Vardot

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They offered support for a year after launch, making changes and fixing bugs as needed. Even adjustments that weren’t originally budgeted were complimentary. We’re going to hire them for another site revamp to add additional features.

How did Vardot perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Basecamp and set us a work plan and a schedule. I found their project management very professional and they always kept us up to date. They responded to emails or messages within 24 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They treated our project like their priority. When we had a DNS server attack, they quickly dealt with the problem.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I thought we didn’t spend as much time talking about the design and research as we should have. We’ll probably do that the second time around.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers should stay informed about what you want moving forward and communicate with Vardot constantly. A failure to respond will delay the project.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the over quality of their performance and/or the success of the engagement?

In the two months since the launch, we've seen between a 50 percent to 60 percent increase in the total number of visitors to the site. We were very satisfied with their project management capabilities, too. They were very responsive to our needs throughout the planning and development phases. It was very clear at all times who my contact was at Vardot. They were very quick to respond when we had questions or concerns. We have a fairly involved internal process of approvals, and they were very understanding of that. I liked the way we decided on timelines for delivery, and they stuck to those timelines. The product was launched on time, which is a first for us.

When working with Vardot, is there anything that you would consider unique about their practice that distinguishes them from other vendors?

What I really liked about the team from Vardot is the fact that they actually took the time to understand our organization. One specific thing was that there were certain parts of the content we had developed, but hadn't realized its full potential. They were able to point out that potential and encourage us to highlight the information. That showed that they were able to go above and beyond their role as Web development experts and advise us on branding and marketing. We really appreciated that well-rounded approach.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?

At the moment, we're going through the process of launching the multilingual site. We're launching in four different languages at the same time. Looking back, I think that maybe we should have been a little bit more realistic about the amount of work that was involved and the number of people we would need outside the core team. So, maybe a little more planning in that phase would have been beneficial. We both assumed that the process we'd used for the English version would work across all the languages, but we found out the hard way that was not the case.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

If there's a multilingual aspect to the project, especially something outside of English and Arabic, both of which Vardot is very comfortable with, I would perhaps look at detailing what is involved a little more. I can't emphasize how important that planning phase really is before you begin to build.