North 51 Digital
UK > East Midlands > NOTTINGHAM
Digital agency based in Nottingham offering web design & development, mobile sites and apps
North 51 digital is one of the UK's largest independent digital agencies with an enviable client list of multi-national companies, public sector organisations and exciting start-ups. Services include website design and development, enterprise software development, mobile apps and off-the-shelf software.
Clients and Projects
Industry Sectors:
Other, Not for profit / Charity, Consumer Services, Health & Beauty
Tends to work with:
Non-profit Organisations, Private Companies, SMEs
General location of clients: UK
Latest Project
Critical Pharmaceuticals
Critical Pharmaceuticals is a Nottingham UK-based clinical stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of unique biological drug products utilising its proprietary drug delivery technologies.
What We Have Achieved
Latest Review
23 February 2012
Ian Kite at Bedfordshire East Schools Trust Ltd
Having had North51 recommended to us we travelled up to Nottingham to meet with the team. From the very start I knew these were people we could work with. They listened. They made sure they understood...
read more
Interview
WWDC:
Describe your company in 5 words.
North 51 Digital:
”Successful, Friendly, Challenging, Innovative, Reliable”
WWDC:
Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
North 51 Digital:
”10 years is too long to predict as technology is moving so quickly. We are currently getting massively into mobile and mobile apps and our mobile team is growing. We just want to stay at the cutting edge and carry on riding the wave! ”
WWDC:
How was your company name chosen?
North 51 Digital:
”The company started in the CEO's home at 51 North Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham.”
What We Do?
- Content and Copy
- Design
- Development
- Hosting
- Online Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Branding
Technologies Used:
(X)HTML, .NET, CSS, JavaScript, , , msSQL, XML,
CMS Used:
Own Brand
Coded in .NET our CMS is more than a CMS, it is a platform, which as well as allowing the creation and easy update of websites, can be integrated with almost any other system.
Critical Pharmaceuticals
- Branding
- Design
- Development
- Hosting
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Critical Pharmaceuticals is a Nottingham UK-based clinical stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of unique biological drug products utilising its proprietary drug delivery technologies.
Languages: English
Project type: Content Managed
Organisation category: SME
Industry: Health & Beauty
Content managed (CMS): Yes
CMS Description: North 51 Proprietary software
Online Payment System: N/A
Number of people who worked on this project: 3
Technologies used: (X)HTML, .NET, CSS, JavaScript, msSQL, XML
Completion date: April 2012
Hallmark Consumer Services
- Content and Copy
- Design
- Development
- Hosting
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Established in March 1992 by MD Chris Hall, Hallmark Consumer Services is an award-winning family owned business in the East Midlands, centrally located in Melton Mowbray Leicestershire. Hallmark specialises in fulfilment services and innovative direct mail.
Languages: English
Project type: Content Managed
Organisation category: SME
Industry: Consumer Services
Content managed (CMS): Yes
CMS Description: North 51 Proprietary system
Online Payment System: N/A
Number of people who worked on this project: 4
Technologies used: (X)HTML, .NET, CSS, JavaScript, msSQL, XML, LESS.CSS
Completion date: February 2012
Price: 8000 GBP
Spectrum UK
- Branding
- Content and Copy
- Design
- Development
- Hosting
- Online Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Spectrum UK is the leading independent ophthalmic distributor for surgical and diagnostic products and services in the UK and ireland.
Languages: N/A
Project type: Content Managed
Organisation category: Private Company
Industry: Other
Content managed (CMS): Yes
CMS Description: N/A
Online Payment System: N/A
Number of people who worked on this project: 4
Technologies used: (X)HTML, .NET, CSS, JavaScript, LESS
Completion date: January 2012 (on-going)
Institute of Health Equity
- Design
- Development
- Hosting
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The Institute was launched in November 2011, to build on previous work to tackle inequalities in health led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot and his team, including the ‘Commission on Social Determinants of Health’ and ‘Fair Society Healthy Lives’ (The Marmot Review). Current work includes a review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide for the WHO European Region.
Languages: English
Project type: Content Managed
Organisation category: Non-profit Organisation
Industry: Not for profit / Charity
Content managed (CMS): Yes
CMS Description: North 51's own CMS
Online Payment System: N/A
Number of people who worked on this project: 6
Technologies used: (X)HTML, .NET, CSS, JavaScript, msSQL
Completion date: November 2011
British Franchise Association
- Content and Copy
- Design
- Development
- Hosting
- Online Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The British Franchise Association (bfa) is the only voluntary self-regulatory body for the UK franchise sector, with a standards based approach to membership. Its aim is to promote ethical franchising practice in the UK and help the industry develop credibility, influence and favourable circumstance for growth.
