contractjournal.com Web Awards 2005

RIW, recognised by architects and contractors alike for its innovative and professional solutions to today’s waterproofing problems, won the Outstanding Online Content award.

RIW was also chosen as the Judges Overall Winner by the panel, which included Peter de Monnink, the global director of internet business for Contract Journal’s parent company, Reed Business Information, and representatives from awards sponsor 4Projects, the leading collaborative extranet and online tendering service provider.

International specialist contractor Mivan collected two trophies winning the Usability category, and also being deemed the best site by contractjournal.com readers in the Popular Vote. More than 1,500 votes were cast over a six-week period.

The Design award winner was May Gurney.

RIW Ltd (www.riw.co.uk)
"RIW is recognised by architects and contractors alike for its innovative and professional solutions to today’s waterproofing problems, and provides a high level of free technical guidance from the initial design stage right through to on-site support. The simple, clean design of the RIW website enables users to easily navigate the key areas:

• The ‘Product Selector’ guides the user through selection of the most appropriate RIW products for specific waterproofing applications.
• The ‘Literature Centre’ offers downloadable RIW Product Data Sheets and NBS Specifications.
• The ‘Technical Centre’, ‘CommercialCentre’ and ‘Contact’ pages offer quick and easy access (via an online enquiry form) to supplementary technical and commercial information, including Method Statements and MSDS sheets, and the ability to request a call or visit from a technical advisor.

Additionally, company information is available in the ‘About RIW’ section and press releases can be viewed in the ‘News’section. The website is updated monthly to ensure information remains current and relevant, and we plan to soon add downloadable Standard Technical Drawings. Since the re-launch of our website in July 2004, the volume of web traffic entering the site per month has grown from 2,150 visits (average July 03–June 04) to 8,840 visits (average July 04–June 05). Interestingly, the percentage of return visits per month has grown from approx 54% (July 03 – June 04) to approx 69% (July 04–June 05), showing that the site has become increasingly valuable to our customers. The total number of registered users is now over 5,000. We are committed to maintaining our target of responding to all web enquiries within one working hour, as we understand the demands faced by our customers when specifying a project. We regularly receive compliments from web users who have been impressed with how easy the site is to navigate, the accessibility of documents essential to the specification process, and our quick response to web enquiries."

May Gurney (www.maygurney.co.uk)
"The web site is a key marketing channel for May Gurney to communicate with its customers, potential customers, employees and potential employees. This is why the company invests significant resources in its continual development and improvement. The May Gurney web site is managed by an ‘editorial panel’ of six (including two main board directors) who meet on a monthly basis to decide on news content, review activity statistics and to discuss enhancements. This is a considerable commitment and reflects the importance that the company places on its web site. The web site was launched on 1 January 2003 and received a comprehensive face-lift in July 2005, to coincide with May Gurney’s corporate re-brand - giving it a lighter, modern look and feel. Since launch, the average number of weekly visitors has grown by more than 1000% (255 at launch, to 2951 today). This success has been due to the site’s heavy reliance on a dynamic news-feed that’s updated on the first day of every month, attracting regular visitors to the site. This unique feature is promoted through a targeted subscriber email programme - and there is a direct correlation to hits/visitors. This news-feed is very comprehensive, covering all of our services - to ensure an editorial ‘balance’ so that there’s something of interest for each of May Gurney’s target segments – with a minimum 20 new stories every month. In July, increased functionality was introduced to: improve search engine rankings; encourage visitors to stay longer on our web site; make the site even easier to use/navigate; make the site easier on the eye; introduce new features - such as an ability to search the news archive by industry sector/interest and; improve statistical reporting. The May Gurney web site is continually being improved - in addition a monthly programme of content review, the next phase of development, will include greatly enhanced careers features (for imminent release), more developed email subscriber tracking/direct marketing and a telephone customer survey."

Mivan (www.mivan.com)
"International specialist contractor Mivan is a challenging business to promote as the Group has a number of distinct and diverse operations: interiors; telecommunications infrastructure; formwork sales; theming and; general contracting. With such a range of specialisms, usability and ease of navigation are important factors in the success of a site. Ultimately, it will be the end-users that will dictate its level of usability. Poor usability significantly reduces the chances of users returning to the site. Monthly page impressions on the site have increased from 8,391 in April 2002 to over 72,000 in July 2005 - a 700% rise. The site was redesigned in July 2003: to clearly demonstrate Mivan’s breadth of capabilities to all target audiences; to provide relevant and structured content, through an enjoyable customer experience; to provide a customer friendly search facility and other best of breed navigational tools; to maintain a comprehensive Mivan project database for each part of the Group and; the ability to add news stories, projects, jobs, contract awards without having to engage the internet provider/designer each time. All 800+ Mivan employees were informed of the changes when the site went live in August 2003. July 2005 saw further design and usability improvements. The aim was to help draw attention to Mivan’s portfolio of work and add a ‘revolving’ dimension to the homepage to help reflect the diversity and modernity of the business. The Mivan website has a diverse target audience and as such, we needed to accommodate for users with all levels of Internet experience. Additionally, we needed to make sure that their primary objectives were met and that the usability of the site complimented these objectives. Clear signposting and intuitive navigation were the main components in ensuring usability best practice standards were met. The inclusion of hero items on the homepage helps to drive traffic in clear directions, and the provision of multiple routes to important information also assist in intuitive navigation. The Company maintains a concentrated effort to have a user-friendly site that reflects the diversity and nature of the Mivan Group. Similarly, adherence to best practice parameters has ensured that the online offering remains value driven."