ABOUT

The brief

Oxford Instruments commissioned Ridgeway to plan, design and develop a new web site for their group of businesses.
The new solution not only needed to replace Oxford Instruments existing SharePoint web site, but also provide a scalable platform for future development of the web group’s online presence. Visually, the web site had to reflect the updated Oxford Instruments brand and deliver a user experience which reflected their company position as a high technology, leading-edge manufacturer.
Furthermore, the web site needed to be adaptable and easy to maintain such that the marketing teams within Oxford Instruments’ ten divisions could each contribute autonomously to the web site in a way which would be appropriate to their respective customers. Future expansion plans also needed to be considered with multi-lingual versions of the site being required, along with integrations with a number of external data sources.

What we did

Ridgeway undertook an extensive requirements capture exercise with Oxford Instruments representatives from each of the group divisions. Customers, products, services and sales processes were analysed and a single, flexible solution approach was then recommended for the group as a whole.
A responsive web site was designed such that an optimised user interface could be presented to all customer regardless of the device used to view the web site. An extensive development programme then delivered a solution which included customisations to make the maintenance of content and data relating to products, end uses, support services, contacts and distributors as simple as possible. The intention being to ensure customers are left in no doubt as to the correct sales and support contacts regardless of their geographic location or the page they are viewing.
Oxford Instruments’ marketing teams were then trained in how to enter and maintain the web site content before the web site during a two day training session. The web site was relaunched after eight months’ of work.

The results

The web site is now maintained entirely by Oxford Instruments’ in-house team. As a result of the changes made, the optimisation of the user experience on all devices and the streamlining of the calls to action on all pages of the web site, a 25% increase in the volume of leads has been recorded, with lead quality also noticeably improved as a result of customers being able to locate the information and products they need much more easily.