Review of 2011

23rd December 2011

Review of 2011

This year has been one of growth and partnerships at Alacrify. We seem to have done more work than ever and now have our biggest client portfolio to date.

More Sites Than Ever in More Sectors Than Ever

In simple numbers we produced almost 50% more sites this year than last year, with over 50 new or rebuilt sites being launched in 2011. But that only tells a part of the story.

We've diversified into new sectors like engineering, flooring, roofing, defence and catering. We've also broadened our activity in many of our long-standing markets like healthcare, holiday accommodation, financial services, IT services, membership associations, art, photography and business consultancy.

New Content Management System Launched

2011 saw the launch of our new MicroCMS which is now used in pretty much all of our new websites. This allows our clients to take direct control of their website's content and news and maintain the sites themselves. It's been extremely well received with many clients now having published hundreds of news stories and changes on their sites without any need for our assistance.

Giving Something Back

We've also supported a number of charitable or community websites this year again; www.maidennewton.info, www.theafricanpulse.com and www.devondorsetregiment.co.uk, as well as continuing to support www.rutlandreminders.org.uk, www.homestartwestdorset.co.uk and several other community group websites.

Highlights

Some of our favourite parts of the year have arisen from seeing the success of our clients as a result of work that we've done with them on their website or digital marketing.

One of our biggest projects in 2011 was the relaunch and rebrand of www.acat.me.uk, the website for the Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy. It required a complete rebuild from the ground up, and has resulted in more visitors, more page views and lower bounce rates on the new site. Plus the anecdotal feedback from members has been really positive.

Our other major ongoing piece of work is the continuing development of www.bioportfolio.com which continues to offer world-class information, news and reports to the biotech, life science and pharmaceutical sector. The site is now within touching distance of becoming one of the top 20,000 websites in the US- not bad when you consider the other sites in this club include Google, Apple and Amazon!

We've also been building a successful series of new microsites for Honeywell Analytics / BW Technology. These support their new product launches around the whole EMEA region. This has included developing multilanguage sites for them too.

There have also been many clients like www.heathcotehouse.co.uk and www.quintessentialbedandbreakfast.co.uk who have made use of every opportunity and piece of advice that we've given to create highly successful websites in 2011. Quintessential reached the top of The Good Web Guide this year as a result of their hard work!

Partnerships and New Opportunities

In 2011 we built 2 new ecommerce websites using the MagentoGo platform. www.wildgardens.com and www.mothprevention.com both of which are growing well. We've also been working as a beta tester for www.xampe.com to test their new Business Administration and Management Software that they are going to be bringing to market in 2012. It's been brilliant to use and made an enormous difference to our project management and workflow visibility.

2011 saw the launch of Sector Publishing Intelligence too, which is a spin off business collaboration between BioPortfolio's Peter Barfoot and Stefan and Jon from Alacrify. The 8 new sites are growing and developing daily with a series of substantial new developments planned in early 2012.

New Members of the Team

We've been delighted to have Cindy Dahl join the team this year as our Accounts Manager. She has made a huge difference to the workflow around finance and billing this year and is a highly valued member of our team.

There have also been many others who have helped in 2011 that we hope to continue to work with in the new year. Adam Smith and Sarah Tiplady, Ralph Corderoy and Tim Fawkes. We're also grateful for the continued support of many of our business partners like Comms UK, Flatrock Systems, Scott Vevers Accountants, United Hosting and Creeds the Printers.

They've all made 2011 a year of great progress and continuing success.

Into 2012

Our growth as a business means that 2012 is going to be a big year for us, with an office move and lots of other new opportunities in the early new year. We're looking forward to the challenges and new enterprises that this will bring.

And finally

I'd like to say a huge thank you to all our clients. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with you all in 2011. Thank you for choosing us as your web partners and thank you for all the excellent referrals you have introduced to us this year. We look forward to working with you in 2012 and wish all our customers and visitors a very Merry Christmas and a fulfilling and successful New Year!