We switched to a new one. What about you?

We switched to a new one. What about you?

We’ve got it! A new website. And the path that lead to it was very long and winding. This was naturally not because the project would be difficult for us, but because we are basically in the same pickle as all providers of online solutions. We are constantly focused on multiple projects for our customers, which means that internal ones sometimes have to wait a bit.

A crucial step was realizing that our old website dearly needed a redesign. It was getting to be slow, not in line with all the modern trends, and the user experience suffered for it. This is exactly what we have been repeating to our customers when discussing their website redesigns. Well, it may have taken a while, but we were clearly focused on what we plan on achieving and how we plan to change everything in order to avoid the dreadful connotations of the saying about the shoemaker’s children always going barefoot.

From idea to action

We spent a long time talking about the “new one”. We were tossing around ideas, proposals, and new features that we had already successfully implemented with our customers. Then one moment we realized that we could no longer wait and the website redesign got assigned class-one priority at the office. That’s when things got rolling. Our marketing team came to the first meeting with a set of goals and the strategy. The core objective was that the new website must become a new sales channel. Matic, Gregor, Matej, Barbara, David, Monika, and Mihaela formed the task force at the first meeting. Or, to put it in terms of people’s job positions, the head of online solutions, the head of online projects and web solutions architect, a programmer, a designer, and the marketing and project desk. A serious project demands such a serious crew.

Then we just jumped in

Our marketing colleagues pulled the content framework from their bag of tricks, otherwise known as “best practices in drafting online content”. Then we started carefully planning the website itself, the so-called customer journey and basic architecture. Our designer joined in and made a few proposals for the visual design. Everything was running fairly smoothly; our marketing colleagues continued making new content adjustments, as only when the project was well already underway and colleagues began discussing it thoroughly did those exact keywords needed for search engine optimization finally come to light. We also learned that only when the site is live can you really see the impact CTAs have on a visitor. Still, these are small adjustments that do not mess with the site’s architecture, and with our user-friendly content management interface the marketing department was able to fix things by itself.

Communication, communication, communication

We all know how things begin in this day and age. With a Word document. This was also our starting point, with a detailed structure of every page, sub-page, and the final text that fit there. We used Microsoft Teams for operative support on the project. If you want to learn more about this tool, you can find the details on the personal productivity page or listen to the excellent webinar “How to improve cooperation between employees at different locations”.

Fresh wind in the sails

This way everybody participating was able to become a part of the team. This was a digital community in which we were able to assign tasks to one another, where we kept all the documentation in one pace, and where we handled all our project-related communication on the wall. Example: we noticed this error, and could you also align the logos a bit, please. The tool made it possible for us to work completely in sync, without the need to go to the project manager for every single detail, or to carpet bomb the office with constant emails and replies. Another highly useful detail for communication was the option to attach photos and screenshots, so that everyone was able to exactly know what we are talking about and where the issue lied.

Let’s forget about tasks, the results are what matters

Then the day was finally here. The day when the marching band plays in everyone’s mind and invisible fireworks light up the sky. We archived our old website and launched the new one. However, even those “champagne moments” go by quickly, as we all knew very well that this was just the first step. Serious work is only just beginning. And it is. At the current moment we, are carefully monitoring all the measurable goals that we set out in the beginning. We are constantly optimizing the site, trying to surprise visitors with new useful and interesting content. We make sure that these always support our primary goal, meaning that the website becomes an important new sales channel. We will let you know how well we are achieving these goals on our blog in about 3 months.

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