Languages: English
Project type: Content Managed
Organisation category: Non-profit Organisation
Industry: Other
Content managed (CMS): Yes
CMS Description: North 51's own CMS system
Online Payment System: Sage Pay
Number of people who worked on this project: 6
Technologies used: (X)HTML, .NET, CSS, JavaScript, SQL Server, JQuery, MVC
Completion date: August 2011 (on-going)
Reviews
Having had North51 recommended to us we travelled up to Nottingham to meet with the team. From the very start I knew these were people we could work with. They listened. They made sure they understood our business and marketing strategy and in discussion enabled us to improve our own understanding. North51 are excellent vaule ofr money, personal services was excellent with regular phjone calls, updates on progress and flexibility to maximise design potentila. In short I would rercommend them with out reservation. Take a look at our website - to see it all you will need to register with us - it speaks for itself.
Over the last 10 years I have had the pleasure of working with Oliver Jackson from North 51. Phil Randall and Oliver Jackson have worked very closely with the Rosemary Conley organisation and have created not only the www.rosemaryconley.com website but they also run our www.rosemaryconleyonline.com slimming club site. In addition, Oliver has worked on recreating the website for a charity close to my heart and this has been done with such tremendous effect that the donations to the site have trebled since its launch earlier this year (www.stepscentre.org).
We have found North 51 to be experts in their field and they have always delivered for us. The standard of their work is of the highest calibre combined with integrity and complete cooperation in achieving our goals.
I would have no hesisiation in recommending that you choose North 51 as your selected website designer. They are excellent.
ROSEMARY CONLEY CBE
North 51 Digital is our only consideration when it comes to recommending a web development company to our clients. We’ve worked together for several years on a variety of projects across a broad range of industries and they never cease to astonish and deliver above our high expectation. It was therefore obvious that we commission North 51 Digital to develop a new website for Creative Media.
Following an initial brief and collaboration of ideas, we handed the design and development of the project to the abundantly capable team. Within days they presented a visual representation that encapsulated our heritage, philosophy and expertise. The team created a solution that was elegant in concept, design and performance – the perfect blend of form and function.
The reason we recommend North 51 Digital to our clients is simple. The team has an inherent skill to capture the very heart of a business and its people and present this in the form of a highly effective sales, marketing and promotional tool. Below the surface, hidden from view, is the most extraordinarily clever coding every part as breathtaking as the perfectly designed outer layer.
From a content creators perspective, North 51 Digital website page templates are so expertly programmed and designed the population of pages with copy and images is effortless. Graceful, functional facilities to engage visitors are embedded within every page, each one enhancing the site to make it more visible and search engine friendly.
The truly gifted team are an absolute pleasure to work alongside. They are constantly supportive, highly knowledgeable, always entertaining but throughout consummate professionals, which is why we always have and always will recommend them to any business requiring world-class digital solutions.
“From the outset of the project, the team at North 51 took lots of time to meet us and really get an understanding of what we wanted from a revamped site. They made numerous practical suggestions and the Spectrum team were impressed with their knowledge - not just of the latest web technologies, but on what makes the difference between an attractive website and a well designed site that delivers a rewarding and engaging user experience.
North 51 supported us in every aspect of the project so it truly felt like a collaboration. Not only do we feel that we have the best website within the ophthalmic market, but feedback from customers has been glowing.”
Our organisation has worked with North51 on two projects. In 2010, they assisted us in making a website to publicise the launch and subsequent follow-on activity of an academic report into health inequalities. After 18 months, as our work had diversified significantly, and we were launching a new institute, we again worked with North51 to create a new website.
We needed our website to perform many functions, but were not sure about how best to achieve our aims. North51 were responsive to our needs, and creative and innovative in producing a solution. The new website has received very good feedback from users and our team, and the statistics show significant increases in visitors and improvements in how they use the site (reduced bounce rate, increased time on site, increased number of pages visited etc.) We have managed to maintain the functions of the old website while adding significant amounts of content, making it all easier to navigate (including with the use of a tagging and search system – an idea proposed by north51 which works very well), and creating new areas and clearer platforms for our expanding work. The new website looks great, and is easy to use.
The project involved a lot of work on the part of the staff at North51, to a very tight deadline. Despite this, they were patient, friendly and excellent at communicating with us through every step of the process. They went above and beyond what we had originally asked them to do, and helped us with any questions and problems we had while populating the site, however clueless we were!
We would definitely recommend working with North51. I would also like to specifically mention Oliver, Paddy, Andrew and Paul, whose continuous support, advice, help and patience made the whole project possible.
