Intertec: One-Stop IT Shop

Intertec, a leading Munich-based IT firm, partnered with the company I worked at to both upgrade their business model and to design their new website as a comprehensive IT, marketing & design hub, reflecting their upgraded model. This case study highlights how user-centered design both elevates user experience and strengthens brand positioning.

Intertec - IT company headquartered in Munich with an office in Skopje

May 2023 - September 2023

The central challenge revolved around addressing the evolving needs of Intertec's clientele. They sought to minimize feedback loop costs by consolidating their IT needs under one roof. Previously, clients had to collaborate with multiple agencies from various domains, leading to increased inefficiencies. My objective was clear: position Intertec as the go-to full-service agency capable of providing end-to-end solutions, encompassing ideation, design, development, maintenance, scaling, and marketing. This required not only meeting current client expectations but also winning the trust of prospective clients seeking comprehensive IT support.

The project kicked off with Intertec partnering with our company to become a full-service agency. However, stakeholder interviews were delayed due to a busy management team. My company’s management’s initial attempt to jump-start things with initial wireframes hit a snag. Incomplete requirements and differing priorities among stakeholders created roadblocks. Some championed the importance of marketing in the new model, while others saw IT as the company's foundation. The following are very early design concepts that proved to be wrong for what Intertec needed.

Stakeholder interviews brought clarity to the project. Here's the conclusions I managed to draw:

Target Audience: I identified two key groups with a third potential subgroup: manufacturing companies needing digitalization and IT solutions; growing businesses seeking efficient scaling and startups with already secured round of funding.

Competitor Analysis: I analyzed Intertec's competitors to inform my design strategy.

Communication Strategy: Intertec's end-to-end service approach would be the central narrative.

Building Trust: Social proof elements would be displayed prominently to build trust with visitors.

User-Friendly Tone: The website's language would emphasize the benefits for clients and avoid technical jargon as much as possible.

I leveraged insights from the initial user personas created for the early design concepts and created three in-depth profiles representing Intertec's key target audiences. One of these personas, Gustav, reflects a core client segment and received extra attention to ensure I fully understood his needs.

I mapped the current user journeys based on the personas. This further clarified pain points and opportunities such as building trust among website visitors by showcasing current and previous clients, providing social proof in the form of client testimonials and reviews, showcasing expertise etc. This way, I could design a user experience that truly meets their needs.

User journeys gave me the big picture, but I wanted to zoom in to the most specific needs! While it is not vey usual to create user stories for website design I felt that they would help me empathize with user types who have objectively different motivations and problems than me and the team. So, I created user stories based on each persona, diving deep into the specific needs of each type of client.  They helped me understand the pain points each user type needed to solve by partnering with a company such as Intertec, which later guided my design decisions for the website.

As the CEO of Merck Industries, I want to find technology solutions that can improve efficiency and reduce costs for my chemical company, so that we can stay competitive in the market and drive growth.

As someone who needs the services of a tech company, I want to explore a tech company's website and easily navigate through their services, so that I can evaluate their relevance and fit for addressing the specific needs of Merck Industries.

As someone who needs advice and services, I want to request a consultation with the tech company to discuss my company's requirements, so that I can gather more information about their proposed solutions and make an informed decision.

As someone who is profit oriented, I want the chosen tech company to seamlessly integrate their technology solutions with our existing systems, ensuring minimal disruption to our operations.

As someone who wants to have control over things in my company, I expect the tech company to provide regular updates, proactive communication, and outstanding support during the implementation phase, so that I can track progress and ensure the successful deployment of the selected features.

As a business unit manager, I need to find a scalable solution that has the needed expertise in our clients industry. A trustworthy partner that we can rely on.

As a business unit manager, I need to filter out potential partner companies to hand them over to the procurement officer.

As a business unit manager, I need to consult with Intertec’s previous clients to get an insight if we are a good fit.

As a business unit manager, I need to achieve the highest level of work efficiency.

As a business unit manager, I need to make a cost and budget estimate for the next project.

As the CEO of Recht und Ordnung, I want to find a full-service tech company that understands the unique needs and vision of my startup, so that I can establish a strong brand presence and attract customers effectively.

As a person who is tech-savvy, I want to explore the tech company's website and services, looking for their expertise in website development, digital marketing, and software development, to ensure they align with my startup's goals and innovative approach.

As a curious customer, I want to request a consultation with the tech company to discuss my startup's specific requirements and evaluate the benefits and return on investment of their proposed solutions.

As a person who is well-versed in the latest tech trends, I expect the tech company to deliver excellent results, maintain clear communication, and exceed our goals during the implementation phase, ensuring that our startup's vision is effectively translated into innovative and impactful solutions.

As a founder of a stratup curretly focusing on market penetration instead of profit due to investors pressure, I need fast results, maintenance of the software that they delivered and a creative solutions for the digital campaign.

To reflect Intertec's upgraded full-service agency business model their new website needed a clear and concise explanation of all their services. I brainstormed user-friendly language to describe Intertec's one-stop-shop approach, ditching the technical jargon for plain English. This ensured the website's non technical visitors would understand the full range of services Intertec now offers and how they could benefit from a comprehensive partnership.

With all of the above in mind, I tackled the website's information architecture. With the navigation I focused on clearly and intuitively telling the story of Intertec's approach: their services themselves, their tech stack, the industries they have deep expertise in (from the personas and user journeys I knew that Gustav wants a partner with experience in his industry, for example) as well as showing specific use cases in the form of case studies. This way, users (read potential clients) could easily understand what Intertec offers and how it could benefit them.

Before diving into fancy visuals, I started with sketches! This quick and dirty approach let me and the team explore different visual and layout ideas without getting hung up on details. This phase was all about brainstorming and getting the core look and feel right before diving into the finer points.

Intertec's end-to-end approach was the website's central narrative. To bring it to life visually, I facilitated a brainstorming session where the entire team explored creative concepts. We presented several unique ideas to the stakeholders, and one truly soared!

It used sticky notes for the hero testimonials transforming into a technical drawing and then a colorful paper plane, symbolizing a seamless client journey under Intertec's one-stop-shop umbrella - from ideation to scaling and maintenance.

In this phase, I adopted a modular design approach. This way, I could create different pages quickly and consistently.

Time to build! I used those modular building blocks I had created to assemble the website efficiently. Additional designers were brought onboard to assist with the inner pages and speed things up. Things were running smoothly until I hit a snag on one page. Designed by multiple people under a tight deadline, it didn't quite match the overall style, as it can be seen below. Although it wasn’t a pleasant feeling to have such a mistake slip through, the issue was quickly fixed to ensure a consistent look and feel throughout the website.

In the end, this project was a success. By successfully meeting the established deadlines and objectives outlined in the initial phase, I delivered Intertec a modern website that effectively communicates their story and showcases their new business model.

This project solidified two key learnings for me:

The Power of Planning: Taking the time upfront for meticulous preparation and thorough requirements gathering makes the design process smoother and more efficient. It's a win-win for everyone and this phase should not be rushed!

User Focus is King: In B2B design, prioritizing the needs of our client's clients is paramount. This project reinforced my commitment to user-centered design, ensuring the website truly serves Intertec's customers.

Moreover, it taught me, as a team lead, the critical importance of overseeing every detail, not only in my own work but also in my team's, as even with the best intentions and talent, misalignments can occur due to time pressure and communication gaps.