SMS Environmental launches new commercial website by Achorda

Achorda worked with SMS Environmental, a leader in the Water Treatment industry, to help them achieve a long-standing goal of creating a new website that not only reflects their corporate image and company ethics, but also works for them as a powerful marketing tool. They had started the journey with a number of design agencies but were never convinced that they had really captured what SMS Environmental are all about. They were also tired of clunky, inefficient CMS systems that made content editing a nightmare.

Umbraco CMS

SMS were struggling with their current CMS. Issues with formatting and complicated procedures are a common problem for website editors and can cause them many headaches. We recommended Umbraco and demonstrated how easy it is to use and how logically the system is laid out. They had already investigated Umbraco as a possible solution but hadn't found a developer who could tie it in with their specific requirements. As Certified Umbraco Partners, Achorda was able to tailor the Umbraco CMS to give SMS exactly what they needed from the system. Rich Text Editors were simplified for certain content to ensure junior editors couldn't accidentally break page layouts. Templates were created to allow generic content such as accreditations to be edited in one place but updated wherever they appear across the entire site.

The SMS People

An important aspect of the brief was that SMS Environmental wanted to show the human side of the business to the public. They wanted visitors and customers to see who they talk to on the phone and how the business values the staff who are key to the success of the business. The solution is an 'Our People' page where management team photos and bios, including their favourite off-duty pass-time, are presented in an animated touch-sensitive 3D carousel. Site visitors get and insight into the roles for each member and a glimpse of their 'human' personality.

The page also features an animated grid, constantly flipping through multiple snapshots of staff members busy at work or enjoying time together.

Another nice addition to the Our People page is the Featured Team Member section. Here management get to sing the praises for an individual who has performed particularly well for the business. This not only provides recognition to the staff member for their hard work, but also acts as an incentive to others. Linking this section to related areas in the website also helps keep the user engaged and aids SEO.

The Corporate Image

The website needed to ensure that SMS come across as friendly and yet extremely knowledgeable in their field of expertise. SMS provide services to manage environmental risk, such as legionella in water, for a wide range of industry sectors. The site needed to demonstrate all the services SMS offer, who they offer them to, and back everything up with the wealth of legislative experience SMS have. Achorda achieved this by providing SMS with a platform to demonstrate the full range of their skills in a user-friendly manner, ensuring that the user can easily find multiple pages of content relevant to them, including current regulations / related sectors / case studies / FAQ's / news articles and see SMS as a valuable resource for technical knowledge and advice.

Related Content

One of the best features of the new website is that users can flick through links to a whole range of content related to the page they are viewing. This not only helps the user navigate to relevant content but also aids the site's SEO performance by cross-linking within the website.

Fully Responsive Design

The SMS website s designed using Bootstrap 4, ensuring maximum impact across all devices.

The Future

Phase one of SMS's website development is complete. But the possibilities are endless for them now. Achorda can help them to integrate the website with their online product; add CRM functionality; create marketing reports; manage invoicing / tenders / event booking... there are no limits.

Take a look for yourself: sms-environmental.co.uk