the previous site. Once we had an agreed concept, they began to develop the WordPress site. We went through testing and enhancement phases, and conducted usability studies before we launched. The still provide ongoing support, and we give them items of work for customizations and things of that nature, too.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?
The original implementation cost about $30,000. Now, they charge us on a monthly basis for a support retainer.
In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback you’ve received that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?
We’ve gotten very good praise from our readership. We have a pretty public website that we publish a lot of blog posts and content that people in journalism come to read. They’re a fairly critical bunch who publish their own things online. We had very good reaction from our audience. They’re very pleased with the design and the clean overall approach. We took a lot of extra steps in the design and in the building to make sure that everything was responsibly designed; that it was going to work well across all devices.
When working with CMS Advertising Group, is there anything you’d consider unique or special about their development methodology that distinguishes them from the vendors?
I don’t know if there’s anything too different. I would say that it’s pretty easy to get a hold of them, which isn’t always the case with some vendors. Being consistently responsive tends to be the downfall of many technology partners. As things arise, as problems progress, the vendor thinks it’s a better idea to keep the client in the dark, rather than admit to issues or errors. That kind of mentality makes the situation worse. CMS Ad Group doesn’t approach their client relationships like that. When we have questions about a project that we’re going to launch, they’re always quite prompt with responses and information.
In retrospect, are there areas you think they could improve on as a service provider?
I don’t know if there’s too much that I could recommend from my limited perspective. We’ve had a little bit of turnover in the early buildout stages, but it wasn’t a huge issue because the overall budget and timeline wasn’t affected.
the project
WordPress Implementation Local Municipal Government
"They are very understanding of our business and operations."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Could you briefly describe your organization?
I work for a small, local government. I work in the communications office. I’m the team lead for Web and design services, so we deal with public-facing websites, third-party tools, social media, and we have print products as well.
Can you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you began the relationship with CMS Advertising Group?
We had, for many years, a proprietary CMS [content management system] that no longer was meeting our business needs. Our internal clients really wanted the ability to integrate more with social media, and add functionality that didn’t exist in the old system. The old system was very expensive to update, and they were not rolling out any updates. As a result, we knew we needed to transition to a new CMS.
We had played with some WordPress sites before. Most of them were micro-sites for different programs the county was working on, and we found it very easy to use, very easy to support, and our internal clients found it much easier to use than our pre-existing proprietary system. We had to lobby hard because most folks, internally, thought of WordPress as a blog and not something that could potentially be used as a CMS. We did finally get approval to pursue the implementation of WordPress at the enterprise level. We have it implemented as a network.
We knew we needed some help with some custom applications, custom plugin development and fine-tuning the theme. That’s when we pursued an outside contractor and selected CMS Ad Group.
Had you made the decision to transition to WordPress prior to that relationship?
Correct. We specifically knew we wanted WordPress. We do have internal knowledge of it, but we didn’t have a master developer at the time. What we wanted to do was beyond our existing skill set. Most of the folks in my team can stand up and customize a WordPress theme, but we wanted to go well beyond basic theming. We needed to implement some complex code on the backend.
Had you considered other CMS solutions prior to WordPress?
Yes. We knew we wanted an open source solution, so we did consider Drupal and Joomla. We had some bad experiences with a Drupal site that one of our internal clients had built. We had a lack of experienced developers to deal with it, and the ones that we could find were very expensive. It seemed like the ease of figuring out WordPress and the cost for WordPress developers was much lower than Drupal. We really didn’t look too much into Joomla because by the time we evaluated WordPress, we had a pretty good sense that it would satisfy our needs. We didn’t have any internal knowledge of Joomla or Drupal, but since we did have some internal WordPress, that is really what drove our decision to go with WordPress.
How did you select CMS Advertising Group as your solution partner for this endeavor?
We created our statement of work and distributed it to several potential vendors. We received a number of proposals and evaluated them based on relevant capabilities, previous experience working with public sector clients, and price point. CMS Advertising Group rose to the top of our candidate list. By the time we interviewed them, we were relatively confident that they’d be able to deliver. Susan [Daniero, CMS Advertising Group’s founder and president] made a very compelling case for both WordPress and their services, and we felt comfortable with their approach. That’s how they won the project.
Could you describe the scope of this project? Did it involve custom visual design, backend development, training, or support?
Their responsibility was relegated strictly to the implementation, and we already had mockups ready to go. They did make some suggestions and enhancements to the design, but it’s not their design. We’d already gone through lengthy scoping and research process before we awarded them our work. They dealt with the technical aspects of the project.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?
I would say in the range of about $100,000.
When was the site launched?
We’ve been doing a rolling migration, so we launched our first site around Thanksgiving [of 2013]. We’re just finishing up now. We’ve got a small internal team, so we really couldn’t do a full implementation in one fell swoop. It also has to do with how we built our enterprise. It’s a family of little sites. It isn’t one consolidated website with one master navigation, so we were forced to have a rolling migration. We should be finished with everything by the end of the month.
In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?
We don’t have any statistics at the moment because we’re still so new and some stuff is from the old system. In another six months, we’ll be able to look at things retrospectively. I can say that, as a result, of the migration, we’ve cut our content probably in half, which has really streamlined our process.
In terms of positive feedback, we’ve got a ton of positive feedback from our internal clients using the system. They consistently tell us about the ease of use. We’ve also received positive feedback from external users. We hadn’t realized how difficult and frustrating our old site really was until we implemented this new site.
When working with CMS Advertising Group, is there anything you’d consider special or unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?
I wouldn’t say there’s anything really special or unique, but they’re really great to work with. I’ve worked with lots of developers throughout my career, and I found them to be very understanding of our business and operations. They’ve been very responsive to our needs. They’ve even delivered early in a few cases, which is almost unheard of in these kinds of projects.
The new site allows stakeholders to use and access information easily. Materiell ensured a smooth workflow by remaining open to feedback, providing regular progress updates, and simplifying technical processes into layperson’s terms. Willing to go above and beyond, they still offer site support.