Microserve

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

Our organization, Markets UK, provides self-catering holiday services predominately in the Southwest. 

What is your position?

I'm the business innovation director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Microserve?

We wanted to create a superior, dynamic website that combined great search facilities with supporting colorful information around the locations that Brits might be interested in for holiday travel. 

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project? For example, did it involve custom visual design, backend development, training, and support?

They’re involved in extensive requirements capture, actual implementation, and project management. They've handled all of our custom modifications and enhancements. They've been assisting us with reorganizing and optimizing our content for search. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?

I believe the cumulative cost is somewhere around $200,000.

When was your site launched?

It’s yet to be launched. We’re anticipating launch for the summer of this year [2014].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you provide any statistics, metrics, or anecdotal feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

I really can’t do that because, as I mentioned, the site hasn't been launched yet. We’re only now just getting into extensive tests with UAT [user acceptance testing]. I can’t really comment on that. Our expectation is that we will see heavy improvements in our sales conversion rates. We would also expect to see greater site visibility through organic search. We would expect to see greater engagement levels with our end-users. These are some of the things we expect, but we don't have the figures yet. 

When working with Microserve, is there anything you would consider unique or special about their approach or methodology that differentiates them from other vendors with which you've worked?

We’ve worked quite closely together. We’ve had a dedicated project management for most of the process. We’ve had consistent communication with those people who are working both on the backend implementation and also on the project client side, styling, and page design. We have access to a wide range of expertise with them. The other way where they’ve helped is in selection of a reliable hosting provider that has a deep knowledge of the Drupal platform. 

They go out of their way to remain flexible around changing requirements. It's been quite effective using the agile development methodology. That can be challenging for the supplier in terms of cost control. But Microserve, by and large, has done a great job in accommodating all types of changing requirements. My experience dealing with other vendors is that they have much more stringent controls and constraints on what it is they're willing and able to do. 

In retrospect, are there areas that you think they could improve upon, or are there things you'd do differently as the client before approaching this type of project?

I think the single biggest lesson or takeaway from this project is it's important to outline your requirements on a more granular level, especially when the end goal is a responsive design. The behavior of the system on the backend is tied directly to the presentation on the frontend, and if your requirements aren't made explicitly clear, you run into issues on the user-facing side. We were unaware of how sensitive this would be when we began, but we've since adapted accordingly.