Case study: Scorpio

Click here to view Scorpio's live site.

Scorpio are a private, family run travel retail specialist that has grown substantially over the last 10 years to become an award winning market leader offering products and services on a global basis. They specialise in providing brands a sales, marketing and distribution service to travel retail sector (airlines, major duty free shopping groups, ferries).

They first launched their website in 2005. At the time it suited their needs, reflected their business philosophy and was full of current products. Like many successful companies Scorpio's primary focus was on growth and making their business more successful. They made some changes to the website but it was difficult to keep it current as the business changed and grew. Success had created a large brand portfolio, without a CMS it was proving impossible for the website to be a shop window for the full product catalogue.

Initially d2 were commissioned to revamp the artistic design and bring a fresh look to the website that would show case Scorpio's innovative products from around the world. However as the project progressed Scorpio struggled to manage all the different aspects of the project and understand what was needed to on their part to get the website redevelopment done. They were also being drawn into considering costly developments proposals by suppliers who had misunderstood their needs. With no previous experience Scorpio simply assumed that the suppliers must have provided the only options available.

Richard Kennedy, Group Sales Director "It was good to get input from d2, they are clearly very experienced and offered me different options to consider. There were easy to get on with and I liked the fact they didn't just say yes to the first thing I asked for."

An essential element of d2's approach is to be curious and understand the business reasons behind a clients actions and requests; we bring no preconceived ideas to each new assignment, we belief each client's business is different and unique, and we need to understand that difference first; so we listen and then offer advice and suggestions we believe is appropriate as a solution to our client's problem.

Having gained Scorpios trust, d2 were asked to advise on the procurement of the technical solution. d2 sought out other suppliers and obtain proposals for alternative solutions together with reasons as to why those alternatives could provide more appropriate cost effective solutions. With the technical developer chosen, d2 were then given the Project Manager role that was previously missing and vital for the successful delivery of any project.

Richard Kennedy "It was a huge relief to have d2 there, their advice was first class, I knew they would keep my team on track, making sure all the detailed issues were being progressed, yet kept me informed on matters they knew i was interested in or was important for me to decide on. I trusted them, I just let them get on with things."

Click here to view Scorpio's live site.