The Challenge

Make It York along with Science City York were contracted to providing a website that Stimulated Innovation In the Agri-food Sector. The project in partnership with FERA and the European regional development fund (ERDF) was designed to identify and support Yorkshire based businesses that could benefit from guidance and financial support to improve their processes and therefore support the Agri-food industry in our area. The group wanted an intuitive and user friendly website that allowed visitors to find out about the project, the support available and the amounts available as grants. Interested companies would then be able to register as members and book to attend workshops and events and complete an online ‘diagnostic’.

The site needed to be fully compliant with disability and accessibility legislation, work on multiple platforms including mobile and have a clean and easy look and feel. The organisations were already using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to collaborate and any solution needed to seamlessly integrate with this.

Our Approach

Our tried and tested approach to projects of this type was undertaken.

Initially we collated all the necessary information from each of the relevant parties through a number of workshops. From these workshops a full functional specification was created and refined detailing the necessary processes and the required results.

Alongside the workshops a graphical design phase was undertaken where both wireframes and design concepts were produced and reviewed to ensure that standards were met and all parties would be happy with what they would receive as a deliverable. A detailed statement of the interactions between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the system was produced and the two way communication links created. The client and their testers were given early access to the developed system and feedback was incorporated to refine the final deliverable.

The Solution

• A custom design and a responsive HTML build
• Umbraco CMS front-end
• Custom functionality for the company ‘diagnostic’
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM API integration

The Outcome

MIY were delivered a fully functional, clean and fit for purpose system that was easy to use.

Tightly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM the system allows for cross-organisational collaborative follow up.

The Future

The system is intended to have a 3 year lifespan and has been live for over 2 years now.

The information collected is centrally managed and end-users have access to access tools to check their eligibility for funding as well as giving valuable information and suggestions on how to get the most from the partnership.