Self-Service Customers

Plus Relocation Services, Inc., is a St. Louis Park–based company that helps relocate people who have been transferred to a new city. Designstein helps with the more sophisticated applications of Plus Relocation’s Web site. “We redesigned their site, but they have design staff with Web publishing training and they are capable of handling many aspects of the content,” Almquist explains. “We both have access through the content management system we built to add or make changes, and if they’re looking for more sophisticated applications with animation, or changes to the extranet where there’s a lot of technology driving it, we’ll do that wiz-bang stuff.” Plus Relocation Services’ Web-based service-delivery module provides a relocation cost calculator and online tools that track the status of a move and associated expenses. Not only do the online tools help ease the transitions that come with relocation, Almquist says they’ve expanded the company’s business.

St. Paul–based 3M has also set up a preferred vendor structure in which outside providers address particular needs. When 3M developed its new Scotch-Brite disposable toilet bowl scrubber, it turned to Designstein to develop an on-line Flash-animated demo, even though a different company de-signed 3M’s site and 3M was hosting it internally.

“That’s what companies have to look at,” Almquist says. “As soon as you get into deeper functionality on the Web with heavy data and design needs, are you going to hire an interactive department that can manage content, write HTML, and maintain hardware and hosting? Or do you go the route of 3M, who has some internal support, but then looks to have key relationships with vendors like us that know their de-sign requirements, technical framework, and corporate standards to the point where we become an ex-tension of their internal staff?” It depends on the company’s needs.

Departments that are traditionally distinct, such as sales and marketing and IT, are now brainstorming team members. “Companies thinking about their content management systems or Web site relaunch, rebranding, or redesign often make the mistake of not having the right amount of stakeholders involved in the decisions,” Prendergast says. “If just marketing is looking at it and they don’t get sales involved, they just missed addressing the needs of their biggest customer. If they’re not seeking input from brand managers, or the sales and tech departments, there’s a huge disconnect.” Every employee has something at stake.

Insourcing is more successful when it’s an integrated company-wide process. “There’s always going to be a role for external Web developers who are comfortable across all these disciplines,” Almquist says. “I’d say there’s a 50-50 split of where interactive falls between marketing and IT. Some-times we get calls from IT managers, sometimes from marketing VPs, and the requirements there are different. They have to play nice.”