Partner Success Story: Webcoda

Who is Webcoda?

Webcoda is a Sydney-based digital agency that provides web development, web design, and system integrations to clients across Australia and New Zealand. Their focus lies in providing government, not-for-profit, and businesses within the private sector with .NET compatible solutions. They joined the Umbraco Partner network in October 2020.

Why Umbraco?

The Australian agency had been aware of Umbraco for a while before they started using the CMS. “Our main motivation for finally committing to Umbraco and the subsequent partnerships was to increase our ability to service entry-level projects. As we service a lot of .NET clients, the platform of choice also needed to be compatible,” explains Sasha Shevelev, the co-founder of Webcoda.

Besides the .NET framework, what attracted Webcoda to Umbraco was the open-source nature of the technology. “It created the opportunity to reduce the risk for clients by offering smaller-scale projects like microsites or campaign-based websites without sacrificing quality or originality of design,” Shevelev describes the value of switching to Umbraco for their clients.

How did Webcoda grow by using Umbraco and being a Partner?

Umbraco made it easy for Webcoda to pick up more projects by targeting new businesses and building fledging relationships through cost-effective, entry-level projects. “What we didn’t realize is that many of our existing clients were already using Umbraco and/or were amenable to refreshing their existing designs, too. The partnership has brought extra referrals and greater ability to pitch campaign-based websites to existing clients, and sold more projects to new clients,” explains Shevelev.

In recent weeks, the agency picked up four projects they would not have been able to without Umbraco - and the referrals keep coming. “Overall, we receive more enquiries with a better conversion rate. And a direct result of this is that we’ve been able to increase our development team’s size by 20%. This, in turn, has translated into 20% more projects than what we would usually service.”

Webcoda can use the solution for entry-level projects as well as scale it across even the largest, most complicated briefs - all without needing to find big budgets or sacrifice creativity or quality. According to Shevelev, there’s often a misconception in web development that free somehow means less powerful. “Umbraco may be free, but it’s got everything you need. It’s flexible in ways we never realized before pairing up with it. Instead of baseline costs, high licensing fees, and concerns about what you can and can’t customize, we can dream right alongside the client.”

With Umbraco, the agency has increased the number of projects they can support, scaled the capabilities of each website, or reduced the amount of time spent in development - regardless of size. “We can roll out as many websites as we need without constraints. It’s not uncommon for us to win government and large-scale contracts that involve refreshing multiple sites. With Umbraco, we don’t have to tweak licenses or find creative ways to get around scaling issues.” Many of these projects service different geographical regions, government departments or services, languages, or sectors of the community. On a functionality level, the translation plugins make implementing labels, imports, and customization simple.

The agency appreciates how Umbraco works for their developers. “It’s a sheer pleasure to develop an Umbraco website. The website speed is evident right out of the gate. It’s a beautiful platform to design on. And the resulting websites and digital projects look far more customized and unique,” says Shevelev.

Here are two examples of projects Webcoda created or upgraded with Umbraco:

But Webcoda also understands the importance of empowering their clients to self-manage their website so it remains credible and useful. “While there are a lot of choices available with the CMS and a heck of a lot of features for developers, Umbraco seems to have avoided the trap of building modules and features for the sake of it. The focus is on keeping the CMS clean and clear to increase client confidence,” describes Shevelev.

This also means that it is intuitive and easy for Webcoda to build documents and training manuals for clients, and the team spends less time training clients or fielding questions as the user experience is friendly. “As a result, clients with minimal exposure to technology don’t experience reluctance or confusion, and clients with experience feel far more in control of their new website.”

Webcoda also finds the different Umbraco products useful for clients and developers alike. “Scaling to client’s needs is easy with Umbraco’s product range. Umbraco Cloud is built on Microsoft Azure Cloud and looks after installation, infrastructure and security. You can develop and go live straight from the Cloud,” Shevelev gives an example of the variety. He also highlights a headless CMS in Umbraco Heartcore with a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), Umbraco Uno and its fit for campaign development, and Umbraco Forms which keeps tools such as website sign-ups and contact forms simple. The agency appreciates Umbraco training as well. “You feel resourced and supported. This translates into being able to better support clients. You share the confidence in the Umbraco product to do what you need when you need it most,” concludes Shevelev.

Looking ahead

Over half of Webcoda’s projects are now on Umbraco - and with the growth of their team, the support they receive, and the ease with which they can onboard clients, Shevelev believes the number will only continue to grow. “There are no bells, whistles, and fluff - Umbraco focuses 90% of their energy on making the day-to-day simpler. Umbraco’s abilities are easily extended with packages developed by the community that is really helpful. The quality of the options is a testament to how easy Umbraco is to create with,” says Shevelev.

The team at Webcoda is looking forward to contributing more code to the open-source community and creating new opportunities with Umbraco. According to Shevelev, the Umbraco partnership and spending the time training the team is well worth the effort. “The word partnership feels like a genuine title if the recent conference we attended was anything to go by. Umbraco sets Webcoda up with confidence that will see us grow more business, do more projects, and make more creative waves in the future,” concludes Shevelev.

Key takeaways: What did taking Umbraco to market mean for Webcoda?

• Webcoda was able to increase their development team’s size by 20%. This helped them achieve a 20% growth in the number of projects they deliver for clients.
• Umbraco’s scalability helps Webcoda deliver their largest-scale projects without scaling issues and creative restraints.
• The CMS provides their development team with the flexibility to dream alongside their clients and customize the projects endlessly with a platform that is a pleasure to develop on.
• Umbraco allows Webcoda’s clients a clean and simple user experience that keeps them confident in keeping their website up to date.
• Being a part of the Umbraco ecosystem as a Partner gives Webcoda a genuine feeling of partnership and confidence that their business will continue to grow.

Become an Umbraco Registered Partner