2016 is almost over and let us just say...Wow. Wow for the good, wow for the bad, and wow for the ugly. And there was a lot of each everywhere you looked this year, that’s for sure. So we’d like to take a look back at 2016. But obviously, since this is our blog, we’re just going to focus on things that pertain to WRIS. And thankfully, that means we just get to focus on "the good."

Clients

We worked on a lot of great projects (Boyd Group HR Portal, Howard Hanna) and launched a bunch of great websites (Kaman’s Art Events, Kaman’s Art Job Portal, Incentra Corp., McGregor). What more could we ask for? Oh, that’s right, a 2016 WebAward for the Mill Distributors website.

Small Business Division

2016 saw the launch of the new WRIS Small Business Division. We started it as a way for us to reach more clients (WestPoint Wealth Management, Wave Dancer Charters) and assist existing clients in a new way (Zip City, Engineering Services). And it is doing just that. By offering websites developed in WordPress in addition to custom ColdFusion, we have the ability to reach goals for clients at any stage of growth or budget threshold. The Small Business Division has definitely brought big changes to WRIS, all for the better.

Legacy Support

We’ve always been available to help our clients support their websites once we build them. But we realized that we could also be supporting other organizations and their websites even if we didn’t originally build the site. Our Legacy Support initiative provides an invaluable service to clients with a site built in ColdFusion...more often than not an older, legacy version of ColdFusion...who for some reason do not have access to a development team to assist them with their site. Sometimes they just need updates or additions. But sometimes they need to upgrade to a newer version of ColdFusion, or even migrate to a completely new environment. That’s where WRIS comes in to save the day for clients like the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, CarFax, and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Sort of like a knight in shining armor. Except without the knight. Or the armor.

New Places

With the addition of our Small Business Division and Legacy Support Initiative, business grew. The type of work we did expanded, as did its landscape...literally. Our growth has us doing work in many new locations like California, Nevada, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Virginia. We’re making our way across the U.S. one state at a time. Because after all, the web has no boundaries.

Friendly Faces

Obviously, when you add new clients, divisions, and services, you need smiling faces to support your effort. So that’s just what we did. In 2016 Jake, Dani and Jakob joined WRIS to help drive the Small Business Division. We also partnered with several new developers (local and out of state) to assist with our Legacy Support effort as well as other new projects. But we’re not stopping there. We’re currently looking to add more team members so that we can always give clients our best effort.

2017: What’s Next

As we look ahead to next year, we’re excited about what’s in store. We hope to have continued growth in our Small Business Division and ongoing success helping clients with their legacy websites. We’re expecting to add a few more new faces to our team in the near future. It would be amazing if a new client requested an on-site visit at their location near, oh, we don’t know, maybe a beach? And we are also excited about the chance to continue bringing custom solutions to our valued clients. Whatever 2017 brings we’re ready for the challenge!