Sanmita

ITHACA AGWAY

Founded in 1920, Ithaca Agway began as an old-time general store serving local family farms. Now an established hardware and gardening retail shop with two locations, the owner realized his online presence needed improvement.

BUSINESS NEED

The old website looked dated and uninteresting, and was very limited in scope. Owner also wanted to be able to reach out to new customers.

KEY CHALLENGES

• Make a dynamic and visually appealing presentation of hardware and garden needs
• Manage a large and constantly changing product and service database so that customers can view and compare online
• Integrate True Value franchise product searches
• Create an eCommerce function for customers to place orders online for pickup at store

SOLUTIONS

• Bright contemporary styling with improved organization and navigation
• Searchable product and service database using custom WordPress CMS
• Customer wish list function
• Integration with social media, newsletter functions, events calendar and coupons for new customer outreach

RESULT

A fresh, functional and modern-looking website that retains the helpful, friendly tone of a small-town general store.

BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE FOR PLANT RESEARCH

BTI is an independent, nonprofit plant research organization affiliated with and located at Cornell University. Originating 90 years ago, BTI  was founded on the premise that plant research can contribute to addressing societal issues.

BUSINESS NEED

BTI came to Sanmita after their previous site had been down for nearly two months following a security breach. With over 3,000 pages of information on their website and 30 separate contributors continually making updates, the sheer scale of content to manage was staggering. One of the biggest problems they faced were delays in publishing research and data, and problems keeping content up to date and in sync when it appeared in mulitple areas of the site. In addition to providing a secure and sophisticated information architecture capable of handling the massive scale of the project, BTI also wanted to address brand confusion associated with the old site.

KEY CHALLENGES

• Previous site used an unsupported CMS theme
• Stale content that was taking weeks to publish
• Branding confusion due to poor organization of content

SOLUTIONS

• Robust information architecture incorporating improved CMS that is fully supported
• Consultative process streamlined organization of content to reinforce branding
• Automated content formatting that maintains consistency and speeds up the publishing process. For example, personnel information feeds directly from the master HR database, enabling online information to be kept automatically up to date and consistent in appearance

RESULT

One of our most complex projects, the success of the BTI website is a result of extensive assessment and consultation combined with efficient implementation. Additionally, our custom CMS solution included mobile friendly responsive technology, enabling the site to function optimally across all devices.

WHARTON STUDIO MUSEUM

The Wharton Studio Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming a historic studio building in Ithaca, New York, into a silent movie museum to preserve and celebrate Ithaca’s role in the history of American filmmaking. Originally founded as Ithaca Motion Picture Project, the organization re-named itself as their vision for the museum became a reality.

BUSINESS NEED

When IMPP changed their name to Wharton Studio Museum, they not only needed to re-brand the organization, their website had to play a different and larger role to serve the museum and public in new capacities. News and community events had to take center stage, and so the site had to be easy for a changing roster of volunteers to maintain and update. And of course, the online donation process needed to be easy and prominent for supporters to use.

KEY CHALLENGES

• Make the site much more user-friendly so that volunteers could easily maintain and update content.
• Content had to be migrated from the previous site, created in Drupal, to the new WordPress based site.
• Limited budget
• Quick turnaround

SOLUTIONS

• Sanmita’s customized WordPress CMS is far more user-friendly than the previous Drupal site
• Integration of social media, news, and events calendar on home page
• Google Analytics is also integrated with the site to enable easy tracking of website visits and trends
• Mobile responsiveness was built into the site at no additional cost, a feature that impressed and pleased the client.

RESULT

A visually appealing site that is inviting for visitors to explore, and easy for volunteers to maintain. The site is ready to handle future expansion as the museum grows.

NAMGYAL MONASTERY

Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, New York, is the North American Seat of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It is also an institute of Buddhist studies, hosting numerous teachings, lectures, ceremonies and other cultural events.

BUSINESS NEED

In addition to presenting an engaging online identity that reflects the rich historical and cultural significance of their activities, the monastery needed to keep members informed about scheduled classes and events. Staffed by volunteers, the content management had to be easy to maintain and update without technical training. Sanmita’s relationship with the monastery spans nearly ten years and illustrates the kind of full service and support we take pride in providing.

KEY CHALLENGES

• Previous website cumbersome to use
• Could only make changes to events calendar; needed full content management capability throughout site
• Make site easy for volunteers to maintain and update
• Easy to use donations process

SOLUTIONS

• Sanmita developed a donation engine called 123PayNow, an intuitive application that allows donations by credit card & check
• Migrate content from old site to new, customized, easy to use WordPress CMS
• Sanmita took care of all details, making transition from old site to new simple and pain-free.

RESULT

Analysis showed that site usage increased to an average of 75,000 page views a month. With the new Events calendar, complimented by email communication, participation at Monastery-hosted events and classes increased.

MAPFORMATION

Mapformation is the industry leader in illustrative maps, serving over 400 institutions of higher learning, as well as a diverse range of international clientele including cities, corporations, ski resorts, and many others.

Business Need

The client desired a map-driven, visually streamlined site with very little text to distract from the power of the images. Virtually all business is attracted via the website, so user experience had to be smooth and easy to navigate through the wide range of portfolio pieces presented.

Key Challenges

• Organize hundreds of high-resolution images
• Allow for easy viewing with full zoom capability
• Minimize or eliminate image load time
• Integrate map locations, clients, artists, and categories of work to enable multiple search options

Solutions

The site utilizes a complex information architecture to accommodate the varying levels of organization and detail, including a custom back end system to enable dynamic content management and map integration. One of the unique features designed for this site is an easily updatable integration with Google maps, demonstrating where on the globe each project is located. Sanmita also built an automatically integrated email function that enables the receiver to know which specific map an inquiring writer has been viewing.

Result

An elegantly understated site that relies on icons rather than text for navigation, allowing the maps to take center stage. Browsing the maps is an enjoyable and informative process.