The Goal

The goal of £working with the National Business to Business Centre could not have been clearer: simply to develop a website; an online presence; an Internet hot spot! Stemming from this the business wanted to improve client interaction by bringing their newsletter online, surveying clients and, most importantly, making useful information and documentation available anytime, anywhere. Underlying all of this was the need to establish their place in cyberspace where they could tell the world about their services!

The Solution

David Dee, Corporate Solutions Manager at Employee Matters, was introduced to the Open Source Technologist, Mark Bonnett, who recommended using a content management system (PostNuke) to build an open source website.

Using a content management system meant that the website could easily be customised to Employee Matters’ needs – with the added bonus of it being a free software solution. David and the team could add their own content with minimal training from the NB2BC consultant, Mark.

As a starting point Employee Matters added information to benefit both existing and new clients, including FAQs, facts and figures, their services and testimonies. With Mark’s help they went on to introduce an e-newsletter to the website, a latest news column linked to the BBC website, and an online poll. This latter meant that the website could also produce useful research.

A designer complemented the new site by providing imagery for the header and menu boxes, developing a pleasant ‘look and feel’.

The Results

Already, in the first few months, the new website has generated hits, indicating that people have been using the site, including visitors who wouldn’t have heard of the company before! In the first two months the website generated 23 e-newsletter subscribers and the first online poll generated 80+ votes, providing invaluable research to the company on employment issues. Keeping with theme of client interaction, Employee Matters have been able to attract clients from tools on the site, such as the Contact Us and Recommend Us buttons.

The site has created an online bank of information for employees and employers alike, providing an education, as well as a service.

Conclusions

Thrilled with the new site David Dee commented that: “Working with NB2BC could not have been easier and it cost the company nothing but our time!

“With Mark Bonnett’s excellent help and tuition, we have, in a short space of time, developed a website that looks good and is extremely functional. We were very pleased with the way the project progressed and delighted with the end result.”

David has a clear focus on the next steps for the website; he realises having a site was only the first step, the site alone will not win new business, so it needs to be prominent on search engines, and easily found in directories: “We now have a website that we can maintain and manage on an ongoing basis, without incurring the cost of an IT consultant and we will be adding more content to the site, including a quote engine. NB2BC are helping us with E-marketing so that we achieve optimum utilisation of the site and we will be subscribing to a couple of search engines such as Google.”

Does your company have a website? If not we can help! If yes then does it need some improvements? Perhaps you need more control to update content or would like to lower maintenance costs?

The National B2B Centre, in association with OpenAdvantage, offers one-on-one consulting that will explain the steps involved, provide you with the necessary software tools and teach you how to use them*. The software is Open Source so there is no licence fee to pay and you are free to begin managing your own  website right away. Interested? Then sign up at www.nb2bc.co.uk/signmeup.

*to qualifying companies

Key Links

www.nb2bc.co.uk – The National Business to Business Centre

www.eap-matters.co.uk – Employee Matters