Faster time to market, stability, and no half-baked features - that’s what The Garrigan Lyman Group (GLG), a U.S. brand and experience firm, got in return for placing their trust in Umbraco as their go-to CMS.
Here’s how Umbraco helped GLG build a better collaboration with their creative team, why Cloud will be a major part of their strategy going forward, and why becoming a Gold Partner was a no-brainer!
Who is GLG?
GLG is a brand and experience firm headquartered in Seattle. They offer brand consulting and expression, and customer-first technology solutions for their clients. The firm specializes in such innovative industries as health tech, automotive, financial services, and sports. GLG joined the ranks of the Umbraco Gold Partners in April 2015.
How did GLG work before joining Umbraco?
Before choosing Umbraco as their sole software choice, GLG found it challenging to field requests for all the potential CMSs their clients might want to work with. “Everybody seemed to be on a different platform. Clients would call us and enquire about how many developers we had for the different platform options. It got more and more difficult to maintain the different teams of experts,” explains Chris Geiser, the CTO of GLG.
As a result, the firm decided to consolidate their focus and start working on a single platform that they could tailor to all their clients’ needs - and they selected Umbraco.
Why Umbraco?
One factor that led GLG down the Umbraco path was that they were already a Microsoft and a .NET agency. Umbraco’s commitment to quality was another important consideration.
But it’s the fact that the CMS massively streamlines the team’s workflow that GLG values most. Both the firm’s developers and end clients find it easier and faster to make and publish changes with Umbraco. GLG’s adoption of the CMS has also brought faster time to market and other benefits for clients: “At the time [we switched], we were trying to relocate one of our clients, and we knew Umbraco would be a good decision for them. We knew the performance would be better, and it would be more reliable, stable, and secure,” says Geiser.
Umbraco plays a huge role in what we’ve built and what we do. We’re focused on building things faster and producing better creative executions and integrations that are customer-first.
How did GLG grow with Umbraco?
Switching to Umbraco came hand-in-hand with a switch in the firm’s philosophy: From a monolithic, one-system-does-all approach, they converted to a best-of-breed philosophy - with Umbraco as the centerpiece. “We knew the CMS was something we could count on. We can connect it to any system,” explains Geiser.
Their new approach also allows GLG to create bigger projects with a lot of integrations and complexity, such as the one for Toyo Tires, one of the world’s leading tire manufacturers. “They have to have an index of every product and their variations. We connected all those data inputs from other systems as well as connected the website to the CRM system of Toyo Tires. It’s a great example of how we were able to integrate Umbraco with a dozen different data sources.”
Overall, choosing Umbraco as their single go-to CMS helped GLG become a more complete firm. “We achieved scale in our development practice because we were able to fully focus on one area with our content management, and then branch out with how we, for example, do marketing automation or use CRM,” says Geiser.
GLG has already implemented over 50 sites on Umbraco. Creating more and more installations does not only allow the firm to be more confident in the projects they produce, it also makes it easier for GLG to sell Umbraco to clients because they see how fast the agency works, how well the sites perform, and the positive experiences of other clients.
Switching to Umbraco also allowed the firm’s developers to build a better collaboration with the creative team. “We introduced them to how Umbraco works and they were able to build a pattern library. They know how the content management part works, so they can invent the creative part much more to their liking,” explains Geiser.
The Gold Partnership allows us to support Umbraco’s open-source model and provides something that has real value. I like that we can be the first in trying new things out or finding out when they are coming. Our relationship with Umbraco HQ has always been strong. I feel they are always willing to listen.
GLG and Umbraco Cloud
Using Umbraco Cloud, GLG revitalized the website of Savor Seattle Food Tours. Just recently, they also launched a new Cloud-hosted project, a website for D-Wave Systems, a Canadian quantum computing company, which packs both great functionality and stellar design.
To work more efficiently, GLG created a project starter kit that extends to Umbraco Cloud. GLG’s latest project is a showcase of this efficiency - and going forward, the firm plans to use this process for every new Cloud site.
“As hosting becomes more commoditized and it has become more difficult for us to maintain service-level agreements with hosting, Cloud is going to be a huge part of our strategy going forward. It’s not just hosting – it’s the value-added services that come with managing the Umbraco implementation,” says Geiser.
GLG in the Umbraco ecosystem
After getting started with some test builds and using Umbraco with the first client, GLG initially joined the Umbraco ecosystem as a Registered Partner.
As the firm gained more experience with Umbraco, starting the process to become a Gold Partner was a no-brainer, especially as far as training their development team was concerned. GLG appreciates Umbraco’s well-structured online training options for their developers.
The firm is a big proponent of Umbraco’s open-source model. “The Gold Partnership allows us to support it and provides something that has real value. I like that we can be the first in trying new things out or finding out when they are coming. Our relationship with Umbraco HQ has always been strong. I feel they are always willing to listen,” says Geiser.
Umbraco Cloud really matured to a level where we were ready to make a go of it. As hosting becomes more commoditized and it has become more difficult for us to maintain service-level agreements with hosting, Cloud is going to be a huge part of our strategy going forward. It’s not just hosting – it’s the value-added services that come with managing the Umbraco implementation.
Looking ahead
According to Geiser, Umbraco plays an important role in what GLG has built and what they work on - and they have not even broken the surface of what’s possible yet. “We are just starting to figure out what we might want to do with Umbraco Heartcore and how we might use Umbraco Cloud’s Baselines feature.”
Ultimately, the firm is on a mission to scale their Umbraco practice. “We’re focused on building things faster and producing better creative executions and integrations that are customer-first. Sometimes it’s fun to build a flashy, well-designed website, but what is cool to me personally is when we build something that makes the customer say: Everything I need is here,” concludes Geiser.
We made a switch from a monolithic, one-system-does-everything approach. Umbraco became the centerpiece of our best-of-breed philosophy because the CMS was something we knew we could count on and connect to any system.”
Key takeaways: What did taking Umbraco to market mean for GLG?
- Focusing on a single CMS helped GLG streamline their workflow and brought them better performance, speed, and stability.
- Umbraco became the centerpiece of the firm’s best-of-breed philosophy as it allows them to integrate with any system.
- The CMS helped GLG build a better collaboration with their creative team and brought them faster time to market.
- Umbraco Cloud became a big part of the strategy going forward.
- As an Umbraco Gold Partner, GLG appreciates how their relationship with HQ allows them to be among the first to try out new things. They also value other partnership benefits such as online training possibilities and Umbraco TV.