Custom Plugins and a New Framework Make for the Right Fit

The Challenge

The UK Markey Cancer Foundation is the fundraising arm for the University of Kentucky's cancer treatment center. UK Markey had an existing WordPress site that relied on an out of date framework burdened by a reliance on complex plugins — along with yearly subscription fees and a frustrating "a la carte" approach that charged for key functionality.

The Goal

UK Markey needed an easier way to manage content for events, news items, and promotional content throughout the site. They also needed a less burdensome way of keeping track of and paying for plugin updates.

The Solution

After consultation with the client regarding their typical business process, AG Strategic completely rebuilt the website to use the more extensible Understrap framework and bettered the functionality of the commercial plugins with custom plugins that do not require subscriptions.

Outcome

The new website benefits from a fresh redesign, quicker page loads, easier backend maintenance, and lower overall recurring costs.

Redesigning and Moving a Complex WordPress Nonprofit Website to Managed Hosting

The Challenge

MicroSociety is a Philadelphia nonprofit with a long track record of enabling immersive experiential education in K-12 schools around the world. Their website grew over the years on typical shared hosting to include more than 20 plugins of varying quality, complexity, and security -- all integrated loosely into a commercial theme. This complexity resulted in difficulty in performing content updates, inconsistent branding, and compromised performance and security.

The Goal

MicroSociety needed access to its content and wanted to move to an easy-to-use content management system with a responsive front-end and reliable hosting that allowed for quick and easy content updates.

Our Approach

AG Strategic offered to move MicroSociety to a standards-compliant framework, using Bootstrap 4 and the trusted Underscores WordPress template framework. Also, AG Strategic advocated for the state-of-the-art Pantheon.io managed hosting platform.

On an interim basis, AG gained access to the production server and performed interim updates for security and stability while building out the new site on Pantheon. After a reskin and redesign, including crucial style and design changes needed by the client, AG thoroughly tested the new site in its new managed hosting platform.

Outcome

The new MicroSociety site incorporates an easily updatable theme framework on best-in-class managed hosting  that loads many fewer plugins, resulting in greatly improved performance, brand consistency, and security.

Agile WordPress Rollout

PolyCore Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical start-up specializing in Parkinson's disease and other central nervous system diseases.

PolyCore approached AG Strategic with a request for a quick turn around for a public website to satisfy a very important need: the firm's co-founder was selected to present at a conference highlighting PolyCore's work in two weeks time.

AG Strategic rolled out a responsive, Bootstrap-based site using managed hosting platform Pantheon. AG Strategic built a modern and compelling WordPress site using an agile development process to meet the deadline within one week from receipt of site content to launch.

Research, Strategy and Future Web Planning for a Leading Biological Research Laboratory

The Challenge

With 8 Nobel Prize winners in its rich history, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) stands tall in the field of biological research and education, as the 125+ year old proving ground for innovative research and education programs that have fostered game-changing discoveries and advanced healthcare, modern agriculture, and environmental sustainability.

A leader in scientific discovery and biology education, CSHL retained AG Strategic to elevate its web practices, technology, design and teams to match the world-class status of this organization. 

Goals

CHSL engaged AG Strategic to conduct an assessment of our public website technologies and practices, with a specific interest in content management, custom web content, and how well it was positioned for future growth and flexibility and a strategic responsive redesign.

Our Approach

AG Strategic, on three separate visits, conducted extensive interviews with division directors, stakeholders, and senior leadership.  In addition, we analyzed a disparate set of content management approaches -- ranging from PERL to .NET to PHP on both IIS and the LAMP stack.  Additional outside informants at colleges, universities, and top tier peer research organizations helped establish a baseline for best practices.  After thorough background research, AG Strategic prepared a sourced 34-page report, Executive Summary and extensive high-level presentation for CSHL President Bruce Stillman.

Outcomes

Creation of New Web Team and Processes

• AG Strategic’s findings will be used to plan for the creation of a new web team to implement lean and agile development processes and embark on a phased multi-year plan to harmonize web design across divisions using a responsive approach.

Content Management System Recommendations

• AG Strategic’s report also detailed some best-fit recommendations for open-source CMS implementations, based on internal staff skillsets and internal culture.

Technology Stack

• AG Strategic's recommendations will be used to support the implementation of industry-leading backend solutions to support CSHL's web presence.