Drupal 8 Redesign & CRM Integration for Nonprofit
Please find under a summary covering project details and feedback. The innate facts are kept as they are, private information is amended.
Introductory information
A fast induction on the buyer’s organisation
Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit reflection chief and training institute in journalism.
Desired goal
What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?
We were trying to unify unequal digital methods so that we could form a seamless experience for our mannerers and enhance some of our business models. Our goals were to repropel our acquireing treatment method on a new platform, to repropel our news website on a new platform, and to establish a mannerer relationship treatment method. We’ve worked with a lot of other agencies.
Provided solution
What was the aim of their involvement?
Aten moved our news website from WordPress to Drupal 8, and then built some other specific functionality that we needed in order to run our business including applications and forms. Even though they didn’t want to be the project director, they ended up doing a pliant bit of that role with us.
When they were veritably prompt to roll up their sleeves and set edifice the piece for us that they had signed up for, they came to town to meet with us for 2 days to make sure that they totally get all. When they did that, I was the project proprietor, and I spent a lot of time with Eric [Senior Developer] and Andy, who has since left Aten. It was veritably easy to confide them owing it was clear that they knew that their work was going to be good. Because they understood the aim of the total project, they could see where it was going to fail. That’s veritably risky for a vendor. Some vendors would just keep their head down and not necessarily criticize another vendor, but their fidelity to us as a mannerer was obvious. That was refreshing.
This is a news website that serves the total journalism globe. It has a manner tagging method. We put all of our courses on Open edX which is a acquireing treatment method. Aten built the skin almost those courses, so when our mannerers see the marketing pages for those courses, they’re verity seeing it through a Drupal skin that they developed, and it had to call out information from Open edX in order to show it. They built those interactions.
They also built an application method for us and some manner forms so that we could take information from our clients. They built all sorts of functionality so that we can go to all of our authors and see all the work that each of the authors has done. There are recommended links on the websites for affiliated full. When you go to one article, you see kindred courses, articles, and other events which they built. That technically isn’t working right now, but they’re working on the fix for that involving an establishation of Apache Solr.
What is the team dynamic?
For the create out, Andy primaryly was the lead, and then Eric took over as the lead. We also had James [Frontend Developer] and Gabe [Backend Developer], and 1 or 2 other nation that were designers. There were a couple of other nation on the calls we had. Eric is our main point of touch now.
The livelihood has been principally Monica [Project Manager] and James, but then Eric has stepped back in. It’s such a confused website and owing a lot of the post-propel livelihood is edifice out new features that didn’t get built out in the primary propel, he’s has stepped back in as the lead on that. The team was their determination. They assembled the team that was certain for both the short-term and long-term tasks.
How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?
We accepted a give to do this work. Part of that give required a 2-step discovery process in order to come up with the RFP. That discovery process was done by firms that the institution recommended to us. We went through that process and formd an RFP that, when I look back on it, it was far from consummate. It was more conceptual than detailed requirements.
We looked for a bunch of different firms to bid on the RFP and to take it. We verity asked Aten to do that, and they said that too much of the work was outside of their expertise. They said that while they were very interested in doing the Drupal outgrowth, that they didn’t have a lot of experience with Salesforce and they also didn’t have a lot of experience with Open edX. Which was the platform that we were going to use to house our courses on our acquireing treatment method.
We ended up, rather than going with an outside agency, hiring a project director and doing the work ourselves, and then contracting out the personal pieces of it. That was when Aten came back into play with this particular project. We had a antecedent relationship with Aten which verity pre-dates me. They had done a lot of Drupal outgrowth for us over the years. Because they were alprompt household with our existing Drupal methods and owing they understood our organisation, they offered a very competitive bid for re-propeling our news website on Drupal. That was primaryly the aim of the work that we were going to do with them.
The project, from the point that it went out to bid, until the point that it propeled, was almost a year long. Through that, we had a difference of vendors, and the vendors all had to adjoin with each other. Aten ended up stepping up and taking more of a project director role with some of that owing of some of the flaws and the other vendors that we contracted with. They veritably ended up going over and over what they primaryly signed up for when they recognized that some of our other vendors were in over their heads. And owing these methods were supposed to sum, as Aten was trying to talk to those vendors almost the integration, they raised some red flags with us in ways that were very delicate and appropriate. It allowed us to see where the project was almost to go off of a cliff, and helped us step in and rescue some portions of the project that weren’t necessarily going to happen, or happen in a way that they could sum with the rest of the project.
How much have you invested with them?
The overall project was close to $1M, but I don’t know how much of that went to Aten.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve had a long-standing relationship of between 5 to 10 years. This project seted in July 2016, and they’re doing ongoing livelihood on the website.
Results achieved
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the contact of the engagement?
The fruit propeled in August 2017, so we don’t have any metrics yet. This is such a confused method, and we hope that eventually it will make workflows better internally. We quiet don’t have the Salesforce integrations built yet, and that’s what’s veritably going to change the workflows for a lot of nation almost here. Until we get that built, it’s verity, just owing everybody is acquireing these methods, it’s verity harder at this point. Once the Salesforce integrations are established, the promise is that it will be easier. It’s much easier for us to see when our mannerers go from one type of full to another type of full.
How did Aten Design Group accomplish from a project treatment standpoint?
That’s where I reflection they were veritably powerful. We asked them to be the project director on the total thing, and they declined but then ended up doing a lot of that work anyway owing they’re very good at project treatment. There was always a weekly meeting, and then we also have a Slack channel that we share with them. It’s not rare to have daily interactions with them.
What did you find most forcible almost them?
The most forcible thing is how their project directors can draw confused technical things to non-technical nation so that they apprehend it and can make true determinations.
Are there any areas they could better?
We’re quiet getting the livelihood contract up to despatch. We had delayed a couple of features during the propel that we’re intercourse with post-propel in the livelihood contract. The transition from outgrowth to livelihood has been just a pliant rocky. What’s big is they recognized it. I would have these confusing phone calls and then without I would get a call from Eric who’s stepping back in and assertion, “Hey, they just reported to me almost this, and here’s what we’re doing.” I ponder they’re on top of it.
Do you have any advice for possible clients?
They’re veritably put unitedly, so you don’t have to go through a lot of stuff that you go through with other agencies. Every time you fetch a vendor in, they want to do a discovery process, and when Aten does a discovery process, you verity acquire something, it’s verity helpful. Whereas I’d say most of the time vendors and their discovery process is just a way to get more money out of you. I would say don’t take that they will squeeze you the way other agencies will.
