Introduction:

• Dundalk Chamber of Commerce (DCOC) is the leading business representative group for Dundalk, Co. Louth in Ireland.
• Its essential to have a strong online presence for any business in todays environment and especially so for a high profile, business representative and networking group like DCOC.
• The client has an existing website but over time the visitor user journey and calls to action became cluttered. The information architecture made the browsing experience difficult to find information for members and newcomers alike. The content was also managed by a third party with no inhouse skills to update pages, posts, events or members on the site.

Client Background:

• Dundalk has an extremely active Chamber of Commerce. Dundalk’s business network and business voice consist of 250 members representing all business sectors in the town. Chamber council members meet monthly with a view to promoting economic development throughout Dundalk. The Chamber structure is designed to meet the needs of the key business sectors in the community and to ensure their development objectives are met by appropriate representation on each sector’s behalf.
• The primary goal of the organisation is to promote Dundalk as a place to do business, network members via events and interaction and to increase the membership base. The client also wanted to streamline and connect its digital marketing platforms based on a new digital marketing strategy.

Project Objectives:

•  Dundalk Chamber sought to utilise Jascom Ltd (after successful tender) to deliver the following website services
  • Website Technical Evaluation
  • New Website Development
  • Content Upload using existing or newly available content.
  • Website Optimisation
  • Hosting Platform Setup & Migration
  • Training and Knowledge Transfer

Approach:

• The approach was Waterfall/Agile approach based on User Stories and Tasks via a shared project management tool.
• Key personnel in the form of a Project Manager, Content Editors and Website Designer were assigned to the project as well as internal stakeholders.
• WordPress CMS was the recommended platform with Asana as the PM Tool and Loom as the knowledge transfer tool as well as technical documentation shared via Office365.

Implementation:

• A SWOT analysis of the organisation was performed to get a clearer view of the business priorities and current website challenges.
• An Scope Document was agreed post tender to present what this phase of the project would deliver and what was not in scope until later phases.
• The nature of the organisation meant that approvals at Board and Sub Groups levels were necessary for the project to proceed and were managed by the PM in a timely fashion with formal approvals.
• Tasks and Milestones were all managed via the Asana Project Management tool with questions and clarifications all being contained on one shared platform.

Key Features:

• The new design was based around organisation priorities – Events, Membership, Training, Business Listings and News.
• The information architecture and navigation menu elements reflected these priorities where visitors could easily find information groups around these categories.
• The content upload was performed in partnership with the Web Designer and the Content Editors who performed extensive work on duplicating News, Events and Business Listings.
• The website was loaded on a new VM server architecture with its own security, performance and monitoring services.

Results:

• The new website went LIVE in April 2024 with approval from the DCOC Board and all project stakeholders.
• The domain, web hosting and content updates are all now managed by DCOC Staff with technical / security support provided by Jascom Ltd.
• The website ranks no1 in Google for the phases “Dundalk”, “Dundalk Chamber”, “Doing business in Dundalk” and “Dundalk Business Community”.
• The website collects daily business event registrations, new member registrations and general contact queries all via online forms to DCOC staff.
• In the first 30 days the website has had over 3000 pageviews, 2500 user engagements and 1200 unique visitors.

Conclusion:

• The success of the project was down to teamwork and communication. The team worked together via the PM and communicated via the Asana Tool (plus calls/emails) where required to proceed from milestone to milestone with approvals.
• The importance of having clear shared tasks and milestones cannot be understated. Everyone was on the same page and knew what was happening all of the time.
• This Digital Transformation Project meant that the DCOC organisation now has a future proofed platform, which they fully administer, update and collect information from members and visitors.
• Additional transformation elements will also be rolled out as part of a new Digital Strategy and Social Media Campaigns.