North 51 Digital comments:
It was an absolute pleasure working with Matilda and the IHE team. A great case study for how a collaborative approach can deliver a truly magnificent site.
Ian Baker
Director of NHS Services
Ian heads up the NHS team. Software developed by Ian's team is being licensed by over 80 NHS bodies.
Oliver Jackson
Director of Digital Services
Heads up the Digital Team of project managers, designers, developers, integrators and usability experts. Part-time 'petrol head'.
Phil Dando
Director of Enterprise Solutions
Phil is responsible for the team developing, delivering and supporting enterprise level solutions for large organisations and blue chip companies.
Phil Randall
CEO
CEO and founder of North 51. Responsible for the strategic direction of the business and still very much involved at the project level.
WWDC:
What's your name and position in the company?
North 51 Digital:
”Paul Brook - Head of Digital”
WWDC:
Describe your company in 5 words.
North 51 Digital:
”Successful, Friendly, Challenging, Innovative, Reliable”
WWDC:
What's your business philosophy?
North 51 Digital:
”To deliver results. After all is said and done it’s about the results our solutions deliver for the client. Increased sales, wider brand awareness, deeper engagement with their customers, faster systems, better data collection and reporting, knowledge share. We have a very strong focus on the business or organisational drivers for the client.”
WWDC:
Describe your office environment.
North 51 Digital:
”There are around 30 of us in the city centre Nottingham office, including strategists, marketeers, account managers, project managers, creatives, designers and techies. We have open plan areas, small offices and public spaces such as a kitchen and boardroom. The culture is largely informal; but still very professional.”
WWDC:
Describe how your team interact and work together.
North 51 Digital:
”We have 4 specialist teams; these are web, mobile, bespoke software and products. Each team is headed up by a Director. We try to avoid un-necessary meetings and so tend to get together a lot in small groups to share ideas or work things through that way. People are responsible for managing their time and there’s a lot of flexibility around working time. Also many of the team like to work from home when they want to crack on without being disturbed.”
WWDC:
What makes you different from other web design companies?
North 51 Digital:
”Our diverse team means we have an amazing amount of expertise to call upon. With recent projects ranging from a design rich launch website for a start-up to a £1/2 million global SharePoint portal for a worldwide company, we can work with our clients on the highly creative micro-site right through to enterprise level development and integration with business systems. We are ideally placed for that feature rich website with sophisticated functionality; for some digital agencies this will be testing their technical capabilities, but it’s all well within ours. ”
WWDC:
How do you get the majority of your business?
North 51 Digital:
”Largely referral, although we are equally happy to pitch and tender.”
WWDC:
Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
North 51 Digital:
”As our clients range from SMEs and start-ups to the NHS and large corporates we have developed different systems and processes and we tend to blend these for each project. Our Discover, Define, Design, Develop, Deliver process is brilliant for smaller projects. We have two Prince 2 accredited project managers who can be totally dedicated to larger projects and as you can imagine they can get very particular! We have used different project management portals and software depending on the requirements.”
WWDC:
What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
North 51 Digital:
”Trust. And this has to be earned and then maintained. We have had so much work as a result of referral and we feel it’s the relationships we build and maintain that have resulted in this.”
WWDC:
How do you manage demanding clients?
North 51 Digital:
”To us clients are clients. We expect them to be demanding. We like it if other agencies moan about clients being demanding! We put a lot of effort into building strong relationships and this means most challenges can be overcome.” ”
WWDC:
If a client was trying to decide between a shortlist of web design companies, how would you recommend they go about selecting the right one for them?
North 51 Digital:
”It’s so hard to generalise, but often the digital agency relationship will be a long one and so we’d recommend they pick the agency that has the people and the capability to be innovating and delivering outstanding results well into the future. One aspect that is often overlooked is the stability of the agency. Choosing a freelancer or small company can be risky, for example if someone is ill or leaves on the agency side the client can be left high and dry and we have been asked to pick up the pieces from this before. Also we know of a number of agencies that are struggling right now. North 51 digital is very well established and is strong financially.”
WWDC:
Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
North 51 Digital:
”10 years is too long to predict as technology is moving so quickly. We are currently getting massively into mobile and mobile apps and our mobile team is growing. We just want to stay at the cutting edge and carry on riding the wave! ”
WWDC:
Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
North 51 Digital:
”Very quickly things will get more mobile and even more connected. ”
WWDC:
What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
North 51 Digital:
”Both PC and Mac”
WWDC:
How was your company name chosen?
North 51 Digital:
”The company started in the CEO's home at 51 North Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham.”
WWDC:
If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
North 51 Digital:
”Choose a proven agency that can help you every step of the way.”
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