Air compressor distributor says StoneHenge team 'top-notch in
experience, expertise & work ethic' in website overhaul
A major business-to-business distributor wanted to boost its
online sales channel with a more robust e-commerce system.
ECompressed Air is an industrial distributor with multiple
locations across the United States. They manufacture, engineer and
distribute compressed air systems and components, from
industrial-strength desiccant air dryers to simple filters. Growing
their online sales channel was a primary strategic goal for the
company. So it turned to StoneHenge Partners.
The result: "Everyone on the StoneHenge team was top-notch in
their experience, expertise and work ethic," said Brett Barnes,
Internet Marketing Manager. "They made our project their own and
wanted it to succeed as much as we did."
 |
 |
| EcompressedAir.com home page
(before) |
EcompressedAir.com home page
(after) |
The problem
ECompressed Air's old website was functional, but missed in
three primary areas:
- The old site was difficult for customers to use. Because of its
cumbersome layout, customers were left to sift through a convoluted
mix of hyperlinks and navigation to find products they wanted to
purchase. The process was daunting.
- The technology that eCompressed Air was built on made it
difficult for employees of the company to update content, products
and pricing. Managing an inventory of over 26,000 products was
time-consuming and wrought with problems.
- The shopping cart function and its associated ability to
communicate with eCompressed Airs inventory and accounting system
were flawed. When consumers found products they wanted to buy, they
discovered that the product was described poorly, priced
incorrectly or no longer being carried.
A key strategic objective of eCompressed Air was to sell
big-ticket engineered air-compressor systems, but the site, as
designed, had devolved into a parts catalog. It did not feature the
enterprise-wide solutions that were the desired market.
The company engaged StoneHenge Partners to partner with an ad
agency and a legacy system vendor for a top-to-bottom solution. "We
chose StoneHenge for their technical knowledge at the team member
level," said Barnes.
ECompressedAir.com shopping cart page
The solution
StoneHenge Partners built a site that would solve the design
shortcomings, content and inventory update issues, and backend
integration needs.
- We implemented a great new look and feel for eCompressed Air.
The site has a clean navigation and search tools that make it easy
for consumers to find the items they are looking for.
- We built the new website around a solid content management
software. Moving forward, employees of eCompressed Air can update
existing inventory, add new items and delete obsolete products in
an easy-to-use WYSIWYG workflow.
- Integrating the content management software with the back-end
inventory systems allow prices and inventory levels to stay
up-to-date in real time.
These key enhancements allow for a more tightly focused
marketing message on behalf of eCompressed Air. Now, the site
features the whole product solutions that the company desired.
In February 2009, after completing detailed requirements and
Function Point Analysis, we scoped the project to be 2,982 hours of
effort, and our 8-person team began work. In April, there was a
mid-stream addtion of 362 new hours of work. We delivered code
complete on May 8, on time and on budget with 112% of the
originally scoped functionality.
Functional Component Diagram, a key part of Function Point
Analysis
The result
Barnes said the new site allows him to discover what customers
are actually shopping for and respond to them in a targeted,
effective way.
"As a result of our redesign we're better able to market our
products. Whereas in the past we were simply listing a catalog of
items, now we can engage the customer's preferences. Plus, we can
steer them to our line-up of capital equipment rather than simply
consumables like filters and lubricants."
"Thanks to the new content management system, we're able to get
people within our organization to directly input their expertise
onto the site. Our expertise can more easily be disseminated to our
larger Web customer base, rather than relying on phone calls,"
Barnes said.
"We can now take Web orders directly into our accounting and
inventory system; this was no small feat since we were dealing with
an antiquated but reliable legacy system. From a business
standpoint, tying directly to the accounting system is the only way
for us to grow our business and that was accomplished with
Stonehenge's strong technical knowledge."
Finally, "the way Stonehenge does their costing model using
Function Point Analysis made it possible for us to come up with a
workable budget and stay within that budget and complete the
project on time," Barnes said.