Tech Needs Grow as Content Site Expands

In 2007, green was big news. Now it’s big business, too. The greentech news site GreentechMedia.com has continued to grow exponentially during the last few years, and Vector has been there to help.

Task 1: Migrate the site to an ExpressionEngine® CMS

Greentech Media started as a news source. So the initial business priority was the organization and maintenance of content. Built on multiple platforms with separate logins, interfaces, files, and databases, the old system was far too rigid, and a CMS was needed to power the dynamic publishing model.

It was time for an upgrade. Vector Media Group recognized that the site was a robust repository of industry news, research, and data. But that required precise specifications for access, configuration and presentation.

So, early on, the team decided to apply open-source technologies.

This allowed them to design and build a comprehensive CMS using the ExpressionEngine content management platform. Thousands of articles, research reports, and blog posts—and even more comments—were seamlessly migrated from the old proprietary system to the new CMS. In addition, the team integrated the live CMS event data. By building a set of dynamic XML feeds, the events feed into an interactive calendar. On the back end, the advanced permission and authority structure that was created ensures the integrity of the publishing process by approved stakeholders.

Launching the new site with all this in place resulted in an improved information architecture and also enhanced the content’s marketing impact and performance.

Task 2: Create a custom eCommerce platform

After Greentech Media’s research reports and events took off, the second need of the growing company was a custom eCommerce system. Re-enter Vector Media Group’s development team.

Scaling securely was critical. Greentech hoped to increase the secure billing and storage capabilities of their online purchases. The development team built a payment system that surpassed the previously used vendor, which was hosted offsite. The new system was created to fit Greentech’s needs specifically, from information collected to reporting fields.

Task 3: Organize contacts with a MongoDB CRM database

Greentech’s clients and leads continued to grow. So, they tapped our demonstrated team again in order to compile, track, and connect their database of names through a custom Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

The CRM build focused on our dev team’s MongoDB software familiarity.

Key features included the ability to segment names by demographic, origin, or audience. The dashboard customization and reporting tools allowed each user to navigate easily and access information strategically.

Testimonial:

"Greentech Media has worked with Vector Media Group for development services for several years as we've continued to grow our brand, technology platform, audience, and ultimately revenue. The relationship between our organizations has been extremely symbiotic, almost as if they were internal resources. The communication flow has been very strong, leading to successful, timely, and high-quality product releases for Greentech Media. As we continue to grow, we plan to work even more closely with Vector Media Group.” - Rick Thompson, President & Co-Founder