Spry Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am currently the marketing coordinator of a fundraising organization that raises money from private sources, such as corporations and individuals. Using these funds, we distribute grants to almost 70 organizations in our area. Our beneficiaries are mostly teachers and arts organizations. I manage our social media and update the website. I also oversee grant application, graphics for print materials, and other related tasks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spry Digital?

Since technology is rapidly changing, our website was getting out of date. We wanted to work with Spry Digital to build a website that was responsive on mobile, which was an issue with our old site. It needed more capabilities such as being easy to use on the back-end. The website also needed to be more visually appealing and more interesting for users. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spry Digital developed a new website for our organization, and the project took about nine months. Periodically, we would meet with them in person or via conference calls to discuss our needs. At first, we discussed our old website and what we liked and disliked about it. Then, we created a new map for an updated website. Spry Digital added a crowdfunding portal and a filler calendar to our new website. Aside from these additions, Spry Digital handled the logistics of getting users to sign up. They led the whole process of training, designing, and showing us all of the specifications. They worked with us as we uploaded content, found several bugs, and offered revisions for the site layout. They used Drupal to develop the site.

How did you come to work with Spry Digital?

One of the co-owners of Spry Digital is on our board, so we already had a very close relationship with her. She was very helpful and aware of our needs. Spry Digital made sure that our new website reflected our requirements. It was a personal relationship.

How much have you invested with Spry Digital?

We invested $50,000 to $200,000 with Spry Digital.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first met with Spry Digital in July of last year [2015]. Our website officially launched at the end of May or early June of this year [2016]. Spry Digital still provides technical support and updates for our website. They check in periodically just to make sure everything is going well. We're still in touch and, just recently they helped me out with a question about Google Analytics.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Everybody's happy with the updated site. Our board members love all the feedback for the calendar and the overall feel of the new site. I did a report a couple weeks ago about how our site activity has gone up. Since we've launched the new site, user activity has doubled – even tripled. This activity includes an increased number of visitors, longer time spent on the site by individual users, and more interaction. All of our numbers across the board have gone up. The blog is much better, and we're getting a lot more engagement. People visit the blog more and share posts about it on social media. Given all this great feedback, it's almost sad to see what our old website looked like in comparison.

How did Spry Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spry Digital assigned a project manager to our project. Mary and I would coordinate frequently, depending on the project status. Sometimes, we talked almost every day, other times every other week. We would also have meetings once a month to discuss design concepts and the logic for moving through the site. We used Basecamp for discussions and often questions would pop up. Looking back, our initial timeline was quite ambitious. As we the project progressed, we realized that it would take longer. That was fine since we wanted to have a good website. Overall, I would say that communication with Spry Digital was very clear.

What did you find most impressive about Spry Digital?

I haven't done any other website launches, so I can't compare them to other organizations. But, we did have a great one-on-one experience with Spry Digital. They genuinely care about how everything's working and their support is very responsive. They followed up after the launch and asked us for feedback and any changes. Spry Digital has been able to catch bugs and let us know what happened and how to fix things. Spry Digital has just been great to work with, especially for a process that can be very challenging and drawn out.

Are there any areas Spry Digital could improve?

I didn't have a very clear set of expectations for a website launch. Looking back, I would've wanted a better sense of the full process and what each stage really meant. It was difficult to go in blind, and that was probably hard to communicate.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a nonprofit organization located in St. Louis, Missouri. We do an afterschool program for girls in third through eighth grades. The program incorporates running and uses that plus a curriculum to teach self-esteem and confidence, making good choices, and standing up for yourself. We're part of a national organization, but we are our own entity here in St. Louis.

What are your role and responsibilities?

I'm the operations director, so I do the accounting, database, website, IT [information technology] and HR [human resources].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal in working with Spry Digital?

The first project that they did for us was moving our website hosting onto their host server and switching our email server to Google business apps. Then, we worked with them to build a new database in CiviCRM, so we could switch over from our old database. The most recent project was that they rebuilt our whole website.

Please describe the scope of their work.

The scope was mainly website design and development services. They also provide support for the website and for our database.

SOLUTION

What was your process in selecting Spry Digital?

