MMCC Consultants
Joint development
MMCC Consultants needed a new website and being IT people themselves, wanted to build it in partnership with Codeistry, so that they could continue to develop the site in the future.
MMCC had already selected MODx as their CMS of choice and they chose Codeistry for our MODx experience to develop the site with them.
I went down to visit MMCC on 31st July 2008 to start the build with Linda and we built the first version of the site, training Linda as we went along. I explained everything I was doing as I went along, going through MODx template creation, use of chunks and snippets, as well as basic HTML & CSS. We developed the initial set of templates and got a mostly working version of the site done during the first day.
I completed the development of the site here at Codeistry HQ, revising the templates and adding a few more and the new site went live on the 13th of August, 14 days later.
By the time I went back to visit MMCC again a week later to complete the training, they'd fleshed out the site, adding over 150 pages of content, added lots of images and changed the homepage layout.
Training
I did two lots of training with MMCC during the site build - a day of one-on-one development training at the begining and a group training day at the end. The initial training session covered MODx setup, template creation, use of chunks and snippets and a basic grounding in HTML & CSS.
The final training day was split into two sessions - the first one for the site administrators, going over permissions, security and an overview of how MODx development & templates work. The second session was with some of the principal content editors, showing them how to create pages and edit content - and getting them to have a go.
Future Developments
Mark Ogier, MMCC's MD, wants to expand the site's capabilities in the future, with a knowledge base and help desk system to expand their on-line customer service.