They were actually recommended by someone else that we had worked with earlier. We got other recommendations and picked out a few companies to get quotes from. What we liked about Spry was that they could handle the database component because that was the first thing that we were really looking for. Our previous donor database had been getting really expensive, so we were looking for a new product. I think Spry is the only company in St. Louis that works on CiviCRM, so that's the reason we ultimately selected them. Also, it's a woman-owned business, and our nonprofit is all about empowering women, so that was also a factor.

Can you give a sense of the cost of the initiative?

The website redesign cost about $25,000.

What was the timeframe of their work for you?

We started working with them in the beginning of 2013, probably February or March. We are still currently working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

Their work on the database has been great. The product that they work with is free for nonprofits, and Spry has a lot of knowledge about how it works. So far, any time I've asked them if we can do a specific thing with CiviCRM, they've said that they could figure something out. That's been really great. Also, it's great that they're located here in St. Louis and that we can meet with them and talk with them in person.

In terms of the website, that whole process was great. Actually, it was kind of amazing. They really understood what we were saying about our users and the way that people use our site, and then they put together this design that was perfect. We hardly tweaked the design after they first presented it to us. It was just refreshing that they really understood what we wanted to do, because we don't know anything about website design. They were able to turn their understanding into something useful that looked great.

Is there anything unique or special about Spry Digital that really makes them stand out as compared with other companies?

I think the thing that stood out the most to me as compared with other companies we were working with before, is that their support is so great. First of all, because the website is hosted by them, they're watching on their end for problems and sometimes catch things in terms of the hosting before we even know about them. Anything else that has come up either with the database or the website, we just send their support an email. They either tell me how to fix it or, if it's something they have to fix on their end, they just do it. It's just been really nice to have real people on the other end watching out for what's happening with our website.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

No, there really isn't. Any issues or delays were mostly due to things on our end, where we didn't give them enough information or didn't give it to them in a timely manner. The biggest projects were the database and the website, and both of those things, from the beginning to the end, were really well executed.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

Probably to be reasonable in their expectations of when things will get done, to be realistic as to what they as the client will be able to fit in with the other things they're doing. When we were going into the website design, we wanted it done in a short period of time, and Spry, of course, said they could do it. But, then, we here in our office were so busy that it was difficult for us to actually get our parts done in a timely manner. I think just be reasonable about what they as the client can handle.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, and we provide sewer and storm water utility services for the St. Louis region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal in working with Spry Digital?

We were on a very old, very unstable platform. We knew we needed to get off this old platform before we lost our entire site. Spry Digital helped us revamp our old website by importing it onto a Drupal platform. Along the way, we were also making several enhancements. We were taking advantage of moving platforms to update things as well.

Please describe the scope of their work.

Another vendor handled the architecture of the site, and Spry did the more technical work, importing the site, making sure that all the files were moved, creating all of the pages and making sure things were running smoothly. So, I don't know if they were involved as much in the design, since their work was more on the back-end after the design. They're currently responsible for hosting the site, and they provide monthly maintenance and technical support on an ongoing basis. They were just awarded the contract for another year with two more additional option years for the hosting, maintenance, and support. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Spry Digital?

That happened just before I arrived, so I am not sure of the process. I wasn't involved at that level.

Do you remember when your relationship with Spry Digital started?

The relationship started in early 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We're very happy with the work they have done. In addition to their technical work, they also do the Drupal training for our employees. As a matter of fact, they were here just yesterday doing a training for a new employee. They are only about five minutes away from us, so that's definitely a convenience.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

I would like to see Spry step out from underneath the vendor that they're currently working with. Particularly in this latest RFP [request for proposal], they continue to partner with that vendor. There may have been a need for that when we were redeveloping the site, but reading the RFP as it stands now, it's primarily website hosting, maintenance, and support, which is what Spry does 100 percent of the time right now. Yet, they still partnered with this other vendor. We wanted to have a more direct relationship with them, and we didn't get that. I feel like that could have been handled better.

The other concern I have is that sometimes when I call their tech support to get an issue fixed, I get the issue fixed, but I don't really get an explanation as to why the problem happened in the first place. I always ask for that information in hopes that we can do something to prevent the problem in the future, but they aren't always as good about explaining why something happened as they are in fixing it. I want to know why this problem happened.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

Make sure that you're very clear about the duties in the RFP, what is expected of them, and who is responsible for doing what. I would say just make sure you're very clear on who's sitting at the table.